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Category: particle physics – Page 11

Virtual particles: How physicists’ clever bookkeeping trick could underlie reality

A clever mathematical tool known as virtual particles unlocks the strange and mysterious inner workings of subatomic particles. What happens to these particles within atoms would stay unexplained without this tool. The calculations using virtual particles predict the bizarre behavior of subatomic particles with such uncanny accuracy that some scientists think “they must really exist.”

Virtual particles are not real—it says so right in their name—but if you want to understand how real particles interact with each other, they are unavoidable. They are essential tools to describe three of the forces found in nature: electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces.

Real particles are lumps of energy that can be “seen” or detected by appropriate instruments; this feature is what makes them observable, or real. Virtual particles, on the other hand, are a sophisticated mathematical tool and cannot be seen. Physicist Richard Feynman invented them to describe the interactions between real particles.

Strontium optical lattice clock exhibits record-high coherence time

Optical lattice clocks are emerging timekeeping devices based on tens of thousands of ultracold atoms trapped in an optical lattice (i.e., a grid of laser light). By oscillating between two distinct quantum states at a particular frequency, these atoms could help to measure time with much higher precision than existing clocks, which would be highly advantageous for the study of various fundamental physical processes and systems.

Researchers at JILA, National Institute of Standards and Technology and University of Chicago recently developed an clock based on strontium atoms that was keeping time with remarkable precision and accuracy. The new strontium , introduced in a paper published in Physical Review Letters, could open new possibilities for research aimed at testing variations in fundamental physics constants and the timing of specific physical phenomena.

“We have been pushing the performance of the optical lattice clock,” Kyungtae Kim, first author of the paper, told Phys.org. “Thanks to a major upgrade from 2019 to 2021, we demonstrated record differential frequency measurement capability, reaching a resolution of gravitational redshift below the 1-mm scale, as well as record accuracy (until this July) as a frequency standard. To push the performance further, one needs to understand and model the current system. This work provides a detailed snapshot of the clock’s current operation.”

Quantum uncertainty captured in real time using femtosecond light pulses

Researchers from the University of Arizona, working with an international team, have captured and controlled quantum uncertainty in real time using ultrafast pulses of light. Their discovery, published in the journal Light: Science & Applications, could lead to more secure communication and the development of ultrafast quantum optics.

At the heart of the breakthrough is “squeezed light,” said Mohammed Hassan, the paper’s corresponding author and associate professor of physics and optical sciences.

In , light is identified by two linked properties that roughly correspond to a particle’s position and intensity—but can never be known with perfect precision, a concept known as uncertainty. The product of these two measurements cannot fall below a certain threshold, much like the fixed amount of air in a balloon, with each measurement representing one side of the balloon.

Third dimension of data storage: Physicists demonstrate first hybrid skyrmion tubes for higher-density quantum computing

Typically, the charge of electrons is used to store and process information in electronics-based devices. In spintronics, the focus is instead on the magnetic moment or on magnetic vortices, so-called skyrmions—the goal is smaller, faster, and more sustainable computers. To further increase storage density, skyrmions will not only be two-dimensional in the future, but will also conquer the third dimension.

Researchers from the Institute of Physics at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) have now succeeded in creating three-dimensional skyrmions, so-called hybrid skyrmion tubes, in synthetic antiferromagnets and have demonstrated for the first time that these skyrmion tubes move differently than two-dimensional skyrmions.

“Three-dimensional skyrmions are of interest for and brain-inspired computing, among other things—here the higher resulting from the third dimension is essential,” says Mona Bhukta from Professor Mathias Kläui’s research group. The results were published on September 26 in Nature Communications.

Matter wave

Schrödinger applied Hamilton’s optico-mechanical analogy to develop his wave mechanics for subatomic particles. [ 67 ] : xi Consequently, wave solutions to the Schrödinger equation share many properties with results of light wave optics. In particular, Kirchhoff’s diffraction formula works well for electron optics [ 29 ] : 745 and for atomic optics. [ 68 ] The approximation works well as long as the electric fields change more slowly than the de Broglie wavelength. Macroscopic apparatus fulfill this condition; slow electrons moving in solids do not.

