Basic physics quickly gets messy in an irregular world, scientists discover in new research on the old problem of a ball rolling downhill.
Category: physics – Page 5
Beams of light that can be guided into corkscrew-like shapes called optical vortices are used today in a range of applications. Pushing the limits of structured light, Harvard applied physicists in the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) report a new type of optical vortex beam that not only twists as it travels but also changes in different parts at different rates to create unique patterns. The way the light behaves resembles spiral shapes common in nature.
The researchers borrowed from classical mechanics to nickname their never-before-demonstrated light vortex an “optical rotatum,” to describe how the torque on the light’s corkscrew shape gradually changes. In Newtonian physics, “rotatum” is the rate of change in torque on an object over time.
The optical rotatum was created in the lab of Federico Capasso, the Robert L. Wallace Professor of Applied Physics and the Vinton Hayes Senior Research Fellow in Electrical Engineering at SEAS. “This is a new behavior of light consisting of an optical vortex that propagates through space and changes in unusual ways,” Capasso said. “It is potentially useful for manipulating small matter.” The research is published in Science Advances.
A simple tweak to the usual setup is all that is needed to enhance a spectroscopy technique that uses waves in the terahertz region to probe samples, RIKEN physicists have discovered. The findings are published in the journal Applied Physics Letters.
Developing techniques that can obtain spectra from tiny regions extremely rapidly is the ultimate goal of a team that Norihiko Hayazawa of the RIKEN Center for Advanced Photonics belongs to.
Until recently, the scientists had been focusing on obtaining spectra from nanoscale regions on samples. But now they are concentrating on acquiring spectra very quickly—on the order of billionths of seconds (nanoseconds)—to minimize fluctuations induced by the ambient environment.
A new model has been developed to simulate interstellar activity within our solar system and the nearby Alpha Centauri system. Interstellar material has been found within our solar system, but scientists are still working to determine its origin and how it arrived here. A recent study from Wes
A machine learning method has the potential to revolutionize multi-messenger astronomy. Detecting binary neutron star mergers is a top priority for astronomers. These rare collisions between dense stellar remnants produce gravitational waves followed by bursts of light, offering a unique opportunit
UPTON, N.Y. — High temperatures and ionizing radiation create extremely corrosive environments inside a nuclear reactor. To design long-lasting reactors, scientists must understand how radiation-induced chemical reactions impact structural materials. Chemists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory recently performed experiments showing that radiation-induced reactions may help mitigate the corrosion of reactor metals in a new type of reactor cooled by molten salts. Their findings are published in the journal Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics.
“Molten salt reactors are an emerging technology for safer, scalable nuclear energy production. These advanced reactors can operate at higher, more efficient temperatures than traditional water-cooled reactor technologies while maintaining relatively ambient pressure,” explained James Wishart, a distinguished chemist at Brookhaven Lab and leader of the research.
Unlike water-cooled reactors, molten salt reactors use a coolant made entirely of positively and negatively charged ions, which remain in a liquid state only at high temperatures. It’s similar to melting table salt crystals until they flow without adding any other liquid.
$115 million just poured into this startup that makes engineering 1,000x faster — and Bezos, Altman, and Nvidia are all betting on its success
Posted in physics, robotics/AI | Leave a Comment on $115 million just poured into this startup that makes engineering 1,000x faster — and Bezos, Altman, and Nvidia are all betting on its success
Rescale secures $115 million in Series D funding to accelerate AI physics technology that speeds up engineering simulations by 1000x, backed by tech luminaries including Bezos and Altman.
Black holes are fundamental to the structure of galaxies and critical in our understanding of gravity, space, and time. A stellar mass black hole is a type of black hole that forms from the gravitational collapse of a massive star at the end of its life cycle. These black holes typically have masses ranging from about 3 to 20 times the mass of our sun.
Sometimes black holes generate beams of ionized gas (plasma) that shoot outward at nearly light speed. Although discovered more than a century ago, how and why jets occur has remained a mystery, described as one of the “wonders of physics.”
Prof. Kazutaka Yamaoka from Nagoya University in Japan, along with his colleagues from the University of Toyama and other international institutes, have discovered key conditions needed for a stellar black hole to create plasma jets. Their findings, published in Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan, show that when superheated gas material experiences a rapid shrinkage toward the black hole, jet formation occurs.
Physicists think the insides of black holes may be complex mazes of tangled strings in higher dimensions
Charge-parity violation is thought to explain why there’s more matter than antimatter in the universe. Scientists just spotted it in a new place.