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Category: particle physics – Page 10

Memory matters for quantum atomic motion on metals

In a variety of technological applications related to chemical energy generation and storage, atoms and molecules diffuse and react on metallic surfaces. Being able to simulate and predict this motion is crucial to understanding material degradation, chemical selectivity, and to optimizing the conditions of catalytic reactions. Central to this is a correct description of the constituent parts of atoms: electrons and nuclei.

An electron is incredibly light—its mass is almost 2,000 times smaller than that of even the lightest nucleus. This mass disparity allows to adapt rapidly to changes in nuclear positions, which usually enables researchers to use a simplified “adiabatic” description of atomic motion.

While this can be an excellent approximation, in some cases the electrons are affected by nuclear motion to such an extent that we need to abandon this simplification and account for the coupling between the dynamics of electrons and nuclei, leading to so-called “non-adiabatic effects.”

Decades-long experiment finds muon still behaving unexpectedly

Final results from a long-running U.S.-based experiment announced Tuesday show a tiny particle continues to act strangely—but that’s still good news for the laws of physics as we know them.

“This experiment is a huge feat in precision,” said Tova Holmes, an experimental physicist at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville who is not part of the collaboration.

The mysterious particles called are considered heavier cousins to electrons. They wobble like a top when inside a , and scientists are studying that motion to see if it lines up with the foundational rulebook of physics called the Standard Model.

Researchers unveil axion-torsion coupling via dark photons

A new study has revealed a novel effect caused by dark photons—hypothetical particles thought to make up a portion of the universe’s elusive dark matter. This discovery, made within the framework of Einstein–Cartan–Holst gravity, provides new insights into the fundamental interactions between matter and gravity.

The study was conducted by Prof. Gao Zhifu from the Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with Dr. Luiz Carlos Garcia de Andrade from the State University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Their findings, which include the first identification of a key physical quantity known as the Barbero–Immirzi (BI) parameter induced by dark photons, are published in The European Physical Journal C.

A large portion of the universe is filled with invisible matter known as , and the dark photon is one of its leading theoretical candidates. As a hypothetical particle beyond the Standard Model, the dark photon exhibits electromagnetic-like interactions through kinetic mixing with the ordinary photon. Unlike photons, however, dark photons possess mass and interact much more weakly with charged particles.

Unveiling under-the-barrier electron dynamics in strong field tunneling

Tunneling is a peculiar quantum phenomenon with no classical counterpart. It plays an essential role for strong field phenomena in atoms and molecules interacting with intense lasers. Processes such as high-order harmonic generation are driven by electron dynamics following tunnel ionization.

While this has been widely explored, the behavior of electrons under the tunneling barrier, though equally significant, has remained obscure. The understanding of laser-induced strong field ionization distinguishes two scenarios for a given system and : the multiphoton regime at rather low intensities and tunneling at high intensities.

However, most strong-field experiments have been carried out in an intermediate situation where multiphoton signatures are observed while tunneling is still the dominant process.

Study shows how scientists can use black holes as supercolliders

As federal funding cuts impact decades of research, scientists could turn to black holes for cheaper, natural alternatives to expensive facilities searching for dark matter and similarly elusive particles that hold clues to the universe’s deepest secrets, a new Johns Hopkins study of supermassive black holes suggests.

The findings, which appear in Physical Review Letters, could help complement multi-billion-dollar expenses and decades of construction needed for research complexes like Europe’s Large Hadron Collider, the largest and highest-energy particle accelerator in the world.

“One of the great hopes for particle colliders like the Large Hadron Collider is that it will generate particles, but we haven’t seen any evidence yet,” said study co-author Joseph Silk, an astrophysics professor at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Oxford, UK.

Supercomputer simulation reveals how merging neutron stars form black holes and powerful jets

Merging neutron stars are excellent targets for multi-messenger astronomy. This modern and still very young method of astrophysics coordinates observations of the various signals from one and the same astrophysical source. When two neutron stars collide, they emit gravitational waves, neutrinos and radiation across the entire electromagnetic spectrum. To detect them, researchers need to add gravitational wave detectors and neutrino telescopes to ordinary telescopes that capture light.

Precise models and predictions of the expected signals are essential in order to coordinate these observatories, which are very different in nature.

“Predicting the multi-messenger signals from binary neutron star mergers from first principles is extremely difficult. We have now succeeded in doing just that,” says Kota Hayashi, a postdoctoral researcher in the Computational Relativistic Astrophysics department at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) in the Potsdam Science Park. “Using the Fugaku supercomputer in Japan, we have performed the longest and most complex simulation of a binary neutron star to date.”

‘Space charge layer’ effect could boost solid-state battery performance

An emerging technology to make lithium-ion batteries safer and more powerful involves using solid rather than liquid electrolytes, the materials that make it possible for ions to move through the device to generate power.

A team of University of Texas at Dallas researchers and their colleagues have discovered that the mixing of small particles between two solid electrolytes can generate an effect called a “space charge layer,” an accumulation of electric charge at the interface between the two materials.

The finding could aid the development of batteries with solid electrolytes, called solid-state batteries, for applications including mobile devices and electric vehicles. The researchers published their study in ACS Energy Letters, where it is featured on the cover of the March issue.

Towards topological quantum batteries: Theoretical framework addresses two long-standing challenges

Researchers from the RIKEN Center for Quantum Computing and Huazhong University of Science and Technology have conducted a theoretical analysis demonstrating how a “topological quantum battery”—an innovative device that leverages the topological properties of photonic waveguides and quantum effects of two-level atoms—could be efficiently designed. The work, published in Physical Review Letters, holds promise for applications in nanoscale energy storage, optical quantum communication, and distributed quantum computing.

With increasing global awareness of the importance of environmental sustainability, developing next-generation storage devices has become a critical priority. Quantum batteries—hypothetical miniature devices that, unlike classical batteries that store energy via chemical reactions, rely on quantum properties such as superposition, entanglement, and coherence—have the potential to enhance the storage and transfer of energy.

From a mechanistic perspective, they offer potential performance advantages over classical batteries, including improved charging power, increased capacity, and superior work extraction efficiency.

New data from ALICE may contribute to solving the cosmic muon puzzle

Cosmic rays are high-energy particles from outer space that strike Earth’s atmosphere, generating showers of secondary particles, such as muons, that can reach the planet’s surface. In recent years, ground-based experiments have detected more cosmic muons than current theoretical models predict, a discrepancy known as the muon puzzle.

Underground experiments offer good conditions for the detection of cosmic muons, because the rock or soil above the experiments absorbs the other shower components. They could therefore help to solve the muon puzzle. One example is ALICE at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

Designed to study the products of heavy-ion collisions, ALICE is also well-suited for detecting cosmic muons thanks to its location in a cavern 52 meters underground, shielded by 28 meters of overburden rock and an additional 1 meter of magnet yoke.