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Category: particle physics

Entanglement-enhanced optical lattice clock achieves unprecedented precision

Optical lattice clocks are devices that measure the passing of time via the frequency of light that is absorbed or emitted by laser-cooled atoms trapped in a repeating pattern of light interference known as optical lattice.

These clocks are significantly more precise than classical clocks and could pick up subtle physical phenomena. They could also be used to test the predictions of various physics theories and could help to improve the performance of existing timekeeping, sensing and communication systems.

Researchers at JILA National Institute of Standards and Technology and University of Colorado recently introduced a new strontium atom-based optical lattice clock that achieved unprecedented precision.

Century-old cosmic ray mystery is close to being solved

Michigan State University astrophysicists are closing in on one of space science’s biggest mysteries: where the galaxy’s most energetic particles come from. Their studies uncovered a pulsar wind nebula behind a mysterious LHAASO signal and set important X-ray constraints on other potential sources.

Physicists Discover Brand-New Isotopes of Heavy Rare-Earth Elements

Never-before-seen ratios of particles making up atomic nuclei have emerged in a landmark experiment involving the fragmentation of heavy elements.

By breaking apart the nuclei of platinum, physicists led by Oleg Tarasov of Michigan State University have discovered new isotopes of rare-Earth elements thulium, ytterbium, and lutetium. It’s an achievement that scientists believe will help them understand the properties of neutron-rich nuclei and the processes that forge new elements in the collision of neutron stars.

The work, the researchers say, also demonstrates the power of Michigan State University’s recently completed Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB), which conducted its first experiment in June 2022.

Shop-bought cable helps power two quantum networks

For decades, physicists have dreamed of a quantum internet: a planetary web of ultrasecure communications and super-powered computation built not from electrical signals, but from the ghostly connections between particles of light.

Now, scientists in Edinburgh say they’ve taken a major step toward turning that vision into something real.

Researchers at Heriot-Watt University have unveiled a prototype quantum network that links two smaller networks into one reconfigurable, eight-user system capable of routing and even teleporting entanglement on demand.

Corral technique measures fragile quantum states in magnet-superconductor hybrids from afar

Hybrid materials made of magnets and superconductors give rise to fascinating quantum phenomena, which are so sensitive that it is crucial to measure them with minimal interference. Researchers at the University of Hamburg and the University of Illinois Chicago have now demonstrated, both experimentally and theoretically, how these quantum phenomena can be detected and controlled over longer distances using special techniques with a scanning tunneling microscope.

Their findings, which could be important for topological quantum computers, were published in the journal Nature Physics.

When a magnetic atom is located in a superconductor, so-called Yu-Shiba-Rusinov quasiparticles are created. Normally, they can only be measured with a high detection probability directly at the location of the atom using the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope.

Dark Matter May Have Finally Been Detected in Our Galaxy’s Glow

A strange, never-before-seen glow in the halo of our galaxy may be the strongest dark-matter breadcrumb yet.

A new analysis of 15 years’ worth of data from the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope reveals a glow of unusually high-energy gamma rays that cannot easily be attributed to any known source.

According to astronomer Tomonori Totani of the University of Tokyo in Japan, it may be the radiation produced when hypothetical dark matter particles collide and wipe out one another.

Microquasars emerge as the Milky Way’s most extreme particle engines

LHAASO has traced the mysterious cosmic ray “knee” to powerful micro-quasars firing ultra-energetic particles across the galaxy. LHAASO has uncovered that micro-quasars, black holes feeding on companion stars, are powerful PeV particle accelerators. Their jets produce ultra-high-energy gamma rays and protons that exceed long-held expectations. Precise cosmic-ray measurements reveal a new high-energy component, suggesting multiple sources within the Milky Way. These findings finally tie the “knee” structure to black hole jet systems.

Milestone results released by the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) on November 16 have finally clarified a decades-old puzzle in astrophysics: the unusual drop in cosmic ray counts above 3 PeV that produces what scientists call the “knee” in the cosmic ray energy spectrum.

The cause of this steep decline has remained mysterious since it was first identified nearly 70 years ago. Researchers long suspected that the feature reflects the highest energies that cosmic ray sources can reach, marking a shift in the spectrum from one power-law behavior to another.

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