A international team of astronomers led by Université de Montréal has made an exciting discovery about the temperate exoplanet LHS 1140 b: it could be a promising “super-Earth” covered in ice or water. When the exoplanet LHS 1140 b was first discovered, astronomers speculated that it might be a mini-Neptune: an essentially gaseous planet, but very small in size compared to Neptune. But after analyzing data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) collected in December 2023 – combined with…
Recently, the team led by Prof. WANG Rujing and WANG Liusan from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, established a Learnable Full-frequency Transformer Dual Generative Adversarial Network (LFT-DGAN) to address the issue of underwater image quality degradation caused by various interferences. The research results were published in Frontiers in Marine Science. Underwater image enhancement technology aims to optimize the quality of underwater images and meet the diverse needs of marine scientific research, underwater robots and…
According to research published in Energy Storage Materials recently, a team led by Prof. HU Linhua from Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of Chinese Academy of Sciences proposed a general principle through evaluating the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energy level of molecules and employed it as a critical descriptor to select non-sacrificial anionic surfactant electrolyte additives for stabilizing Zn anodes, realizing sustainable regulation effect with inhibited Zn dendrite growth and side-reactions. “That means the anionic surfactant electrolyte additive sodium dodecyl benzene…
Physicists use magnetic fields to manipulate bacterial behaviour. Researchers at Finland’s Aalto University have found a way to use magnets to line up bacteria as they swim. The approach offers more than just a way to nudge bacteria into order – it also provides a useful tool for a wide range of research, such as work on complex materials, phase transitions and condensed matter physics. Bacterial cells generally aren’t magnetic, so the magnets don’t directly interact with the bacteria. Instead,…
One of the challenges of cramming smarter and more powerful electronics into ever-shrinking devices is developing the tools and techniques to analyze the materials that make them up with increasingly intimate precision. Physicists at Michigan State University have taken a long-awaited step on that front with an approach that combines high-resolution microscopy with ultrafast lasers. The technique, described in the journal Nature Photonics, enables researchers to spot misfit atoms in semiconductors with unparalleled precision. Semiconductor physics labels these atoms as…
One of the greatest mysteries of science could be one step closer to being solved. Approximately 80% of the matter in the universe is dark, meaning that it cannot be seen. In fact, dark matter is passing through us constantly – possibly at a rate of trillions of particles per second. We know it exists because we can see the effects of its gravity, but experiments to date have so far failed to detect it. Taking advantage of the most…
Researchers at the Paul-Drude-Institute for Solid State Electronics (PDI) have discovered a novel modulation regime in semiconductor-based lasers, characterized by “acceleration beats.” This regime allows coherent manipulation of quantum systems using modulation periods longer than the coherence time if the modulation amplitude is large enough. Unlike the adiabatic and non-adiabatic regimes, it shows the impact of extreme modulation amplitudes on coherence. The effect has potential applications in high-frequency spectral features and quantum control protocols, with implications for cosmic and high-energy…
A new NMR spectrometer has been in operation at the Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP) since the end of May. What makes it special is that it is based on a new type of ceramic high-temperature superconductor. Peter Schmieder, head of the NMR technology platform at the FMP, explains the technology behind it and the capabilities of the new device. The first NMR spectrometer was to be installed in the basement, says Peter Schmieder. However, magnets of this magnitude have…
First quantum communication link in Lower Saxony established. Researchers from Leibniz Universität Hannover (LUH), Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) in Braunschweig, and the University of Stuttgart have implemented a new method for secure communication using semiconductor quantum dots. This advancement could revolutionize how confidential information can be protected from cyber threats. Conventional encryption methods rely on complex mathematical algorithms and the limits of current computing power. However, with the rise of quantum computers, these methods are becoming increasingly vulnerable, necessitating quantum key…
In a study conducted at the University of São Paulo and described in Scientific Reports, the diameter of semiconductor quantum dots was monitored in real time via the wavelength of the emitted light. Luminescence refers to the result of a process in which an object absorbs light at one wavelength and then re-emits it at another wavelength. Through light absorption, electrons in the ground state of the material are excited to a higher energy state. After a certain amount of…
Is nature really as strange as quantum theory says – or are there simpler explanations? Neutron measurements at TU Wien prove: It doesn’t work without the strange properties of quantum theory. Can a particle be in two different places at the same time? In quantum physics, it can: Quantum theory allows objects to be in different states at the same time – or more precisely: in a superposition state, combining different observable states. But is this really the case? Perhaps…
In humankind’s ever-ticking pursuit of perfection, scientists have developed an atomic clock that is more precise and accurate than any clock previously created. The new clock was built by researchers at JILA, a joint institution of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado Boulder. Enabling pinpoint navigation in the vast expanse of space as well as searches for new particles, this clock is the latest to transcend mere timekeeping. With their increased precision, these…
When ultrafast electrons are deflected, they emit light – synchrotron radiation. This is used in so called storage rings in which magnets force the particles onto a closed path. This light is longitudinally incoherent and consists of a broad spectrum of wavelengths. Its high brilliance makes it an excellent tool for materials research. Monochromators can be used to pick out individual wavelengths from the spectrum, but this reduces the radiant power by many orders of magnitude to values of a…
Together with colleagues from Augsburg, Bonn, Cologne, Dresden, Geneva and Prince George (Canada), Professor Zhe Wang from the Department of Physics at TU Dortmund University has discovered an exotic quantum state of the matter in a solid-state compound – repulsively bound magnons. This observation is so spectacular for fundamental research in the field of quantum physics that it has been published in the renowned journal “Nature”. Atoms, molecules or solids that are formed by attractive forces between their constituents are…
Experiment captures atoms in free fall to look for gravitational anomalies caused by universe’s missing energy. Dark energy — a mysterious force pushing the universe apart at an ever-increasing rate — was discovered 26 years ago, and ever since, scientists have been searching for a new and exotic particle causing the expansion. Pushing the boundaries of this search, University of California, Berkeley physicists have now built the most precise experiment yet to look for minor deviations from the accepted theory…
EPFL researchers have succeeded in directing floating objects around an aquatic obstacle course using only soundwaves. Their novel, optics-inspired method holds great promise for biomedical applications such as noninvasive targeted drug delivery. In 2018, Arthur Ashkin won the Nobel Prize in Physics for inventing optical tweezers: laser beams that can be used to manipulate microscopic particles. While useful for many biological applications, optical tweezers require extremely controlled, static conditions to work properly. “Optical tweezers work by creating a light ‘hotspot’…
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