Fat particles could be key to treating metabolic brain disorders

Evidence challenging the long-held assumption that neuronal function in the brain is solely powered by sugars has given researchers new hope of treating debilitating brain disorders. A University of Queensland study led by Dr. Merja Joensuu and published in Nature Metabolism showed that neurons also use fats for fuel as they fire off the signals for human thought and movement.

“For decades, it was widely accepted that relied exclusively on glucose to fuel their functions in the brain,” Dr. Joensuu said. “But our research shows fats are undoubtedly a crucial part of the neuron’s in the brain and could be a key to repairing and restoring function when it breaks down.”

Dr. Joensuu from the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology along with lab members Ph.D. candidate Nyakuoy Yak and Dr. Saber Abd Elkader from UQ’s Queensland Brain Institute set out to examine the relationship of a particular gene (DDHD2) to hereditary spastic paraplegia 54 (HSP54).

What if the Universe Remembers Everything? New Theory Rewrites the Rules of Physics

For over a hundred years, physics has rested on two foundational theories. Einstein’s general relativity describes gravity as the curvature of space and time, while quantum mechanics governs the behavior of particles and fields.

Each theory is highly successful within its own domain, yet combining them leads to contradictions, particularly in relation to black holes, dark matter, dark energy, and the origins of the universe.

My colleagues and I have been exploring a new way to bridge that divide. The idea is to treat information – not matter, not energy, not even spacetime itself – as the most fundamental ingredient of reality. We call this framework the quantum memory matrix (QMM).

Cracking a long-standing weakness in a classic algorithm for programming reconfigurable chips

Researchers from EPFL, AMD, and the University of Novi Sad have uncovered a long-standing inefficiency in the algorithm that programs millions of reconfigurable chips used worldwide, a discovery that could reshape how future generations of these are designed and programmed.

Many industries, including telecoms, automotive, aerospace and rely on a special breed of chip called the Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). Unlike traditional chips, FPGAs can be reconfigured almost endlessly, making them invaluable in fast-moving fields where designing a custom chip would take years and cost a fortune. But this flexibility comes with a catch: FPGA efficiency depends heavily on the software used to program them.

Since the late 1990s, an algorithm known as PathFinder has been the backbone of FPGA routing. Its job: connecting thousands of tiny circuit components without creating overlaps.

Mysterious moon rust explained by oxygen coming from Earth’s ‘wind’

In 2020, scientists reported the detection of hematite, an iron oxide mineral otherwise known as rust, distributed through the higher latitudes of the moon, particularly on the nearside. This came as a surprise, considering the low concentrations of oxygen—which is required for the formation of rust—on the moon. Researchers proposed several theories to account for the origins of the oxygen in moon rust, including the degassing of volatiles from lunar magma, asteroids, comets, or large impact events.

However, the only explanation that could account for the distribution patterns of the hematite was that oxygen ions were being transported to the moon by Earth’s magnetosphere. This occurs during the five or so days per month when Earth sits between the sun and moon, allowing parts of its atmosphere to be blown onto the surface of the moon. The phenomenon is referred to as “Earth wind.” At other times, the moon is primarily exposed to the low energy hydrogen ions from solar wind.

A group of scientists has recently provided more evidence backing up this theory. The study, published in Geophysical Research Letters, sought to test whether Earth wind could produce the hematite by setting up a series of lab experiments mimicking the conditions on the lunar surface. The team did this by irradiating various iron-bearing minerals found on the moon with oxygen and hydrogen at energies expected from particles in Earth wind, as well as hydrogen ions, like those from solar wind.

Concrete ‘battery’ now packs 10 times the power

Concrete already builds our world, and now it’s one step closer to powering it, too. Made by combining cement, water, ultra-fine carbon black (with nanoscale particles), and electrolytes, electron-conducting carbon concrete (ec3, pronounced “e-c-cubed”) creates a conductive “nanonetwork” inside concrete that could enable everyday structures like walls, sidewalks, and bridges to store and release electrical energy. In other words, the concrete around us could one day double as giant “batteries.”

As MIT researchers report in a new PNAS paper, optimized electrolytes and manufacturing processes have increased the capacity of the latest ec3 supercapacitors by an order of magnitude.

In 2023, storing enough energy to meet the daily needs of the average home would have required about 45 cubic meters of ec3, roughly the amount of concrete used in a typical basement. Now, with the improved , that same task can be achieved with about 5 cubic meters, the volume of a typical basement wall.

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