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Category: physics

Mapping the universe, faster and with the same accuracy

If you think a galaxy is big, compare it to the size of the universe: it’s just a tiny dot which, together with a huge number of other tiny dots, forms clusters that aggregate into superclusters, which in turn weave into filaments threaded with voids—an immense 3D skeleton of our universe.

If that gives you vertigo and you’re wondering how one can understand or even “see” something so vast, the answer is: it isn’t easy. Scientists combine the physics of the universe with data from astronomical instruments and build , such as EFTofLSS (Effective Field Theory of Large-Scale Structure). Fed with observations, these models describe the “cosmic web” statistically and allow its key parameters to be estimated.

Models like EFTofLSS, however, demand a lot of time and computing resources. Since the astronomical datasets at our disposal are growing exponentially, we need ways to lighten the analysis without losing precision. This is why emulators exist: they “imitate” how the models respond, but operate much faster.

Stony Brook Simulations Help Explain Lightning’s Mysterious Origins

STONY BROOK, NY — September 5, 2025– A recent study in Nature Physics reveals how ordinary ice can generate electricity, providing crucial insight into the origins of lightning. It was discovered that ice exhibits strong flexoelectricity—an electromechanical effect that occurs when the material is bent. At Stony Brook University, PhD student Anthony Mannino, working under

From Sci-Fi to Reality: New Breakthrough Could Bring Holograms to Your Phone

New research from the University of St Andrews is advancing holographic technology, with potential applications in smart devices, communication, gaming, and entertainment. In a paper published in the journal Light, Science and Application, physicists from the School of Physics and Astronomy reported the creation of a new optoelectronic device that combines Holographic Metasurfaces (HMs) with Organic Light-Emitting Diodes (OLEDs).

Until now, holograms have typically been generated using lasers. The St Andrews team, however, demonstrated that pairing OLEDs with HMs provides a more compact and straightforward method. This approach is not only easier to implement but also less expensive, addressing one of the key challenges that has limited wider use of holographic technology.

OLEDs are thin-film devices already common in mobile phone displays and some televisions, where they create colored pixels. Because they are flat and emit light across their surface, OLEDs are also promising for emerging fields such as optical wireless communication, biophotonics, and sensing. Their versatility and ability to integrate with other components make them well-suited for developing miniaturized, light-based systems.

Gravitational wave analysis confirms theory of merging black holes

Ten years after scientists first detected gravitational waves emerging from two colliding black holes, the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration, a research team that includes Columbia astronomy professor Maximiliano Isi, has recorded a signal from a nearly identical black hole collision.

Improvements in the allowed the researchers to see the black holes almost four times as clearly as they could a decade ago, and to confirm two important predictions: That merging black holes only ever grow or remain stable in size—as the late physicist Stephen Hawking predicted—and that, when disturbed, they ring like a bell, as predicted by Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity.

“This unprecedentedly clear signal of the black hole merger known as GW250114 puts to the test some of our most important conjectures about black holes and gravitational waves,” Isi said.

Trilayer moiré superlattices unlock tunable control of exciton configurations

Moiré superlattices are periodic patterns formed when two or more thin semiconducting layers are stacked with a small twist angle or lattice mismatch. When 2D materials form these patterns, their electronic, mechanical, and optical properties can change significantly.

Over the past decades, moiré superlattices have emerged as a promising platform to study unconventional and unknown physical states. They also enabled the observation of unique excitonic configurations (i.e., arrangements of bound electron-hole pairs).

In bilayer moiré systems based on two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), for instance, physicists have observed interlayer dipolar excitons. These are excitons produced when an electron and a hole are bound together across different layers in a stacked 2D semiconductor.

Astrophysicists Zero In on Source of Strange Gamma-Ray Signals

Millisecond pulsar binaries may produce the excess 511 keV photons seen in the galaxy. These systems could expose hidden pulsars and even exoplanets. Many astrophysicists devote their work to tracing the origins of photons, since certain types are closely linked to specific cosmic processes. Iden

Habitable planet potential increases in the outer galaxy

What can the galactic habitable zone (GHZ), galactic regions where complex life is hypothesized to be able to evolve, teach scientists about finding the correct stars that could have habitable planets?

This is what a recent study accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics hopes to address as an international team of researchers investigated a connection between the migration of stars, commonly called stellar migration, and what this could mean for finding habitable planets within our galaxy. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand the astrophysical parameters for finding habitable worlds beyond Earth and even life as we know it. The findings are published on the arXiv preprint server.

For the study, the researchers used a series of computer models to simulate how stellar migration could influence the location and parameters of the GHZ. The models included scenarios both with and without stellar migration to ascertain the statistical probabilities for terrestrial (rocky) planets forming around stars throughout the galaxy. The researchers also used a chemical evolution model to ascertain the formation and evolution of our galaxy, specifically regarding its thickness.

Landmark Black Hole Test Marks Decade of Gravitational-Wave Discoveries

The clearest black hole merger signal ever measured has allowed researchers to test the Kerr nature of black holes and validate Stephen Hawking’s black hole area theorem.

Gravitational-wave astronomy is moving at breakneck speed. Just over a decade ago, the direct detection of gravitational waves was considered an elusive goal—perpetually said to be “five-to-ten years away.” Then came the 2015 breakthrough: the first observed merger of two black holes, known as GW150914 [1]. Detections have since become routine, with a catalog of black hole mergers now numbering in the hundreds. There is even evidence for a gravitational-wave background at nanohertz frequencies, plausibly sourced by a population of supermassive black hole binaries throughout the Universe. Now the LIGO detectors have captured the clearest merger signal ever recorded, GW250114 [2]. From such a signal, the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) Collaboration was able to draw two spectacular conclusions. First, it confirmed that the nature of the merging objects is consistent with that of Kerr (spinning) black holes.

Turbulence with a twist: New work shows fluid in a curved pipe can undergo discontinuous transition

Turbulence is everywhere, yet much about the nature of turbulence remains unknown. During the last decade, physicists have discovered how fluids in a pipe or similar geometry transition from a smooth, laminar state to a turbulent state as their speed increases.

Surprisingly, in the newly emerging consensus, the process could be understood using , not fluid mechanics, and was mathematically equivalent to the way in which water percolates down through a coffee filter.

In a new twist, UC San Diego researchers Guru K. Jayasingh and Nigel Goldenfeld have now predicted that if the pipe is sufficiently curved, the transition can become discontinuous, with the turbulent fraction undergoing a jump beyond a critical flow velocity. This jump is mathematically similar to the way in which water can suddenly and discontinuously turn into ice if cooled below the freezing temperature.

90% Chance: Physicists Predict a Black Hole Could Explode This Decade

UMass Amherst physicists believe such an explosion could occur within the next decade, potentially “revolutionizing physics and rewriting the history of the universe.” Physicists have long thought that black holes end their lives in rare explosions that occur, at most, once every 100,000 years. N

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