A new principle underlying the physics of fragmentation explains why fragment sizes follow a specific, universal distribution.
Category: physics
Exceptional points alter the order of lasing modes
Exceptional points (EPs) are non-Hermitian singularities where two or more eigenstates coalesce, resulting in the eigenspace collapsing in dimensionality. Over the past decade, researchers have uncovered a wealth of exotic phenomena near EPs.
In laser physics, for example, EPs have been linked to pump-induced laser termination, loss-induced lasing, and the design of quasi-parity-time-symmetric laser systems that boost the output power of large-area lasers while preserving single-mode operation.
Physicists Observe a Nuclear “Memory” Thought Impossible
UT researchers have made rare measurements of exotic nuclear decay that reshape how scientists think heavy elements form in extreme cosmic events.
You can’t have gold without the decay of an atomic nucleus, yet the details behind that transformation have long been difficult to confirm. Researchers in nuclear physics at UT have now reported three key findings in a single study that clarify important parts of this process. Their work offers new guidance for developing models that explain how stars create heavy elements and may improve predictions about the behavior of exotic, short-lived nuclei found across the universe.
The Physics of Bling.
Consciousness as the foundation: New theory addresses nature of reality
Consciousness is fundamental; only thereafter do time, space and matter arise. This is the starting point for a new theoretical model of the nature of reality, presented by Maria Strømme, Professor of Materials Science at Uppsala University, in AIP Advances. The article has been selected as the best paper of the issue and featured on the cover.
Strømme, who normally conducts research in nanotechnology, here takes a major leap from the smallest scales to the very largest—and proposes an entirely new theory of the origin of the universe. The article presents a framework in which consciousness is not viewed as a byproduct of brain activity, but as a fundamental field underlying everything we experience—matter, space, time, and life itself.
In defence of Stephen Wolfram
You like Stephen Wolfram, right?
I mean, if he’s to be believed, he has reinvented physics, not to mention philosophy.
How could you not like such a thinker?
Well… it turns out that there are plenty of people who don’t like Stephen Wolfram… or his physics… or his philosophy.
Here are four criticisms of Stephen Wolfram I regularly hear…
…and here’s why these criticisms, though they hint at uncomfortable truths, nonetheless miss the mark.
What is a hypergraph in Wolfram Physics?
In previous episodes, I’ve been simulating Wolfram Physics using graphs.
But you may have come across simulations if Wolfram Physics using hypergraphs.
What’s the difference?
What is a hypergraph?
—
This episode refers to previous episodes on dimensionality:
Breakthrough Simulation Maps Every Star in The Milky Way in Scientific First
The Milky Way contains more than 100 billion stars, each following its own evolutionary path through birth, life, and sometimes violent death.
For decades, astrophysicists have dreamed of creating a complete simulation of our galaxy, a digital twin that could test theories about how galaxies form and evolve. That dream has always crashed against an impossible computational wall.
Until now.
Endings and beginnings: Atacama Cosmology Telescope releases its final data, shaping the future of cosmology
There’s always a touch of melancholy when a chapter that has absorbed years of work comes to an end. In the case of the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT), those years amount to nearly 20—and now the telescope has completed its mission. Yet some endings are also important beginnings, opening new paths for the entire scientific community.
The three papers published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics by the ACT Collaboration describe and contextualize in detail the sixth and final major ACT data release—perhaps the most important one—marking significant advances in our understanding of the universe’s evolution and its current state.
ACT’s data clarify several key points: the measurement of the Hubble constant (the number that indicates the current rate of cosmic expansion—the universe’s “speedometer”) obtained from observations at very large cosmological distances is confirmed, and it remains markedly different from the value derived from the nearby universe. This is both a problem and a remarkable discovery: it confirms the so-called “Hubble tension,” which challenges the model we use to describe the cosmos.