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Archive for the ‘particle physics’ category

Feb 1, 2024

Physicists develop highly robust time crystal

Posted by in categories: particle physics, space

A team from TU Dortmund University recently succeeded in producing a highly durable time crystal that lived millions of times longer than could be shown in previous experiments. By doing so, they have corroborated an extremely interesting phenomenon that Nobel Prize laureate Frank Wilczek postulated around ten years ago and which had already found its way into science fiction movies.

The results have been published in Nature Physics.

Crystals or, to be more precise, in space, are periodic arrangements of atoms over large length scales. This arrangement gives crystals their fascinating appearance, with smooth facets like in gemstones.

Feb 1, 2024

Device could jumpstart work toward quantum internet

Posted by in categories: internet, particle physics, quantum physics

In research that could jumpstart work toward the quantum internet, researchers at MIT and the University of Cambridge have built and tested an exquisitely small device that could allow the quick, efficient flow of quantum information over large distances.

Key to the device is a “microchiplet” made of diamond in which some of the diamond’s carbon atoms are replaced with atoms of tin. The team’s experiments indicate that the device, consisting of waveguides for the light to carry the , solves a paradox that has stymied the arrival of large, scalable quantum networks.

Quantum information in the form of quantum bits, or qubits, is easily disrupted by environmental noise, like magnetic fields, that destroys the information. So on one hand, it’s desirable to have qubits that don’t interact strongly with the environment. On the other hand, however, those qubits need to strongly interact with the light, or photons, key to carrying the information over distances.

Feb 1, 2024

Study unveils key dynamics of 2D nanomaterials with view to larger-scale production

Posted by in categories: nanotechnology, particle physics

A team of Rice University researchers mapped out how flecks of 2D materials move in liquid ⎯ knowledge that could help scientists assemble macroscopic-scale materials with the same useful properties as their 2D counterparts.

“Two-dimensional nanomaterials are extremely thin—only several atoms thick—sheet-shaped materials,” said Utana Umezaki, a Rice graduate student who is a lead author on a study published in ACS Nano. “They behave very differently from materials we’re used to in daily life and can have really useful properties: They can withstand a lot of force, resist high temperatures and so on. To take advantage of these unique properties, we have to find ways to turn them into larger-scale materials like films and fibers.”

In order to maintain their special properties in bulk form, sheets of 2D materials have to be properly aligned ⎯ a process that often occurs in solution phase. Rice researchers focused on graphene, which is made up of , and hexagonal boron nitride, a material with a similar structure to graphene but composed of boron and nitrogen atoms.

Jan 31, 2024

See Earth’s atmosphere glow gold in gorgeous photo taken from the ISS

Posted by in categories: particle physics, space

The glow occurs when sunlight interacts with atoms and molecules in our atmosphere.

Jan 31, 2024

Scientists rule out a popular alternative theory to dark matter

Posted by in categories: cosmology, information science, particle physics

A consensus has arisen in the astronomical community that familiar matter made of atoms is not the dominant form of matter in the Universe. Instead, an invisible form of matter, called dark matter, is thought to be far more prevalent. However, a small group of researchers deny the existence of dark matter, instead saying our understanding of how objects move is incomplete. A recent paper in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society seems to have ruled this out definitively.

Stars, planets, and galaxies move under the direction of the force of gravity, and Isaac Newton worked out the laws that govern that motion, which we now call Newtonian dynamics. However, despite the enormous success of Newtonian dynamics, this success is not universal. Indeed, when Newton’s equations are applied to certain astronomical phenomena, they do not make the correct predictions. One such example is the speed at which galaxies rotate. When astronomers measure the speed of stars in the periphery of a galaxy, they move faster than can be explained by accepted theory. Instead, the galaxies should fly apart.

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Jan 31, 2024

Utilizing active microparticles for artificial intelligence

Posted by in categories: particle physics, robotics/AI

Artificial intelligence using neural networks performs calculations digitally with the help of microelectronic chips. Physicists at Leipzig University have now created a type of neural network that works not with electricity but with so-called active colloidal particles. In their publication in Nature Communications, the researchers describe how these microparticles can be used as a physical system for artificial intelligence and the prediction of time series.

“Our neural network belongs to the field of physical computing, which uses the dynamics of physical processes, such as water surfaces, bacteria or octopus tentacle models, to make calculations,” says Professor Frank Cichos, whose research group developed the network with the support of ScaDS.AI.

“In our realization, we use synthetic self-propelled particles that are only a few micrometers in size,” explains Cichos. “We show that these can be used for calculations and at the same time present a method that suppresses the influence of disruptive effects, such as noise, in the movement of the .” Colloidal particles are particles that are finely dispersed in their dispersion medium (solid, gas or liquid).

Jan 31, 2024

Surface Defects Affect Heat Transport

Posted by in category: particle physics

The scattering of helium atoms off a crystal surface reveals how defects in the crystal’s lattice influence its ability to transport heat.

Jan 30, 2024

Quantum material-based spintronic devices operate at ultra-low power

Posted by in categories: particle physics, quantum physics, robotics/AI

As artificial intelligence technologies such as Chat-GPT are utilized in various industries, the role of high-performance semiconductor devices for processing large amounts of information is becoming increasingly important. Among them, spin memory is attracting attention as a next-generation electronics technology because it is suitable for processing large amounts of information with lower power than silicon semiconductors that are currently mass-produced.

Utilizing recently discovered in spin memory is expected to dramatically improve performance by improving signal ratio and reducing power, but to achieve this, it is necessary to develop technologies to control the properties of quantum materials through electrical methods such as current and voltage.

Dr. Jun Woo Choi of the Center for Spintroncs Research at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) and Professor Se-Young Park of the Department of Physics at Soongsil University have announced the results of a collaborative study showing that ultra-low-power memory can be fabricated from quantum materials. The findings are published in the journal Nature Communications.

Jan 30, 2024

Harnessing synthetic active particles for physical reservoir computing

Posted by in categories: computing, particle physics

The ability of living systems to process signals and information is of vital importance. Inspired by nature, Wang and Cichos show an experimental realization of a physical reservoir computer using self-propelled active microparticles to predict chaotic time series such as the Mackey–Glass and Lorenz series.

Jan 29, 2024

Scientists Just X-Rayed a Single Atom

Posted by in categories: chemistry, particle physics

For the first time, a team of scientists has imaged a single atom by using X-rays. And according to the resulting study published in the journal Nature, it offers transformative advantages over other techniques.

“Atoms can be routinely imaged with scanning probe microscopes, but without X-rays one cannot tell what they are made of,” study co-author Sai Wai Hla, a physicist at Ohio University and the Argonne National Laboratory, said in a press release.

“We can now detect exactly the type of a particular atom, one atom-at-a-time, and can simultaneously measure its chemical state,” Hla added. “Once we are able to do that, we can trace the materials down to the ultimate limit of just one atom.”

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