Frank Geurts named co-spokesperson of the STAR collaboration. Rice University physicist Frank Geurts is one of two scientists elected to lead the world’s longest-running nuclear physics experiment at a particle collider facility, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Together with Brookhaven Lab physicist Lijuan Ruan, Geurts will serve a three-year term as co-spokesperson for the STAR collaboration. This group of over 740 scientists from 74 institutions across 15 countries uses a 1,200-ton, building-sized instrument ⎯ the Solenoidal Tracker at RHIC, or…
A state-of-the-art laser has been commissioned at European XFEL and used for its first user experiment, paving the way for new scientific insights. The DiPOLE 100-X laser delivers ultra-powerful bursts of green light that can transform matter into extreme states, allowing scientists to study its behavior at high temperatures and pressures. Over 100 international researchers were involved in the first experiment. DiPOLE, or Diode Pumped Optical Laser for Experiments, is a new type of laser that can generate high-energy bursts…
The Rydberg state is widespread in a variety of physical platforms such as atoms, molecules, and solids. In particular, Rydberg excitons are highly excited Coulomb-bound states of electron–hole pairs, first discovered in the semiconductor material Cu2O in the 1950s. In a study published in Science, Dr. XU Yang and his colleagues from the Institute of Physics (IOP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in collaboration with researchers led by Dr. YUAN Shengjun of Wuhan University, have reported observing Rydberg…
The images shed light on how electrons form superconducting pairs that glide through materials without friction. When your laptop or smartphone heats up, it’s due to energy that’s lost in translation. The same goes for power lines that transmit electricity between cities. In fact, around 10 percent of the generated energy is lost in the transmission of electricity. That’s because the electrons that carry electric charge do so as free agents, bumping and grazing against other electrons as they move…
Targeted control of growth dynamics of finest tin layers. Nanometer-scale coatings with functional materials play an important role in many sensory, electronic and photonic applications. An international team of researchers – coordinated by Leibniz IPHT in Jena, Germany – has succeeded for the first time in observing novel growth effects of tin coatings on silicon nanometer-structured surfaces. With the knowledge gained, the chemical composition of deposited thin films can be precisely controlled and monitored in the future, opening up new…
More than two dozen researchers with ties to West Virginia University have helped unearth evidence of ripples in spacetime that have never been observed before now. Gravitational waves travel outwards from a source at light speed, stretching and squeezing the very fabric of spacetime — for instance, making the length of a ruler longer or shorter, or making time tick a little faster or slower as the wave passes. The first evidence for these ripples at very low frequencies was…
Anions, negatively charged ions, are reluctant to be cooled. Physicists led by Matthias Weidemüller from Heidelberg University and Roland Wester from the University of Innsbruck have now developed a method for cooling molecular anions to below 3 Kelvin in a remarkably short time. This enables, for example, new investigations of chemical reactions in space. Cooling atoms and ions to near absolute zero is routine in many laboratories today. The particles can be very well controlled at these temperatures, and such…
HZDR researchers seek to harness muon imaging for bridges, chemical parks, and Castor containers. Earth is constantly being struck by cosmic particles. High-energy muons can easily penetrate several meters of steel or concrete. A team at the German independent research institute Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) seeks to harness the potential of this unavoidable background radiation to view the interior of industrial facilities or structures. The problem is that muon detectors used in high-energy physics at research centers such as CERN are…
Scientists have made a new discovery on how small planets might form. Researchers at the University of Warwick investigated the “birth environment” of planets – areas of gas and dust that swirl around a central star – known as the protoplanetary disc. They discovered a new method of planet formation in this region, not yet described in previous research. The work has been submitted to the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and is showcased at the National…
In 1929, astronomers discovered that galaxies are streaming away from us and each other. They interpreted this observation that the universe is expanding. However, when they measured how fast it is expanding, they got different answers using different methods. The difference continues to be a thorn in their description of the expanding universe. A team of researchers led by Souvik Jana at the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, Bengaluru, have proposed a solution. Their paper, to be published in the…
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe accomplished a milestone on June 27, 2023 – its 16th orbit of the Sun. This included a close approach to the Sun (known as perihelion) on June 22, 2023, where the spacecraft came within 5.3 million miles of the solar surface while moving at 364,610 miles per hour. The spacecraft emerged from the solar flyby healthy and operating normally. On Aug. 21, 2023, Parker Solar Probe will swing past Venus for its sixth flyby of the planet….
Tunneling spectroscopy uncovers the clearest proof yet that this exotic superconducting state of matter exists without a magnetic field in an iron-based superconductor. In the field of superconductivity—the phenomenon in which electrons can flow through a material with essentially zero resistance—the “holy grail” of discovery is a superconductor that can perform under everyday temperatures and pressures. Such a material could revolutionize modern life. But currently, even the “high-temperature” (high-Tc) superconductors that have been discovered must be kept very cold to…
Subtropical mode water (STMW) is a vertically homogeneous thermocline water mass, serving as heat, carbon, and oxygen silos in the ocean interior and providing memory of climate variability for climate prediction. Understanding physics governing STMW formation is thus of broad scientific significance and has received much attention. Traditionally, it has been considered that STMW is constructed by basin-scale atmospheric forcing. Due to the limitations resulting from sparse sampling of observations and coarse resolution of climate models, less knowledge is acquired…
German research institutes participating at the forefront of dark matter and dark energy research. Euclid, an ESA space telescope with strong German participation, was launched into space on 1 July 2023, at 17:12 CEST on a Falcon 9 rocket from the US space company SpaceX. From its destination, the Lagrange Point 2 (L2) of the Earth and the Sun, it will observe over a third of the entire sky for at least six years and map the spatial distribution of…
System could be used aboard underwater vehicles for many applications. Researchers report a new single-photon Raman lidar system that operates underwater and can remotely distinguish various substances. They also show that the new system can detect the thickness of the oil underwater up to 12 m away, which could be useful for detecting oil spills. “Differentiating substances in water and detecting their distribution characteristics in the ocean are of great significance for marine monitoring and scientific research,” said research team…
A Brown University-led research team explains in a new study how gullies on the slopes of Martian craters could have formed by on-and-off periods of meltwater from ice on and beneath the planet’s surface. A study led by Brown University researchers offers new insights into how water from melting ice could have played a recent role in the formation of ravine-like channels that cut down the sides of impact craters on Mars. The study, published in Science, focuses on Martian…
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