Skyrmions are small magnetic objects that could revolutionize the data storage industry and also enable new computer architectures. However, before they can be utilized in such applications, there are still a number of challenges that need to be overcome. A team of Empa researchers has now succeeded for the first time in producing a tunable multilayer system in which two different types of skyrmions – the future bits for “0” and “1” – can exist at room temperature, as they…
An international team from Germany, Sweden, Russia and the USA, led by scientists from European XFEL, has published the results of an experiment that could provide a blueprint for the analysis of transitions states in atoms and molecules. This would open up new opportunities to gain insights into important processes such as photocatalysis, elementary steps in photosynthesis and radiation damage. It was the very first user experiment carried out at European XFEL’s Small Quantum System (SQS) instrument. The scientists used…
New simulations carried out in part on the ATERUI II supercomputer in Japan have found that the reason ions exist at higher temperatures than electrons in space plasma is because they are better able to absorb energy from compressive turbulent fluctuations in the plasma. These finding have important implications for understanding observations of various astronomical objects such as the images of the accretion disk and shadow of the M87 supermassive black hole captured by the Event Horizon Telescope. In addition…
Large droplets favoring creation of smaller ones Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPIDS) reported their new findings on how precipitating large raindrops, ice particles can favor growth of aerosols to produce new cloud condensation nuclei or ice nucleating particles. The results were recently published in the Geophysical Research Letters. Atmospheric clouds play a crucial role in defining the local weather and global climate. When cloud aerosols grow to a certain size by collecting water, scientists…
The GERmanium Detector Array (GERDA) experiment at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) of INFN, Italy, has reported its final results on the search for the neutrinoless double-beta (0νββ) decay of germanium-76 in the recent issue of Physical Review Letters [1]. No signal has been observed, but all goals of the final phase of the experiment have been achieved. According to the final result of GERDA, the lower limit for the half-life of the neutrinoless double-beta decay (0νββ) of…
Combining various observational data of neutron-star collisions with nuclear-physics calculations, Tim Dietrich, Astrophysics Professor at the University of Potsdam, and an international science team made a breakthrough in constraining the size of a typical neutron star and in measuring the expansion rate of our Universe, determined by the Hubble constant. Their results have now been published in the high-ranking journal Science. In modern astrophysics, scientists combine different types of signals from space, in particular light, cosmic particles, and gravitational waves,…
JILA physicists have boosted the signal power of their atomic “tweezer clock” and measured its performance in part for the first time, demonstrating high stability close to the best of the latest generation of atomic clocks. The unusual clock, which uses laser tweezers to trap, control and isolate atoms, offers unique possibilities for enhancing clock performance using the tricks of quantum physics as well as future applications in quantum information processing, quantum simulation, and measurement science. Described in a Nature…
Astrophysicists led by the University of Bonn have for the first time observed a gas filament with a length of 50 million light years. Its structure is strikingly similar to the predictions of computer simulations. The observation therefore also confirms our ideas about the origin and evolution of our universe. The results are published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. More than half of the matter in our universe has so far remained hidden from us. However, astrophysicists had a…
The National Research Foundation, through its national facility the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO), and the Max Planck Gesellschaft (MPG) welcome the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) as an additional partner on the MeerKAT extension project (MeerKAT+). The MeerKAT+ extension founded by SARAO and MPG will increase both, sensitivity and spatial resolution of the existing MeerKAT telescope array and thus provide a powerful instrument to study the formation and evolution of galaxies throughout the history of the universe. MeerKAT+…
A team of researchers from the Technical University of Munich (TUM), the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim have discovered an exciting method for controlling spin carried by quantized spin wave excitations in antiferromagnetic insulators. Elementary particles carry an intrinsic angular momentum known as their spin. For an electron, the spin can take only two particular values relative to a quantization axis, letting us denote them as spin-up and…
An international research team led by the University of Bern has discovered an exotic binary system composed of two young planet-like objects, orbiting around each other from a very large distance. Although these objects look like giant exoplanets, they formed in the same way as stars, proving that the mechanisms driving star formation can produce rogue worlds in unusual systems deprived of a Sun. Star-forming processes sometimes create mysterious astronomical objects called brown dwarfs, which are smaller and colder than…
Printing with an ink-jet printer is part of daily life, but the same technology finds more complex applications in electronics and in protein separation. These applications, considered futuristic only few decades ago, rely on the quality of the printing process which depends on the flow of the “ink” through narrow pores. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research have now revealed the microscopic mechanism governing this flow. The flow of water in a pipe is mainly governed by…
Strengthening European competitiveness through industrial use of Photonics. A photonics network of pan-European scale will start in January 2021 as part of the EU Horizon 2020 program: The project „Photonics Digital Innovation Hub“– PhotonHub Europe for short – is designed to make small and medium-sized European companies fit for the future by supporting them in the use of photonic technologies. The „PhotonHub Europe“ expects more than 1000 new high-tech jobs and around one billion euros in sales by 2025. The…
In a new study an international research team led by the University of Vienna have shown that structures built around a single layer of graphene allow for strong optical nonlinearities that can convert light. The team achieved this by using nanometer-sized gold ribbons to squeeze light, in the form of plasmons, into atomically-thin graphene. The results, which are published in the Nature Nanotechnology are promising for a new family of ultra-small tunable nonlinear devices. In the last years, a concerted…
WSU researchers have used the ancient Japanese art of paper folding to possibly solve a key challenge for outer space travel – how to store and move fuel to rocket engines. The researchers have developed an origami-inspired, folded plastic fuel bladder that doesn’t crack at super cold temperatures and could someday be used to store and pump fuel. Led by graduate student Kjell Westra and Jake Leachman, associate professor in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, the researchers have…
An international team of scientists reports in Nature Photonics on a novel technique for a high-brightness coherent and few-cycle duration source spanning 7 optical octaves from the UV to the THz. Analytical optical methods are vital to our modern society as they permit the fast and secure identification of substances within solids, liquids or gases. These methods rely on light interacting with each of these substances differently at different parts of the optical spectrum. For instance, the ultraviolet range of…
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