Researchers analyzed the accumulated data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and depicted the motion of a young twin star system XZ Tauri over three years. This first-ever “ALMA Animation” of twin stars sheds new light on the origins of the binary stars and the planets to be formed around them. “This achievement was made possible by the high resolution and rich archival data of ALMA,” says Takanori Ichikawa, the first author of the research paper and a former…
A team from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Stanford University and Purdue University developed and demonstrated a novel, fully functional quantum local area network, or QLAN, to enable real-time adjustments to information shared with geographically isolated systems at ORNL using entangled photons passing through optical fiber. This network exemplifies how experts might routinely connect quantum computers and sensors at a practical scale, thereby realizing the full potential of these next-generation technologies on the path toward the…
Interactions of quantum “quasiparticles” demonstrate unusual fluid flow. The Science Researchers have discovered a hard-to-observe type of spin in a quantum mechanical system. In physics, a quantum mechanical system is a set of components that interact at the quantum scale. This is the realm of atoms and subatomic particles such as those defined in the Standard Model of Particle Physics. Spins are magnetic particles in a quantum system. The researchers successfully simulated and measured how spins can exhibit a type of…
Scientists develop groundbreaking theory for calculating what’s happening inside a proton travelling at the speed of light. For more than 2,000 years, scientists thought the atom was the smallest particle possible. Then, they discovered that it has a nucleus made up of protons and neutrons surrounded by electrons. After that, they found that the protons and neutrons themselves have a complex inner world full of quarks and antiquarks held together by a superglue-like force created by gluons. “Protons along with neutrons constitute…
Considered an ultra-hot Jupiter – a place where iron gets vaporized, condenses on the night side and then falls from the sky like rain – the fiery, inferno-like WASP-76b exoplanet may be even more sizzling than scientists had realized. An international team, led by scientists at Cornell University, University of Toronto and Queen’s University Belfast, reports the discovery of ionized calcium on the planet – suggesting an atmospheric temperature higher than previously thought, or strong upper atmosphere winds. The discovery was made…
Fraunhofer IWM presents the »Triboepitaxy« concept… Four scientists from Freiburg have succeeded for the first time to simulate the localized growth of silicon crystals using shear-induced amorphization and recrystallization. In the future, experts could use this concept to tailor crystalline silicon structures for nanotechnology applications, such as nanoelectronics. “Triboepitaxy”, the fundamental idea that could make this possible, is presented by the team in the journal “Physical Review Letters”. Silicon is the most important material in micro- and nanoelectronics. Yet it…
The mechanism of molecular self-organization was assessed in a new model by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPIDS). In their study, they simulated how environmental factors such as temperature influence the size of oil droplets in elastic matrices. The study will also help understanding droplet formation in biological cells, where biological molecules self-organize in condensates. The full paper was recently published in the renowned journal PNAS. In biology, proper regulation of the cell’s interior is…
New measurement method promises spectacular insights into the interior of planets. At the heart of planets, extreme states are to be found: temperatures of thousands of degrees, pressures a million times greater than atmospheric pressure. They can therefore only be explored directly to a limited extent – which is why the expert community is trying to use sophisticated experiments to recreate equivalent extreme conditions. An international research team including the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) has adapted an established measurement method to…
A team of scientists from Germany, Sweden and China has discovered a new physical phenomenon: complex braided structures made of tiny magnetic vortices known as skyrmions. Skyrmions were first detected experimentally a little over a decade ago and have since been the subject of numerous studies, as well as providing a possible basis for innovative concepts in information processing that offer better performance and lower energy consumption. Furthermore, skyrmions influence the magnetoresistive and thermodynamic properties of a material. The discovery…
Chinese researchers recently discovered a new effect that can generate spin-polarization in fluid. The new effect, which is called “shear-induced polarization (SIP),” predicts that shear flow can induce polarization in the momentum space. This research was conducted by scientists from the Institute of Modern Physics (IMP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), together with their collaborators at Peking University and Central China Normal University, who studied polarization induced by shear flow for the first time. Their discoveries were published…
When it comes to directly imaging Earth-like exoplanets orbiting faraway stars, seeing isn’t always believing. A new Cornell University study finds that next-generation telescopes used to see exoplanets could confuse Earth-like planets with other types of planets in the same solar system. With today’s telescopes, dim distant planets are hard to see against the glare of their host stars, but next-generation tools such as the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, currently under development by NASA, will be better at imaging Earth-like…
The last few decades have seen impressive progress in laser-based technologies, which have led to significant advancements in atomic and molecular physics. The development of ultrashort laser pulses now allows scientists to study extremely fast phenomena, like charge transport in molecules and elementary steps of chemical reactions. But beyond that, our ability to observe such processes on the attosecond scale (one quintillionth of a second) means that it is also possible to steer and probe the dynamics of individual electrons…
Lasers, devices that emit light in one direction, with photons traveling at one specific frequency and all with the same phase (coherent), govern the way we communicate today. Although lasers are known to most people as little torches emitting high purity color beams, the workhorse of lasers is actually in the infrared part of spectrum, where our eyes cannot see. The reason for this is that optical fibers are highly transparent to the infrared (1.3-1.6 um), allowing efficient optical transmission…
New telescope will see planetary neighbors’ atmospheres. When the world’s most powerful telescope launches into space this year, scientists will learn whether Earth-sized planets in our ‘solar neighborhood’ have a key prerequisite for life — an atmosphere. These planets orbit an M-dwarf, the smallest and most common type of star in the galaxy. Scientists do not currently know how common it is for Earth-like planets around this type of star to have characteristics that would make them habitable. “As a…
Experiments will give scientists a closer look at how exploding stars create world’s heaviest elements. How do the chemical elements, the building blocks of our universe, get built? This question has been at the core of nuclear physics for the better part of a century. At the beginning of the 20th century, scientists discovered that elements have a central core or nucleus. These nuclei consist of various numbers of protons and neutrons. Now, scientists at Michigan State University’s Facility for Rare Isotope…
Like the speed of an advancing race car driver, the winds in the outermost “lane” of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot are accelerating – a discovery only made possible by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, which has monitored the planet for more than a decade. Researchers analyzing Hubble’s regular “storm reports” found that the average wind speed just within the boundaries of the storm, known as a high-speed ring, has increased by up to 8 percent from 2009 to 2020. In contrast,…
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