Electron microscopes provide deep insight into the smallest details of matter and can reveal, for example, the atomic configuration of materials, the structure of proteins or the shape of virus particles. However, most materials in nature are not static and rather interact, move and reshape all the time. One of the most common phenomena is the interaction between light and matter, which is ubiquitous in plants as well as in optical components, solar cells, displays or lasers. These interactions –…
The XENON collaboration recently announced an unexpected signal. The collaboration emphasizes that some new, hitherto unrecognized background might be the cause. The signal could, however, equally well be the first indication of some “new physics” beyond the Standard Model of elementary particle physics. This prospect attracted theorists world-wide to suggest and analyze potential explanations in terms of some new physics. Theorists at MPIK who are close to the experiment also study extensions of the Standard Model with suitable parameters that…
The understanding of unconventional superconductivity is one of the most challenging and fascinating tasks of solid-state physics. Different classes of unconventional superconductors share that superconductivity emerges near a magnetic phase despite the underlying physics is different. Two of these unconventional materials are the heavy-fermion and the iron-based superconductors. Researcher from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids applied large hydrostatic pressures to tiny single crystals of CeFeAsO, a non-superconducting parent compound to iron-based superconductors, using diamond anvil pressure…
The water electrolysis is an electrochemical way for production of hydrogen, which is considered as one of the future energy carrier molecules. Therefore, looking at numerous advantages of proton exchange membrane electrolysis compared to the classical alkaline variant, it’s efficiency and applicability on the large scale is of huge importance nowadays. However, the slow kinetics of the anode oxygen evolution reaction (OER) limits the overall electrolysis process and requires an active and stable electrocatalyst. Such need inspired the scientists of…
Whether axions exist is still up for debate. If they do exist, two open questions in particle physics could be resolved: The puzzle of what dark matter is made of – and the question of why the strong interaction, one of the four known forces in the universe, has a particular characteristic. The international MADMAX collaboration, is developing a search engine for these previously purely hypothetical particles under the leadership of the Max Planck Institute for Physics. The collaboration has…
In 1973, physicist and later Nobel laureate Philip W. Anderson proposed a bizarre state of matter: the quantum spin liquid (QSL). Unlike the everyday liquids we know, the QSL actually has to do with magnetism – and magnetism has to do with spin. Disordered electron spin produces QSLs What makes a magnet? It was a long-lasting mystery, but today we finally know that magnetism arises from a peculiar property of sub-atomic particles, like electrons. That property is called “spin”, and…
Even if a black hole can be described with a mathematical model, it doesn’t mean it exists in reality. Some theoretical models are unstable: though they can be used to run mathematical calculations, from the point of view of physics they make no sense. A physicist from RUDN University developed an approach to finding such instability regions. The work was published in the Physics of the Dark Universe journal. The existence of black holes was first predicted by Einstein’s general…
Know when to unfold ’em ‘Unfolding’ techniques used to improve the accuracy of particle detector data can also improve the readout of quantum states from a quantum computer. Borrowing a page from high-energy physics and astronomy textbooks, a team of physicists and computer scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has successfully adapted and applied a common error-reduction technique to the field of quantum computing. In the world of subatomic particles and giant particle…
Mapping the magnetic field for Fermilab’s Muon g-2 experiment As scientists await the highly anticipated initial results of the Muon g-2 experiment at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, collaborating scientists from DOE‘s Argonne National Laboratory continue to employ and maintain the unique system that maps the magnetic field in the experiment with unprecedented precision. Argonne scientists upgraded the measurement system, which uses an advanced communication scheme and new magnetic field probes and electronics to map the field throughout…
“Raise shields!” Researchers from the University of Rostock have developed a novel type of nonlinear photonic circuitry in which intense light beams can define their own path and, in doing so, render themselves impervious to external perturbations. This discovery was recently published in the renowned journal “Science” Researchers from the University of Rostock have developed a novel type of nonlinear photonic circuitry in which intense light beams can define their own path and, in doing so, render themselves impervious to…
Physicists at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching near Munich have developed the basic technology for a new “quantum modem”, which will allow users to connect to a future quantum internet that is based on the existing fibre optic network infrastructure. The first quantum revolution brought about semiconductor electronics, the laser and finally the internet. The second quantum revolution promises spy-proof communication or quantum computers for previously unsolvable computing tasks. But this revolution is still in its…
Physicists at Münster University have shown in model simulations that the COVID-19 infection rates decrease significantly through social distancing. For this, they combined the dynamical density functional theory to describe interacting particles and the SIR model, a theory to describe the spread of infectious diseases. Scientists worldwide have been working flat out on research into infectious diseases in the wake of the global outbreak of the COVID-19 disease, caused by the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. This concerns not only virologists, but…
Turbulence is an omnipresent phenomenon – and one of the great mysteries of physics. A research team from the University of Oldenburg has now succeeded in generating realistic storm turbulence in the wind tunnel of the Center for Wind Energy Research (ForWind). Strong storms often seem to leave behind random destruction: While the roof tiles of one house are blown away, the neighboring property may not be damaged at all. What causes these differences are wind gusts – or, as…
Are you affected by your neighbours? So are nanoparticles in catalysts. New research from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, published in the journals Science Advances and Nature Communications, reveals how the nearest neighbours determine how well nanoparticles work in a catalyst. “The long-term goal of the research is to be able to identify ‘super-particles’, to contribute to more efficient catalysts in the future. To utilise the resources better than today, we also want as many particles as possible to be…
Cavity-enhanced radiative energy transfer converts biomolecular information from a single droplet into trillions of distinctive photonic barcodes. Optical barcodes enable detection and tracking via unique spectral fingerprints. They’ve been widely applied in areas ranging from multiplexed bioassays and cell tagging to anticounterfeiting and security. Yu-Cheng Chen of the Bio+Intelligent Photonics Laboratory at Nanyang Technological University notes that the concept of optical barcodes typically refers to a fixed spectral pattern corresponding to a single target. “Optical barcodes have lacked the capability…
Magnets are to be found everywhere in our daily lives, whether in satellites, telephones or on fridge doors. However, they are made up of heavy inorganic materials whose component elements are, in some cases, of limited availability. Now, researchers from the CNRS, the University of Bordeaux and the ESRF (European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble)* have developed a new lightweight molecule-based magnet, produced at low temperatures, and exhibiting unprecedented magnetic properties. This compound, derived from coordination chemistry**, contains chromium, an…
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