Researchers study the energy and angular dependence of how neutrons scatter off materials to improve reactor safety and efficiency. The Science Nuclear fission and fusion reactors use the elements carbon and silicon as shielding and structural materials. Nuclear engineers also use these elements in fuel and in neutron moderators, which control the speed of neutrons to help maintain chain reactions. Silicon carbide, for example, can be used to clad fuel and as a pellet coating that offers protection from accidents such as…
Mainz University succeeds in the first round of the new Carl Zeiss Foundation Wildcard program / Researchers present an innovative approach for enhancing electronic devices. Researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) are pursuing a completely new and unconventional strategy to improve the way data can be processed and – in particular – stored. Together with their partners at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, they have been granted funding by the Carl Zeiss Foundation (CZS). The project of this interdisciplinary…
An international team of astrophysicists has made a puzzling discovery while analyzing certain star clusters. The University of Bonn played a major role in the study. The finding challenges Newton’s laws of gravity, the researchers write in their publication. Instead, the observations are consistent with the predictions of an alternative theory of gravity. However, this is controversial among experts. The results have now been published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. In their work, the researchers investigated…
For the first time, physicists have observed novel quantum effects in a topological insulator at room temperature. This breakthrough, published as the cover article of the October issue of Nature Materials, came when Princeton scientists explored a topological material based on the element bismuth. The scientists have used topological insulators to demonstrate quantum effects for more than a decade, but this experiment is the first time these effects have been observed at room temperature. Typically, inducing and observing quantum states…
University of Tübingen astrophysicists combine measurements from different telescopes to uncover mysterious object hidden in a supernova cloud. The lightest neutron star so far found is located at the center of the supernova remnant HESS J1731-347. Dr. Victor Doroshenko, Dr. Valery Suleimanov, Dr. Gerd Pühlhofer and Professor Andrea Santangelo from the High Energy Astrophysics section of the University of Tübingen’s Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics discovered the unusual object with the help of X-ray telescopes in space. According to calculations…
Forty years ago, physicists at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics found a new plasma state that could be particularly suitable for energy production: the H-mode. On 8 November 1982, the corresponding paper was published, giving fusion research a worldwide boost. To this day, the investigation of the H-mode is one of their most important fields of work. The breakthrough came on a Thursday when – as often before – plasmas with neutral beam heating were to be studied…
Team of three researchers with participation from Humboldt-Universität to receive 8 million euros in funding from the European Research Council. Both a future tap-proof quantum Internet and the quantum computer use principles and methods of quantum optics, which deals with the interaction of photons, i.e. light particles, with quantum emitters such as atoms or molecules. Particular progress has recently been made in the field of nonlinear quantum optics. There, one investigates photons that attract or repel each other in a…
Physicists have created the first Bose-Einstein condensate — the mysterious ”‘fifth state” of matter — made from quasiparticles, entities that do not count as elementary particles but that can still have elementary-particle properties like charge and spin. For decades, it was unknown whether they could undergo Bose-Einstein condensation in the same way as real particles, and it now appears that they can. The finding is set to have a significant impact on the development of quantum technologies including quantum computing….
Studying the interplay between massive star formation and the interstellar medium is important to understand the evolution of galaxies. An international research team led by Fatemeh Tabatabaei including several scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, performed high-resolution radio observations of the local group galaxy Messier 33 with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA). Their results show a direct connection between molecular gas and star formation exists in M33. Massive star formation amplifies…
Carnegie Mellon University researchers develop new approach for conducting automated science in space. NASA’s Mars rovers strive for groundbreaking scientific discoveries as they traverse the Martian landscape. At the same time, the crews operating the rovers do all they can to protect them and the billions of dollars behind the mission. This balance between risk and reward drives the decisions surrounding where the rovers go, the paths they take to get there and the science they uncover. Researchers in the…
Rise and shine early to catch the next launch of Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. The next Antares launch is scheduled for 5:50 a.m. EST, Sunday, Nov. 6, from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport’s Pad 0A on Wallops Island. The launch just before sunrise may be visible, weather permitting, to residents throughout the mid-Atlantic region and possibly the East Coast of the United States. This will be Northrop Grumman’s 18th commercial…
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured a lush, highly detailed landscape – the iconic Pillars of Creation – where new stars are forming within dense clouds of gas and dust. The three-dimensional pillars look like majestic rock formations, but are far more permeable. These columns are made up of cool interstellar gas and dust that appear – at times – semi-transparent in near-infrared light. Webb’s new view of the Pillars of Creation, which were first made famous when imaged by…
The Ferdinand-Braun-Institut exhibits space-qualified diode laser modules with narrow linewidth and optical frequency references for satellite and quantum technology applications at “Space Tech Expo Europe” in Bremen. From November 15-17, 2022, the Ferdinand-Braun-Institut (FBH) will present its developments at the Berlin-Brandenburg joint stand in hall 6, R36. The Berlin-based research institute has many years of comprehensive experience in developing III-V semiconductor-based devices and subsystems for space and satellite-based applications along with the relevant technologies. It covers the entire value chain…
Spatial ALD, miniaturized filters, multi-radius BBM: The Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V. (LZH) will present future technologies of industrial optics at Optatec 2022. The trade fair will take place from October 18 to 20 in Frankfurt. The LZH can be found in hall 8 at stand G118. The department Optical Components of the LZH will present current research activities as well as its service and product portfolio at the international trade fair for optical technologies, components, and systems Optatec. LZH’s focus…
Imagine taking a star twice the mass of the Sun and crushing it to the size of Manhattan. The result would be a neutron star—one of the densest objects found anywhere in the Universe, exceeding the density of any material found naturally on Earth by a factor of tens of trillions. Neutron stars are extraordinary astrophysical objects in their own right, but their extreme densities might also allow them to function as laboratories for studying fundamental questions of nuclear physics,…
A team of researchers from MPI for Chemical Physics of Solids and the MPI for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter in collaboration with researchers from Switzerland and Spain has reported the first observation in a structurally achiral crystal, the Kagome superconductor CsV₃Sb₅. Their work has been published in the current issue of Nature. Whether or not an object is indistinguishable from its mirror image has important consequences for its physical behavior. Say you watch a basketball player in a…
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