University of Tübingen research team uses the open star cluster Messier 37 as a celestial laboratory to determine stellar evolution and measure loss of mass. Stars like our sun end their lives as white dwarfs. Some of them are surrounded by a planetary nebula consisting of gas ejected by the dying star shortly before its death. An international research team led by Professor Klaus Werner of the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Tübingen has for the…
New Measurements Point at Slower Burn-In Phase of Hydrogen Burning. Nuclear astrophysics studies the evolution of the elements in the universe since its creation. The astrophysical models rely on parameters that scientists deduce from laboratory measurements. Nuclear reactions play a crucial role inside of stars. A team from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), together with researchers from Italy, Hungary and Scotland, has now reinvestigated one of the central reactions at the Dresden Felsenkeller accelerator – with a surprising result, as reported…
Low-frequency noise is bad for health, but a pingpong ball acoustic metasurface can stop it. Long-term exposure to low-frequency noise can cause numerous health problems, but the solution may be found in an unexpected object, a pingpong ball. Conventionally thought of as the hollow plastic balls that speed through the air during a fast-tempo game of table tennis, with a few modifications, pingpong balls can help absorb the city din. Low-frequency noise is ubiquitous in cities, near roads, and by…
ESA’s Gaia provides many new and improved insights into our galaxy and beyond with the release of five new data products. Among other findings, the mission reveals half a million new and faint stars in a massive cluster. The new Gaia stars revealed in Omega Centauri live in one of the most crowded regions in the sky. Gaia’s third data release contained data on over 1.8 billion stars, building a pretty complete view of the Milky Way and beyond. However,…
Theoretical physicists at PRISMA+ Cluster of Excellence present new comprehensive lattice calculations. A group of theoretical physicists at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) has once again succeeded in significantly improving their calculations of the electric charge radius of the proton published in 2021. For the first time they obtained a sufficiently precise result completely without the use of experimental data. With respect to the size of the proton, these new calculations also favor the smaller value. Concurrently, the physicists for…
– another step towards commercialization on a wider scale. Perovskite-based solar cells, widely considered as successors to the currently dominant silicon cells, due to their simple and cost-effective production process combined with their excellent performance, are now the subject of in-depth research. A team of scientists from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy ISE and the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw presented perovskite photovoltaic cells with significantly improved optoelectronic properties in the journal Advanced Materials and Interfaces….
Astronomers have gotten very good at spotting the signs of planet formation around stars. But for a complete understanding of planet formation, we also need to study examples where planet formation has not yet started. Looking for something and not finding it can be even more difficult than finding it sometimes, but new detailed observations of the young star DG Taurus show that it has a smooth protoplanetary disk without signs of planet formation. This successful non-detection of planet formation…
A team of scientists at the QOT Centre for Quantum Optical Technologies, including a student from the Faculty of Physics (University of Warsaw), made a device capable of the conversion of quantum information between microwave and optical photons. The results of research, published in “Nature Photonics” magazine, highlight a new microwave detection method with possible applications in quantum technologies, as a part of quantum network infrastructure, and in microwave radio-astronomy. Conversion of quantum information Whenever you listen to a song…
H.E.S.S. observatory records 20 tera-electronvolts photons from the Vela pulsar. Scientists using the H.E.S.S. observatory in Namibia have detected the highest energy gamma rays ever from a dead star called a pulsar. The energy of these gamma rays clocked in at 20 tera-electronvolts, or about ten trillion times the energy of visible light. This observation is hard to reconcile with the theory of the production of such pulsed gamma rays, as the international team reports in the journal Nature Astronomy….
NIST researchers find a new quantum ruler to explore exotic matter. A single-atom-thick sheet of carbon known as graphene has remarkable properties on its own, but things can get even more interesting when you stack up multiple sheets. When two or more overlying sheets of graphene are sightly misaligned — twisted at certain angles relative to each other — they take on a plethora of exotic identities.Depending on the twist angle, these materials, known as moiré quantum matter, can suddenly…
Measurement of the g factor of the electron in hydrogen-like tin confirms the standard model of particle physics under extremely high electric field strengths. Quantum electrodynamics is the best-tested theory in physics. It describes all electrical and magnetic interactions of light and matter. Scientists at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik in Heidelberg (MPIK) have now used precision measurements on their Alphatrap experiment to investigate the magnetic properties of electrons bound to highly ionized tin atoms. Such tests provide insights into the…
Plastics or DNA: Many molecules are so long that they can form knots, much like tying shoes. Whereas it is still disputed whether right- and left-handed people prefer to tie their knots in different directions, the knotting habits of molecules are now made much clearer. A team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research and the Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz has demonstrated that the direction of the twist of helical molecules – right or left – determines…
If West Virginia University research pays off, debris that litters the planet’s orbit and poses a threat to spacecraft and satellites could get nudged off potential collision courses by a coordinated network of space lasers. Hang Woon Lee, director of the Space Systems Operations Research Laboratory at WVU, said a junkyard of human-made debris, including defunct satellites, is accumulating around Earth. The more debris in orbit, the higher the risk that some of that debris will collide with manned and unmanned space…
New approach to controlling moiré flatbands adjusts band offset of two photonic lattices. When two lattices with distinct angles or periodicities come together, they conjure a moiré superlattice — a realm where astonishing phenomena like superconductivity and optical solitons spring to life. At the heart of this realm lies the moiré flatband, a key player in shaping advanced light–matter interactions, such as laser emission and second harmonic generation. In moiré physics and its relevant applications, wielding control over flatbands is…
A team of researchers has made a breakthrough discovery in the world of Beyond 5G/6G (B5G/6G) signal transmission. Taku Nakajima and Kazuji Suzuki of Nagoya University in Japan, along with their collaborators, created a waveguide made of niobium that speeds up the transition of B5G/6G signals. The frequency of data waves has continued to increase as B5G/6G technologies have been introduced. Although the currently used metal transmission lines can handle B5G/6G, research has focused on superconducting metals, such as niobium,…
Sensor Technology with Silicon Carbide for Use in Space. When it comes to particularly low-loss semiconductor components and highly efficient power electronics, there is no way around silicon carbide (SiC) today. The wide-bandgap semiconductor material SiC is superior to conventional silicon in many respects and is conquering more and more new areas of application, for example in optoelectronics, sensor technology or solid-state quantum electronics. Even in space, SiC demonstrates its outstanding physical properties: A SiC UV photodiode from the Berlin-based…
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