Scientists elucidate crystal structure for exotic ice XIX … Three years ago, chemists at the University of Innsbruck found evidence for the existence of a new variety of ice. Until then, 18 types of crystalline ice were known. The team led by Thomas Loerting now reports in Nature Communications on the elucidation of the crystal structure of ice XIX using neutron diffraction. Ice is a very versatile material. In snowflakes or ice cubes, the oxygen atoms are arranged hexagonally. This…
‘Sloshing’ of a quantum fluid comprised of light and matter reveals superfluid properties. An Australian-led team of physicists have successfully created sloshing quantum liquids in a ‘bucket’ formed by containment lasers. “These quantum fluids are expected to be as wavy as the oceans, but catching clear pictures of the waves is an experimental challenge,” says lead author Dr Eliezer Estrecho. Led by the Australian National University (ANU), the team serendipitously observed the wavy motion of the quantum fluid in an…
Astronomers have tested a method for reconstructing the state of the early Universe by applying it to 4000 simulated universes using the ATERUI II supercomputer at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). They found that together with new observations the method can set better constraints on inflation, one of the most enigmatic events in the history of the Universe. The method can shorten the observation time required to distinguish between various inflation theories. Just after the Universe came into…
A research team at Friedrich Schiller University Jena is developing a high-resolution imaging technique that can be used to determine internal structures in materials and their chemical composition in a non-destructive manner and with nanometre precision Images provide information – what we can observe with our own eyes enables us to understand. Constantly expanding the field of perception into dimensions that are initially hidden from the naked eye, drives science forward. Today, increasingly powerful microscopes let us see into the…
Staying long-term Leading space agencies aspire astronaut missions to Mars in the future. These are designed for a long-term stay, which poses new challenges for science: In addition to a habitat, for example, the few materials brought from Earth must be used efficiently and sustainably to equip and feed the astronauts. Humboldt fellow Cyprien Verseux from ZARM at the University of Bremen has now published initial research results at frontiers that indicate that cyanobacteria can reproduce excellently under Martian conditions…
Excitons are quasiparticles which can transport energy through solid substances. This makes them important for the development of future materials and devices – but more research is needed to understand their fundamental behavior and how to manipulate it. Now an international research team involving theoreticians at the MPSD has discovered that an exciton can simultaneously adopt two radically different characters when it is stimulated by light. Their work, now published in Nature Communications, yields crucial new insights for current and…
Berkeley Lab team models parton showers using a quantum algorithm. A team of researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) used a quantum computer to successfully simulate an aspect of particle collisions that is typically neglected in high-energy physics experiments, such as those that occur at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. The quantum algorithm they developed accounts for the complexity of parton showers, which are complicated bursts of particles produced in the collisions that involve particle production and decay processes….
Fast and energy-efficient future data processing technologies are on the horizon after an international team of scientists successfully manipulated magnets at the atomic level. Physicist Dr Rostislav Mikhaylovskiy from Lancaster University said: “With stalling efficiency trends of current technology, new scientific approaches are especially valuable. Our discovery of the atomically-driven ultrafast control of magnetism opens broad avenues for fast and energy-efficient future data processing technologies essential to keep up with our data hunger.” Magnetic materials are heavily used in modern…
Using observations from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), an international team of astronomers has discovered a trio of hot worlds larger than Earth orbiting a much younger version of our Sun called TOI 451. The system resides in the recently discovered Pisces-Eridanus stream, a collection of stars less than 3% the age of our solar system that stretches across one-third of the sky. The planets were discovered in TESS images taken between October and December 2018. Follow-up studies of…
Simulation of non-Hermitian quantum mechanics using a quantum computer goes beyond centuries old conventions. Aalto researchers have used an IBM quantum computer to explore an overlooked area of physics, and have challenged 100 year old cherished notions about information at the quantum level. The rules of quantum physics – which govern how very small things behave – use mathematical operators called Hermitian Hamiltonians. Hermitian operators have underpinned quantum physics for nearly 100 years but recently, theorists have realized that it…
Scientists of the Universities of Zurich and Cambridge, associated with the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research PlanetS, suggest a new explanation for the abundance in intermediate-mass exoplanets – a long-standing puzzle of Astronomy. In the last 25 years, scientists have discovered over 4000 planets beyond the borders of our solar system. From relatively small rock and water worlds to blisteringly hot gas giants, the planets display a remarkable variety. This variety is not unexpected. The sophisticated computer models,…
Causal reasoning is ubiquitous – from physics to medicine, economics and social sciences, as well as in everyday life. Whenever we press the button, the bell rings, and we think that the pressing of the button causes the bell to ring. Normally, causal influence is assumed to only go one way – from cause to effect – and never back from the effect to the cause: the ringing of the bell does not cause the pressing of the button that…
A multi-institutional team became the first to generate accurate results from materials science simulations on a quantum computer that can be verified with neutron scattering experiments and other practical techniques. Researchers from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory; the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Purdue University and D-Wave Systems harnessed the power of quantum annealing, a form of quantum computing, by embedding an existing model into a quantum computer. Characterizing materials has long been a hallmark of classical supercomputers,…
MAX-phases are the new promising class of artificially created compounds that started to be extensively studied in the last two decades. They are a family of ternary layered compounds with the general formula Mn+1AXn (n = 1, 2, 3 …), where M is an early transition metal (Sc, Ti, V, Cr, et cetera; elements from the left side of the d-block of the periodic table from group III to group VII); A — an element from group IIIA or IVA…
The research team of NUST MISIS has presented an improved structure of perovskite solar cells. Scientists have modified perovskite-based solar cells using MXenes — thin two-dimensional titanium carbides with high electrical conductivity. The MXenes-based modified cells showed superior performance, with power conversion efficiency exceeding 19% (the reference demonstrated 17%) and improved stabilized power output with respect to reference devices. The results have been published in the Nano energy international scientific journal. Perovskite solar cells are promising alternative energy technology worldwide….
THz wave absorption signal with a unique two-step decay characteristic in the time domain was demonstrated, revealing fundamental aspects of the charge transport process in water. Photoionization of water involves the migration and solvation of electrons, with many transient and highly active intermediates. The process results in a large blue shift in the absorption spectrum, from the THz or gigahertz region to the visible range. While the behavior of low-density quasifree electrons excited by small pump power density has been…
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