An international group of nuclear scientists has restricted the neutrino mass with a new level of sensitivity. The Science Neutrinos are the most abundant particles that have mass in the universe, but that mass is so small that scientists have not been able to measure it. To obtain that measurement, an international scientific collaboration designed and constructed the KArlsruhe TRItium Neutrino (KATRIN) experiment in Germany. KATRIN uses tritium, an isotope of hydrogen, for neutrino mass experiments. Tritium decays to a helium nucleus, an electron, and…
Event provides new evidence that traveling stars can form binary systems. From a zoomed out, distant view, star-forming cloud L483 appears normal. But when a Northwestern University-led team of astrophysicists zoomed in closer and closer, things became weirder and weirder. As the researchers peered closer into the cloud, they noticed that its magnetic field was curiously twisted. And then — as they examined a newborn star within the cloud — they spotted a hidden star, tucked behind it. “It’s the…
Identical light particles (photons) are important for many technologies that are based on quantum physics. A team of researchers from Basel and Bochum has now produced identical photons with different quantum dots – an important step towards applications such as tap-proof communications and the quantum internet. Many technologies that make use of quantum effects are based on exactly equal photons. Producing such photons, however, is extremely difficult. Not only do they need to have precisely the same wavelength (colour), but…
Have you ever noticed when moving furniture that heavy objects are easier to move if you rotate them at the same time as you push? Many people intuitively do this right. An international research team from Konstanz (Germany), Trieste and Milan (Italy) has now investigated this phenomenon – the reduction in static friction caused by simultaneous rotation – on the microscopic scale. In their recent study in Physical Review X, the researchers found that the reduction in static friction of…
OHIO researchers start by finding new carbon solid. As the world’s appetite for carbon-based materials like graphite increases, Ohio University researchers presented evidence this week for a new carbon solid they named “amorphous graphite.” Physicist David Drabold and engineer Jason Trembly started with the question, “Can we make graphite from coal?” “Graphite is an important carbon material with many uses. A burgeoning application for graphite is for battery anodes in lithium-ion batteries, and it is crucial for the electric vehicle…
While the national census is only just beginning in Germany, the first evaluation of our galactic neighborhood as part of the ongoing census has now been completed with the assistance of researchers at TU Dresden. The data acquired for this survey as part of the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission will be released to the public during a celebratory event on June 13, 2022, at 12:00°pm CEST. Since 2014, the Gaia satellite has been surveying the galaxies at a distance…
Eternal matter waves. Imagining our everyday life without lasers is difficult. We use lasers in printers, CD players, pointers, measuring devices, and so on. What makes lasers so special is that they use coherent waves of light: all the light inside a laser vibrates completely in sync. Meanwhile, quantum mechanics tells us that particles like atoms should also be thought of as waves. As a result, we can build ‘atom lasers’ containing coherent waves of matter. But can we make…
Researchers created perovskite quantum dot microarrays to achieve better results in full-color light-emitting devices and expand potential applications. Quantum dots color conversion (QDCC) has become a foundational technology in the design of full-color light-emitting devices with dramatically improved color performance. However, conventional QDCC pixels fabricated by inkjet printing, that is commonly used, are still too thin to achieve efficient color conversion. A research team has developed perovskite quantum dots microarrays with strong potential for QDCC applications, including photonics integration, micro-LEDs,…
In the lead-up to the release of Webb’s first full-color images and spectroscopic data on July 12, the Webb team is now in the last phase of commissioning the science instruments. The first two instrument modes, NIRCam imaging and NIRISS imaging, have been declared ready for science; watch the “Where is Webb” page as the team works their way through the other 15 instrument modes. After commissioning is finished, the fun – and discoveries – will start: implementing the hundreds of peer-reviewed science programs that have…
A phenomenon that directly proves the existence of quark mass has been observed for the first time in extremely energetic collisions of lead nuclei. A team of physicists working on the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider can boast this spectacular achievement – the observation of the dead cone effect. The objects that make up our physical everyday life can have many different properties. Among these, a fundamental role is played by mass. Despite being so fundamental, mass has…
In a joint experimental-theoretical study, physicists at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (MPIK), together with collaborators from RIKEN, Japan, investigated the magnetic properties of the isotope helium-3. For the first time, the electronic and nuclear g-factors of the 3He+ ion were measured directly with a relative precision of 10–10. The electron-nucleus magnetic interaction (zero-field hyperfine splitting) was measured with an accuracy improved by two orders of magnitude. The g-factor of the bare 3He nucleus was determined via an…
Combining heavy-ion experiments, astrophysical observations, and nuclear theory. Throughout the Universe, neutron stars are born in supernova explosions that mark the end of the life of massive stars. Sometimes neutron stars are bound in binary systems and will eventually collide with each other. These high-energy, astrophysical phenomena feature such extreme conditions that they produce most of the heavy elements, such as silver and gold. Consequently, neutron stars and their collisions are unique laboratories to study the properties of matter at…
Results may offer new insight into properties of quark-gluon plasma (QGP)—the hot mix of fundamental nuclear-matter building blocks that filled the early universe. Scientists studying particle collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) have revealed how certain particle-jets lose energy as they traverse the unique form of nuclear matter created in these collisions. The results, published in Physical Review C, should help them learn about key “transport properties” of this hot particle soup, known as a quark-gluon plasma (QGP). “By…
… offer new picture of how electrons behave. Princeton scientists have discovered a new quantum state of matter and in the process are rewriting our understanding of the nature of metallic materials. A recent experiment detailed in the journal Nature is challenging our picture of how electrons behave in quantum materials. Using stacked layers of a material called tungsten ditelluride, researchers have observed electrons in two-dimensions behaving as if they were in a single dimension — and in the process…
Micrometeoroid strikes are an unavoidable aspect of operating any spacecraft, which routinely sustain many impacts over the course of long and productive science missions in space. Between May 23 and 25, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope sustained an impact to one of its primary mirror segments. After initial assessments, the team found the telescope is still performing at a level that exceeds all mission requirements despite a marginally detectable effect in the data. Thorough analysis and measurements are ongoing. Impacts…
University of Queensland scientists have cracked a problem that’s frustrated chemists and physicists for years, potentially leading to a new age of powerful, efficient, and environmentally friendly technologies. Using quantum mechanics, Professor Ben Powell from UQ’s School of Mathematics and Physics has discovered a ‘recipe’ which allows molecular switches to work at room temperature. “Switches are materials that can shift between two or more states, such as on and off or 0 and 1, and are the basis of all digital technologies,” Professor Powell…
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