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Category: particle physics – Page 114

From Sci-Fi to Reality: Single-Photon Teleportation Breakthrough

Teleportation isn’t just science fiction anymore — scientists have found a way to send information more clearly and efficiently than ever before.

Using an incredibly tiny material called a nanophotonic platform, researchers dramatically improved how well quantum information can travel, even with just single particles of light. This breakthrough means teleportation could one day be part of real-world communication networks, opening the door to a future where information zips through space in ways once thought impossible.

Nonlinear optics: the key to quantum communication.

Compact optical clock uses quantum interference for improved frequency stability

An atomic clock research team from the National Time Service Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has proposed and implemented a compact optical clock based on quantum interference enhanced absorption spectroscopy, which is expected to play an important role in micro-positioning, navigation, timing (μPNT) and other systems.

Inspired by the successful history of the coherent population trapping (CPT)-based chip-scale microwave atomic clock and the booming of optical microcombs, a chip-scale optical clock was also proposed and demonstrated with better frequency stability and accuracy, which is mainly based on two-photon transition of Rubidium atom ensemble.

However, the typically required high cell temperatures (~100 ℃) and laser powers (~10 mW) in such a configuration are not compliant with the advent of a fully miniaturized and optical clock.

New atomic fountain clock joins elite group that keeps the world on time

Clocks on Earth are ticking a bit more regularly thanks to NIST-F4, a new atomic clock at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) campus in Boulder, Colorado.

This month, NIST researchers published an article in Metrologia establishing NIST-F4 as one of the world’s most accurate timekeepers. NIST has also submitted the clock for acceptance as a primary standard by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM), the body that oversees the world’s time.

NIST-F4 measures an unchanging frequency in the heart of cesium atoms, the internationally agreed-upon basis for defining the second since 1967. The clock is based on a “fountain” design that represents the gold standard of accuracy in timekeeping. NIST-F4 ticks at such a steady rate that if it had started running 100 million years ago, when dinosaurs roamed, it would be off by less than a second today.

Combing Through the Sun’s Corona for Dark Matter

Researchers have turned NASA’s Parker Solar Probe into a dark-matter detector, taking advantage of its close encounters with the Sun to search for dark-photon signals.

Dark matter is an elusive but consequential substance. It accounts for 27% of the total energy content of the Universe and plays a crucial role in the formation of cosmic structures, acting as the skeleton for the “cosmic web” of galaxies [1]. However, its nongravitational interactions with known particles remain a mystery. Among the many types of dark-matter particles that have been proposed, a compelling candidate is the ultralight dark photon [2]. Just as the photon mediates the electromagnetic force between electrically charged particles, the dark photon would mediate interactions between a hypothetical set of dark particles. Researchers have previously looked for dark photons using lab-based particle detectors and Earth-bound telescopes. But now Haipeng An from Tsinghua University in China and his colleagues have utilized a unique vantage point next to the Sun to search for a dark-photon signal [3].

Particle Physics Breakthroughs: The Outstanding Contributions of US Universities to Large Hadron Collider Research and Talent Development

Particle Physics Breakthroughs: The Outstanding Contributions of US Universities to Large Hadron Collider Research and Talent Development — fully visualized data of colleges rankings, basic information, admission, graduation, tuition, majors, students, campus safety and more information.

New review urges rigorous testing for single-atom catalysts in industry

Many modern industrial processes depend on complex chemistry. Take fertilizer production, for example: to make it, companies must first produce ammonia, a key ingredient.

These need ingredients of their own—catalysts, which speed up reactions without being consumed or creating unwanted byproducts.

One emerging type of catalyst—known as a “single-atom” or “atomically dispersed” catalyst—is getting a lot of attention for its potential to make industrial processes cleaner and more efficient. Academic journals are overflowing with studies on them.

What is dark energy? One of science’s great mysteries, explained

Dark energy makes up roughly 70% of the universe, yet we know nothing about it.

Around 25% of the universe is the equally mysterious dark matter, leaving just 5% for everything that we can see and touch—matter made up of atoms.

Dark energy is the placeholder name scientists have given to the unknown force causing the universe to expand faster and faster over time.

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