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Category: particle physics – Page 141

Colliding top quarks reveal hidden quantum ‘magic’

Queen Mary University of London physicist Professor Chris White, along with his twin brother Professor Martin White from the University of Adelaide, have discovered a surprising connection between the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the future of quantum computing.

For decades, scientists have been striving to build quantum computers that leverage the bizarre laws of quantum mechanics to achieve far greater processing power than traditional computers. A recently identified property—amusingly called “magic”—is critical for building these machines, but its generation and enhancement remain a mystery.

For any given quantum system, magic is a measure that tells us how hard it is to calculate on a non-quantum computer. The higher the magic, the more we need quantum computers to describe the behavior. Studying the magic properties of quantum systems generates profound insights into the development and use of quantum computers.

When solar probes align: Data confirms how sun’s magnetic field accelerates solar wind

When two probes orbiting the sun aligned with one another, researchers harnessed the opportunity to track the sun’s magnetic field as it traveled into the solar system. They found that the sharply oscillating magnetic field smooths out to gentle waves while accelerating the surrounding solar wind, according to a University of Michigan-led study published in The Astrophysical Journal.

The sharp S-shaped bends of the magnetic fields streaming out of the sun, called magnetic switchbacks, have long been of interest to solar scientists. Switchbacks impact the —the , or plasma, that stream from the sun and influence space weather in ways that can disrupt Earth’s electrical grids, radio waves, radar and satellites.

The new understanding of magnetic switchback changes over time will help improve solar wind forecasts to better predict space weather and its potential impacts on Earth.

Anomalous magnetic moment of the muon: New calculation confirms Standard Model of particle physics

The magnetic moment of the muon is an important precision parameter for putting the Standard Model of particle physics to the test. After years of work, the research group led by Professor Hartmut Wittig of the PRISMA+ Cluster of Excellence at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) has calculated this quantity using the so-called lattice quantum chromodynamics method (lattice QCD method).

Their result agrees with the latest experimental measurements, in contrast to earlier theoretical calculations.

After the experimental measurements had been pushed to ever higher precision in recent years, attention had increasingly turned to the theoretical prediction and the central question of whether it deviates significantly from the experimental results and thus provides evidence for the existence of new physics beyond the Standard Model.

Quantum uncertainty and wave–particle duality are equivalent, experiment shows

The orbital angular momentum states of light have been used to relate quantum uncertainty to wave–particle duality. The experiment was done by physicists in Europe and confirms a 2014 theoretical prediction that a minimum level of uncertainty must always result when a measurement is made on a quantum object – regardless of whether the object is observed as a wave, as a particle, or anywhere in between.

In the famous double-slit thought experiment, quantum particles such as electrons are fired on-by-one at two adjacent slits in a barrier. As time progresses, an interference pattern will build up on a detector behind the barrier. This is an example of wave–particle duality in quantum mechanics, whereby each particle travels through both slits as a wave that interferes with itself. However, if the trajectories of the particles are observed such that it is known which slit each particle travelled through, no interference pattern is seen. Since the 1970s, several different versions of the experiment have been done in the laboratory – confirming the quantum nature of reality.

Physicists magnetize a material with light

Physicists have created a new and long-lasting magnetic state in a material, using only light. They used a terahertz laser to stimulate atoms in antiferromagnetic materials, which could advance information processing and memory chip technology.

Lighting Up Hidden Magnetism with Terahertz Pulses: A New Frontier in Quantum Materials.

Imagine being able to control the magnetic properties of materials with flashes of light, unlocking states that last long after the light disappears. This groundbreaking approach to quantum materials is at the forefront of condensed-matter physics, offering tantalizing possibilities for future technologies.

In a recent study, researchers discovered a way to create a long-lived magnetic state in the layered material FePS₃ using terahertz light pulses. Typically, materials return to their original state almost immediately after light-induced changes. However, in this case, the induced magnetization persists for over 2.5 milliseconds—an eternity in the quantum world.

The key lies in the material’s proximity to a critical point—its antiferromagnetic transition temperature, where the usual magnetic order starts to fluctuate dramatically. These fluctuations, akin to a system in delicate balance, seem to amplify the material’s response to light, stabilizing the new magnetic state.

