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Scientists in Japan have managed to manipulate light as though it was being influenced by gravity. By carefully distorting a photonic crystal, the team was able to invoke “pseudogravity” to bend a beam of light, which could have useful applications in optics systems.

One of the quirks of Einstein’s theory of general relativity is that light is affected by the fabric of spacetime, which itself is distorted by gravity. That’s why objects with extremely high masses, like black holes or entire galaxies, wreak such havoc on light, bending its path and magnifying distant objects.

In recent studies, it was predicted that it should be possible to replicate this effect in photonic crystals. These structures are used to control light in optics devices and experiments, and they’re generally made by arranging multiple materials into periodic patterns. Distortions in these crystals, it was theorized, could deflect light waves in a way very similar to cosmic-scale gravitational lenses. The phenomenon was dubbed pseudogravity.

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Physicists at the Kyoto Institute of Technology altered a special material called a photonic crystal to change the way light moves, creating pseudogravity, an effect similar to a tiny black hole. The experiment was inspired by Einstein’s theory of relativity and showcased light similar to how it would be if it were passing through a gravitational field. According to Science Alert, this experiment has far-reaching implications for the control and manipulation of light in optics and communications technology.

The most comprehensive view of the history of the universe ever created has been produced by researchers at The Australian National University (ANU). The study also offers new ideas about how our universe may have started.

Lead author Honorary Associate Professor Charley Lineweaver from ANU said he set out wanting to understand where all the objects in the universe came from.

“When the universe began 13.8 billion years ago in a hot big bang, there were no objects like protons, atoms, people, planets, stars or galaxies. Now the universe is full of such objects,” he said.

An international team of scientists is rethinking the basic principles of radiation physics with the aim of creating super-bright light sources. In a new study published in Nature Photonics, researchers from the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) in Portugal, the University of Rochester, the University of California, Los Angeles, and Laboratoire d’Optique Appliquée in France proposed ways to use quasiparticles to create light sources as powerful as the most advanced ones in existence today, but much smaller.

Quasiparticles are formed by many electrons moving in sync. They can travel at any speed—even faster than light—and withstand intense forces, like those near a black hole.

“The most fascinating aspect of quasiparticles is their ability to move in ways that would be disallowed by the laws of physics governing individual particles,” says John Palastro, a senior scientist at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics, an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and an associate professor at the Institute of Optics.

Russian astrophysicists propose the Casimir Effect causes the universe’s expansion to accelerate. Mystery effect speeds up the universe — not dark energy, says study.

Vera C. Rubin Observatory will help shed light on the dark universe.

The upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory will help astronomers better understand two perplexing phenomena: dark energy and dark matter. Dark energy, which accounts for 68 percent of the universe, is an enigmatic factor responsible for the observed rapid expansion of the universe. Dark matter, which comprises 27 percent of all matter, has gravitational pull but does not interact with light, therefore remaining hidden.

Together, these mysterious components form what scientists refer to as the dark universe.

Continue reading “The Rubin Observatory will map dark matter and dark energy” »

A new feat has been achieved in the realm of astronomy. The first supernova was observed, recognized, and classified using a wholly automated approach without human participation.

Led by Northwestern University, an international team of scientists has created a cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) tool known as the Bright Transient Survey Bot (BTSbot).

NASA/JPL-Caltech / D. Lang (Perimeter Institute)

Continue reading “New AI tool successfully detects and classifies supernova” »

During the mid-20th century, scientists discovered that protons have the ability to resonate, akin to the vibrations of a bell. Over the subsequent thirty years, advancements have led to 3D pictures of the proton and significant insight into its structure in its ground state. However, there remains limited knowledge about the 3D structure of a resonating proton.

A recent experiment conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility has delved deeper into the three-dimensional structures of both proton and neutron resonances. This research provides one more puzzle piece to the vast picture of the chaotic, nascent universe that existed just after the Big Bang.

The Big Bang is the leading cosmological model explaining how the universe as we know it began approximately 13.8 billion years ago.

When two black holes collide, the impact is so big that we can detect it all the way here on Earth. These objects are so immense that their collisions send ripples through spacetime itself. Scientists call these ripples gravitational waves.

Gravitational waves are distortions or ripples in the fabric of space and time. They were first detected in 2015 by the Advanced LIGO detectors and are produced by catastrophic events such as colliding black holes, supernovae, or merging neutron stars.