Using a groundbreaking new technique, researchers have unveiled the first detailed image of a photon — a single particle of light — ever taken.
Category: particle physics – Page 60
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and collaborators have a new way to use data from high-energy particle smashups to peer inside protons. Their approach uses quantum information science to map out how particle tracks streaming from electron-proton collisions are influenced by quantum entanglement inside the proton.
The results reveal that quarks and gluons, the fundamental building blocks that make up a proton’s structure, are subject to so-called quantum entanglement. This quirky phenomenon, famously described by Albert Einstein as “spooky action at a distance,” holds that particles can know one another’s state—for example, their spin direction—even when they are separated by a great distance.
In this case, entanglement occurs over incredibly short distances—less than one quadrillionth of a meter inside individual protons —and the sharing of information extends over the entire group of quarks and gluons in that proton.
Unveiling Quantum Scars: A Window into Chaos in Graphene Quantum Dots.
In the realm of quantum physics, certain phenomena challenge our understanding of chaos and order.
Patterns in chaos have been proven, in the incredibly tiny quantum realm, by an international team co-led by UC Santa Cruz physicist Jairo Velasco, Jr. In a new paper published on November 27 in Nature, the researchers detail an experiment that confirms a theory first put forth 40 years ago stating that electrons confined in quantum space would move along common paths rather than producing a chaotic jumble of trajectories.
Electrons exhibit both particle and wave-like properties—they don’t simply roll like a ball. Electrons behave in ways that are often counterintuitive, and under certain conditions, their waves can interfere with each other in a way that concentrates their movement into certain patterns. The physicists call these common paths “unique closed orbits.”
Achieving this in Velasco’s lab required an intricate combination of advanced imaging techniques and precise control over electron behavior within graphene, a material widely used in research because its unique properties and two-dimensional structure make it ideal for observing quantum effects.
We’ve all experienced the moment of panic when a glass slips from our hands, shattering into pieces upon hitting the ground. What if this common mishap could become a thing of the past?
Now, a new discovery by researchers at Tohoku University has offered insights into how glass resists breakage, potentially paving the way for highly durable, break-resistant materials. The breakthrough has wide ranging implications for glass-related industries.
Details of their findings are published in the journal Acta Materialia.
Clay minerals are a major constituent of the Earth’s surface and are mainly found in the sediments of lakes, rivers and oceans. The properties of clay and claystone depend on how the tiny sediment particles are orientated. Using the European Synchrotron particle accelerator in Grenoble (France), a research team from the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) has succeeded for the first time in observing in detail how some of the processes work.
The study was published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment and provides researchers with insights into the structure and properties of sediments.
The formation of clay-rich sediments is difficult to study. “Sedimentation occurs, for example, on the hard-to-reach seafloor over a very long period of time. In addition, clay particles are only a few micrometers or less in size. As a result, conventional microscopy methods are not suitable for the observation of clay particles during sedimentation,” explains Dr. Rebecca Kühn, a geoscientist at MLU, lead researcher of the study.
When NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by Uranus in 1986, it provided scientists’ first—and, so far, only—close glimpse of this strange, sideways-rotating outer planet. Alongside the discovery of new moons and rings, baffling new mysteries confronted scientists. The energized particles around the planet defied their understanding of how magnetic fields work to trap particle radiation, and Uranus earned a reputation as an outlier in our solar system.
Now, new research analyzing the data collected during that flyby 38 years ago has found that the source of that particular mystery is a cosmic coincidence. It turns out that in the days just before Voyager 2’s flyby, the planet had been affected by an unusual kind of space weather that squashed the planet’s magnetic field, dramatically compressing Uranus’s magnetosphere.
“If Voyager 2 had arrived just a few days earlier, it would have observed a completely different magnetosphere at Uranus,” said Jamie Jasinski of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and lead author of the new work published in Nature Astronomy. “The spacecraft saw Uranus in conditions that only occur about 4% of the time.”
This system charges without external fields, advancing energy technology.
A research team at the University of Genova has developed the spin quantum battery, an energy storage system that uses the spin degrees of freedom of particles.
The battery utilizes the spin properties of particles for energy storage and release, with a distinctive charging method that eliminates the need for an external field.
Quantum many-body theory and non-equilibrium physics are longstanding research areas within the quantum condensed matter theory group led by Maura Sassetti at the University of Genova, according to senior author Dario Ferraro.
A small team of physicists at the University of Amsterdam has demonstrated the ability of 3D-printed particles to propel themselves across the surface of a fluid, given the right fuel. The group has posted a paper describing their particles on the arXiv preprint server.
Prior research has shown that droplets with a surface tension lower than the surface tension of surrounding fluid will spread rather than mixing, a phenomenon known as the Marangoni effect. A drop of alcohol in a cup of water, for example, will spread across the surface rather than mix with the water and it remains until it evaporates. In this new effort, the research team used this effect to create self-propelling particles.
The particles were 3D printed into a shape like a hockey puck—each was approximately 1 centimeter in diameter. The particles were hollow, making them buoyant. The researchers described the hollow part of the puck as a fuel tank into which they poured a small amount of alcohol. They also poked a tiny pinhole in the puck to allow the alcohol to slowly escape when it was placed in a cup of water. Due to the Marangoni effect, the alcohol tried to spread, carrying the puck along with it.
Space-time back and forth?
Posted in cosmology, particle physics
Time moving forwards and backward in plank time intervals? It is a legitimate possibility in physics since matter and anti-matter are identical in every aspect but mirror each other. Electrons, positrons, and other particles oppose each other as matter and anti-matter.
I argue that empty space-time acts as two mirror fields, causing matter to behave like anti-matter. The same matter in the opposite space-time field (reverse time) acts as anti-matter. As time progresses in a Möbius-like shape moves forward, and A 720-degree rotation needs to come back to its original state. These back-and-forth rapid flips cause all matter within our universe to be cut into quanta or packets, Showing packets and wave characters. while in the backward arrow of time, everything flips and is shown as anti-matter.
Space-time does not advance in time in 1 direction only, as its fields change backward and forward as frequently as Planck time remains constant, only changing directions rapidly between positive and negative (past and future), meaning time goes backward and forward, while matter within this space-time also mirrors itself. However, matter moves forward in our time-space universe towards the future since we can add all the Planck times in positive space-time intervals (we are sensing in our mind only the positive space-time intervals). Our universe is the sum of the positive side of space-time, while there is another parallel anti-universe with antimatter in negative space-time. These two universes never meet and move parallel to each other. We don’t notice the mirror universe in which our mirror self exists since the present time is only 1 plank time. next plank time will be the future and previous is already in the past.
Over the past few years, some researchers have been working on alternative energy storage systems that leverage the principles of quantum mechanics. These systems, known as quantum batteries, could be more efficient and compact than conventional battery technologies, while also achieving faster charging times.
In a recent paper published in Physical Review Letters, a research group at University of Genova introduced a new spin quantum battery, a battery that leverages the spin degrees of freedom of particles to store and release energy. This battery is charged in a unique and advantageous way, without the need for an external field.
“Quantum many-body theory and non-equilibrium physics are traditional topics in the quantum condensed matter theory group led by Maura Sassetti at University of Genova,” Dario Ferraro, senior author of the paper, told Phys.org.