By combining advanced computational methods with experiments, the researchers identified that terahertz light excites specific atomic vibrations, subtly shifting interactions between magnetic atoms. Near the critical temperature, these shifts create conditions favoring a stable, magnetized state.

This discovery isn’t just about extending magnetism’s lifespan; it opens the door to manipulating quantum materials in entirely new ways. Regions near critical points, where order teeters on the edge of chaos, could harbor hidden “metastable” states—potentially leading to breakthroughs in memory devices, sensors, and beyond.

Continue reading “Physicists magnetize a material with light” | >

Unifying Physics and Machine Learning: The Next Big Breakthrough?

Unifying machine learning and physics.

In this video, Dr. Ardavan (Ahmad) Borzou will discuss the history of unifications in physics and how we can unify physics and machine learning.

CompuFlair Website:
www.compu-flair.com.

Video Footage Courtesy of CERN:
Video link:
https://videos.cern.ch/record/2020780…
Terms of use:
“CERN provides the image free of charge for educational and informational use”
http://copyright.web.cern.ch.

Chapters:

Continue reading “Unifying Physics and Machine Learning: The Next Big Breakthrough?” | >

Antineutrino detection gets a boost with novel plastic scintillator

How do you find and measure nuclear particles, like antineutrinos, that travel near the speed of light?

Antineutrinos are the antimatter partner of a neutrino, one of nature’s most elusive and least understood subatomic particles. They are commonly observed near nuclear reactors, which emit copious amounts of antineutrinos, but they also are found abundantly throughout the universe as a result of Earth’s natural radioactivity, with most of them originating from the decay of potassium-40, thorium-232 and uranium-238 isotopes.

When an antineutrino collides with a proton, a positron and a neutron are produced—a process known as inverse beta decay (IBD). This event causes scintillating materials to light up, making it possible to detect these antineutrinos; and if they can be detected, they can be used to study the properties of a reactor’s core or Earth’s interior.

New radar algorithm reveals hidden dance of ionospheric plasma

At night, charged particles from the sun caught by Earth’s magnetosphere rain down into the atmosphere. The impacting particles rip electrons from atoms in the atmosphere, creating both beauty and chaos. These high-energy interactions cause the northern and southern lights, but they also scatter radio signals, wreaking havoc on ground-based and satellite communications.

Scientists would like to track electrical activity in the ionosphere by measuring the distribution of plasma, the form matter takes when positive ions are separated from their electrons, to help better predict how communications will be affected by electromagnetic energy.

But analyzing plasma in the ionosphere is a challenge because its distribution changes quickly and its movements are often unpredictable. In addition, collisional physics makes detecting true motion in the lower ionosphere exceedingly difficult.

Thin-film tech makes nuclear clocks a 1,000 times less radioactive and more affordable

In the quest for ultra-precise timekeeping, scientists have turned to nuclear clocks. Unlike optical atomic clocks—which rely on electronic transitions—nuclear clocks utilize the energy transitions in the atom’s nucleus, which are less affected by outside forces, meaning this type of clock could potentially keep time more accurately than any previously existing technology.

However, building such a clock has posed major challenges—thorium-229, one of the isotopes used in nuclear clocks, is rare, radioactive, and extremely costly to acquire in the substantial quantities required for this purpose.

Reported in a study published in Nature, a team of researchers, led by JILA and NIST Fellow and University of Colorado Boulder Physics professor Jun Ye, in collaboration with Professor Eric Hudson’s team at UCLA’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, have found a way to make nuclear clocks a thousand times less radioactive and more cost-effective, thanks to a method creating thin films of thorium tetrafluoride (ThF4).

Physicists magnetize a material with light: Terahertz technique could improve memory chip design

MIT physicists have created a new and long-lasting magnetic state in a material, using only light.

In a study that appears in Nature, the researchers report using a —a light source that oscillates more than a trillion times per second—to directly stimulate atoms in an antiferromagnetic material. The laser’s oscillations are tuned to the natural vibrations among the material’s atoms, in a way that shifts the balance of atomic spins toward a new magnetic state.

The results provide a new way to control and switch , which are of interest for their potential to advance information processing and memory chip technology.

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