Some of the first data from an international space mission is confirming decades worth of speculation about the galactic neighborhoods of supermassive black holes. More exciting than the data, though, is the fact that the long-awaited satellite behind it—the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission or XRISM—is just getting started providing such unparalleled insights. “We have found the right tool for developing an accurate picture of the unexplored orders of magnitude around supermassive black holes,” Jon Miller, professor of astronomy at…
Recently, a research group led by Prof. WANG Xianlong from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, successfully synthesized high-energy-density materials cubic gauche nitrogen (cg-N) at atmospheric pressure by treating potassium azide (KN3) using the plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition technique (PECVD). The research results were published in Science Advances. Cg-N is a pure nitrogen material consisting of nitrogen atoms bonded by N-N single bonds, resembling the structure of diamond. It has attracted attention because it…
… comes together with PPPL’s contributions. First plasma is coming soon to the University of Seville’s compact spherical tokamak called SMART. Like atoms coming together to release their power, fusion researchers worldwide are joining forces to solve the world’s energy crisis. Harnessing the power of fusing plasma as a reliable energy source for the power grid is no easy task, requiring global contributions. The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) — a U.S. national laboratory funded by the Department of Energy (DOE) — is leading several efforts on this…
In a surprise finding, astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have discovered that the blowtorch-like jet from a supermassive black hole at the core of a huge galaxy seems to cause stars to erupt along its trajectory. The stars, called novae, are not caught inside the jet, but apparently in a dangerous neighborhood nearby. The finding is confounding researchers searching for an explanation. “We don’t know what’s going on, but it’s just a very exciting finding,” said lead author Alec Lessing of…
Researchers at the University of Regensburg in collaboration with IBM Research Europe – Zurich have found a way to access excited states of single molecules and determine their energies. A very fundamental property of atoms and molecules are the energies, at which electrons can be added to or removed from the compound. This is decisive for many chemical reactions, in which electrons are exchanged. However, it is not only of fundamental interest: Organic compounds are promising candidates for advanced solar…
Meandering conduction channels and the tunable nature of quantized charge transport. Topological protection provides unprecedented robustness of physical phenomena against all kinds of perturbations; but in doing so, it exercises topological censorship by hiding all kinds of interesting and important microscopic information. Recent experiments have collected microscopic information precisely of the kind hidden by such topological censorship. The work by Douçot, Kovrizhin, and Moessner provides a detailed microscopic theory that goes beyond such topological censorship. It not only identifies an…
A new study shows Mars’ early thick atmosphere could be locked up in the planet’s clay surface. Mars wasn’t always the cold desert we see today. There’s increasing evidence that water once flowed on the Red Planet’s surface, billions of years ago. And if there was water, there must also have been a thick atmosphere to keep that water from freezing. But sometime around 3.5 billion years ago, the water dried up, and the air, once heavy with carbon dioxide,…
A “saga” about 101 galaxies like the Milky Way and their companions. Is our home galaxy, the Milky Way Galaxy, a special place? A team of scientists started a journey to answer this question more than a decade ago. Commenced in 2013, the Satellites Around Galactic Analogs (SAGA) Survey studies galaxy systems like the Milky Way. Now, the SAGA Survey just published three new research articles that provide us with new insights into the uniqueness of our own Milky Way Galaxy after completing the…
Although Mars is currently a cold, dry planet, geological evidence suggests that liquid water existed there around 3 to 4 billion years ago. Where there is water, there is usually life. In their quest to answer the burning question about life on Mars, researchers at Tohoku University created a detailed model of organic matter production in the ancient Martian atmosphere. Organic matter refers to the remains of living things such as plants and animals, or the byproduct of certain chemical…
A new paper unravels the mysteries of a bizarre physical state known as the pseudogap, which has close ties to the sought-after state called high-temperature superconductivity, in which electrical resistance disappears. By cleverly applying a computational technique, scientists have made a breakthrough in understanding the ‘pseudogap,’ a long-standing puzzle in quantum physics with close ties to superconductivity. The discovery, presented in the September 20 issue of Science, will help scientists in their quest for room-temperature superconductivity, a holy grail of…
Researchers from Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands have been able to initiate a controlled movement in the very heart of an atom. They caused the atomic nucleus to interact with one of the electrons in the outermost shells of the atom. This electron could be manipulated and read out through the needle of a scanning tunneling microscope. The research, published in Nature Communications today, offers prospects for storing quantum information inside the nucleus, where it is safe from…
The integration of efficient, scalable, and cost-effective nanoscale lasers is essential for optical interconnects, medical diagnostics, and super-resolution imaging. Particularly, telecom-band NW lasers are promising for on-chip coherent light sources in photonic integrated circuits, which drive innovations in optical and quantum communication and computing. Achieving high-quality NWs with smooth sidewalls, controlled dimensions, and precise crystal composition is imperative for these applications. However, the epitaxial growth of high-quality multi-quantum well (MQW) nanowires (NWs) with both good structural and optical properties, along…
Smile for the camera! An interaction between an elliptical galaxy and a spiral galaxy, collectively known as Arp 107, seems to have given the spiral a happier outlook thanks to the two bright “eyes” and the wide semicircular “smile.” The region has been observed before in infrared by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope in 2005, however NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope displays it in much higher resolution. This image is a composite, combining observations from Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) and NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera). NIRCam highlights the…
FBH at Photonics Days 2024. On October 9 and 10, 2024, the Ferdinand-Braun-Institut will contribute to the Photonics Days Berlin Brandenburg with lectures and the accompanying exhibition. For two days, experts from research and industry will meet in Berlin Adlershof to discuss current trends in laser technology, heterointegration, microsystems technology, and various other topics. A key focus on October 9 and 10 will be on quantum technologies. Prof. Tim Schröder, who heads the Joint Lab Diamond Nanophotonics at Ferdinand-Braun-Institut (FBH)…
After an unexpected measurement by the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) experiment in 2022, physicists on the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment (CMS) at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) announced today a new mass measurement of the W boson, one of nature’s force-carrying particles. This new measurement, which is a first for the CMS experiment, uses a new technique that makes it the most elaborate investigation of the W boson’s mass to date. Following nearly a decade of analysis, CMS has found…
The spacecraft bus that will deliver NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope to its orbit and enable it to function once there is now complete after years of construction, installation, and testing. Now that the spacecraft is assembled, engineers will begin working to integrate the observatory’s other major components, including the science instruments and the telescope itself. “They call it a spacecraft bus for a reason — it gets the telescope to where it needs to be in space,” said…
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