Clouds of ultralight particles can form around rotating black holes. A team of physicists from the University of Amsterdam and Harvard University now show that these clouds would leave a characteristic imprint on the gravitational waves emitted by binary black holes. Black holes are generally thought to swallow all forms of matter and energy surrounding them. It has long been known, however, that they can also shed some of their mass through a process called superradiance. While this phenomenon is known…
You heard it here first, and then again. If you could immerse yourself in a quantum fluid, you would hear every event twice, because they support two sound waves with different speeds. The researchers in their experiment have realized this remarkable property for the first time in a three-dimensional quantum gas, instead of a quantum liquid. They achieved this result through cooling a gas of potassium atoms trapped by laser beams in ultrahigh vacuum to less than a millionth of…
Astronomers have developed a new code to simulate the formation of a cluster of baby stars. Comparison with the well-known real case of the Orion Nebula shows that its off-center bubble of ionized gas was caused by a massive star that was pushed out of the newborn cluster but is now falling back in. Groups of stars often form together in clouds of cold hydrogen gas. The brightest and most massive stars ionize the surrounding gas, making it too hot…
Operation of mass manufacturable photonic sensors at the quantum limit could have applications such as greenhouse gas and cancer detection. Sensors are a constant feature of our everyday lives. Although they often go unperceived, sensors provide critical information essential to modern healthcare, security, and environmental monitoring. Modern cars alone contain over 100 sensors and this number will only increase. Quantum sensing is poised to revolutionise today’s sensors, significantly boosting the performance they can achieve. More precise, faster, and reliable measurements…
In medical care, magnetic fields of heart and brain activity are measured to detect diseases at an early stage. To measure even the smallest magnetic fields, researchers at Fraunhofer IAF are working on a new approach: diamond-based laser threshold magnetometry. The idea is to use diamond with a high density of nitrogen-vacancy centers in a laser system. Now the researchers have succeeded in reaching a milestone: They were able to demonstrate the world’s first measurement of magnetic-field-dependent stimulated emission and…
… paves the way for new quantum materials. New technique helps researchers understand unconventional superconductors. Superconductors are materials with no electrical resistance whatsoever, commonly requiring extremely low temperatures. They are used in a wide range of domains, from medical applications to a central role in quantum computers. Superconductivity is caused by specially linked pairs of electrons known as Cooper pairs. So far, the occurrence of Cooper pairs has been measured indirectly macroscopically in bulk, but a new technique developed by…
At ILA in Berlin, the Ferdinand-Braun-Institut will showcase space-qualified diode laser modules with narrow linewidths, optical frequency references and further III-V components for satellite and quantum technology applications. From June 22 to 24, 2022, the Ferdinand-Braun-Institut, Leibniz-Institut für Höchstfrequenztechnik (FBH) will present reliable semiconductors for applications in the fields of space, satellites and quantum technology at the International Aerospace Exhibition (ILA) in Berlin. The institute covers the entire value chain – from chip design and processing to modules and systems….
The Daya Bay Neutrino Experiment has produced the most precise measurement yet of theta13, a key parameter for understanding how neutrinos change their “flavor”. Over nearly nine years, the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment captured an unprecedented five and a half million interactions from subatomic particles called neutrinos. Now, the international team of physicists of the Daya Bay collaboration has reported the first result from the experiment’s full dataset—the most precise measurement yet of theta13, a key parameter for understanding…
In conventional wisdom, producing a curved space requires distortions, such as bending or stretching a flat space. A team of researchers at Purdue University have discovered a new method to create curved spaces that also solves a mystery in physics. Without any physical distortions of physical systems, the team has designed a scheme using non-Hermiticity, which exists in any systems coupled to environments, to create a hyperbolic surface and a variety of other prototypical curved spaces. “Our work may revolutionize…
Scientists have created the first ”time-crystal” two-body system in an experiment that seems to bend the laws of physics. It comes after the same team recently witnessed the first interaction of the new phase of matter. Time crystals were long believed to be impossible because they are made from atoms in never-ending motion. The discovery, published in Nature Communications, shows that not only can time crystals be created, but they have potential to be turned into useful devices. Time crystals…
Arizona State physicist uses intuition, supercomputers to identify new high-temperature superconductor. The study of superconductivity is littered with disappointments, dead-ends, and serendipitous discoveries, according to Antia Botana, professor of physics at Arizona State University. “As theorists, we generally fail in predicting new superconductors,” she said. However, in 2021, she experienced the highlight of her early career. Working with experimentalist Julia Mundy at Harvard University, she discovered a new superconducting material —a quintuple-layer nickelate. They reported their findings in Nature Materials in September 2021….
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have boosted the sensitivity of their atomic radio receiver a hundredfold by enclosing the small glass cylinder of cesium atoms inside what looks like custom copper “headphones.” The structure — a square overhead loop connecting two square panels — increases the incoming radio signal, or electric field, applied to the gaseous atoms in the flask (known as a vapor cell) between the panels. This enhancement enables the radio receiver to…
Nearly half of Sun-size stars are binary. According to University of Copenhagen research, planetary systems around binary stars may be very different from those around single stars. This points to new targets in the search for extraterrestrial life forms. Since the only known planet with life, the Earth, orbits the Sun, planetary systems around stars of similar size are obvious targets for astronomers trying to locate extraterrestrial life. Nearly every second star in that category is a binary star. A…
Pairing two waveguides, one with an ill-defined topology, another with a well-defined one, can lead to a topological singularity, with potential for extreme wave phenomena, energy harvesting, and enhancing nonlinear effects. Topological ideas have recently taken the center stage of modern electromagnetics. Typical topological photonic systems are based on nonreciprocal materials, a class of materials that enables asymmetric light–matter interactions. In particular, nonreciprocal platforms, may support unidirectional channels that allow propagation in a given direction of space—let’s say from left…
Diamonds can withstand the heat from high-powered, continuous beam lasers. Just about every car, train and plane that’s been built since 1970 has been manufactured using high-power lasers that shoot a continuous beam of light. These lasers are strong enough to cut steel, precise enough to perform surgery, and powerful enough to carry messages into deep space. They are so powerful, in fact, that it’s difficult to engineer resilient and long-lasting components that can control the powerful beams the lasers…
Newfound black holes in dwarf galaxies shed light on the origin of our galaxy’s supermassive black hole. A team led by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has found a previously overlooked treasure trove of massive black holes in dwarf galaxies. The newly discovered black holes offer a glimpse into the life story of the supermassive black hole at the center of our own Milky Way galaxy. As a giant spiral galaxy, the Milky Way is…
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