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Category: particle physics

X-ray imaging reveals how silicon anodes maintain contact in all-solid-state batteries

All-solid-state batteries (ASSBs) using silicon (Si) anodes are among the most promising candidates for high-energy and long-lasting power sources, particularly for electric vehicles. Si can store more lithium than conventional graphite, but its volume expands by roughly 410% during charging. This swelling generates mechanical stress that cracks particles and weakens their contact with the solid electrolyte, disrupting the flow of ions and reducing efficiency.

To address this, a research group led by Professor Yuki Orikasa from the College of Life Sciences, Ritsumeikan University, along with Ms. Mao Matsumoto, a graduate student at the Graduate School of Life Sciences, Ritsumeikan University (at the time), and Dr. Akihisa Takeuchi from the Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute, used operando synchrotron X-ray tomography with nanometer resolution to observe what happens inside these batteries as they charge and discharge in real time.

Their paper is published in ACS Nano.

Scientists rule out fourth neutrino in particle physics mystery

Scientists have taken a major step toward solving a long-standing mystery in particle physics, by finding no sign of the particle many hoped would explain it.

An international collaboration of scientists, including from The University of Manchester, working on the MicroBooNE experiment at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory announced that they have found no evidence for a fourth type of neutrino, known as a sterile neutrino.

For decades, physics experiments have observed neutrinos—sub-atomic particles that are all around us—behaving in a way that doesn’t fit the Standard Model of particle physics. One of the most promising explanations was the existence of a sterile neutrino, named because they are predicted not to interact with matter at all, whereas other neutrinos can. This means they could pass through the universe almost undetected.

Deciphering the heavyweights of the tetraquark world

The CMS collaboration reports the first measurement of the quantum properties of a family of tetraquarks that was recently discovered at the LHC.

To date, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN has discovered 80 particles. The most famous is the Higgs boson, a crucial ingredient in the fundamental laws of the universe. The rest are particles called hadrons made up of quarks, which allow physicists to investigate the intriguing properties of the strong nuclear force.

Of the hadrons discovered so far, most are familiar sets of two or three quarks (so-called mesons and baryons, respectively). But one of the LHC’s most striking discoveries is the confirmation of exotic hadrons composed of four or five quarks.

Tightening the net around the elusive sterile neutrino

Neutrinos, though nearly invisible, are among the most numerous matter particles in the universe. The Standard Model recognizes three types, but the discovery of neutrino oscillations revealed they have mass and can change identity while propagating.

For decades, puzzling experimental anomalies have suggested the presence of a fourth, “sterile” neutrino, one that interacts even more weakly. Finding it would transform our understanding of particle physics.

New look at hidden structure inside subatomic particles

SUNY Poly Professor of Physics Dr. Amir Fariborz recently published a paper in Physical Review D titled “Spinless glueballs in generalized linear sigma model.” The work takes on a central challenge in modern physics: understanding how the strongest force in nature shapes the inner structure of matter, and how it may produce an unusual form of matter made entirely from the carriers of that force.

Here’s the quick background. Everything is made of atoms. Atoms have a nucleus made of protons and neutrons, and those are made of even smaller pieces called quarks. Quarks are held together by gluons, which carry the strong interaction described by quantum chromodynamics (QCD).

Composite subatomic particles—hadrons—are built from quarks and gluons. Hadrons fall into two main groups: mesons and baryons. QCD does a great job explaining what happens when particles collide at very high energies, but at lower energies it becomes much harder to calculate, so researchers use well-tested models that still follow QCD’s rules.

Deciphering the Origin of Quark and Lepton Mass

Measurements of the decay of the Higgs boson into muon–antimuon pairs provide evidence for the mechanism by which quarks and leptons acquire their mass.

The most basic bits of matter that we have found are quarks and leptons, which we idealize as point-like objects with no internal structure and no measurable size (experiments constrain their sizes to below an attometer, a billionth of a billionth of a meter). The quarks, which experience strong, weak, and electromagnetic interactions, come in six flavors: up and down (the constituents of the proton and neutron), charm and strange, and top and bottom. The charged leptons—electron, muon, and tau—experience weak and electromagnetic interactions, while the neutral leptons—the three neutrinos—feel only the weak interactions. The masses of the quarks and charged leptons span more than 5 orders of magnitude: The top-quark mass is nearly 340,000 times that of the electron.

Geodesic approach links quantum physics and gravitation

It is something like the “Holy Grail” of physics: unifying particle physics and gravitation. The world of tiny particles is described extremely well by quantum theory, while the world of gravitation is captured by Einstein’s general theory of relativity. But combining the two has not yet worked—the two leading theories of theoretical physics still do not quite fit together.

There are many ideas for such a unification—with names like string theory, loop quantum gravity, canonical quantum gravity or asymptotically safe gravity. Each of them has its strengths and weaknesses. What has been missing so far, however, are observable predictions for measurable quantities and experimental data that could reveal which of these theories actually describes nature best. A new study from TU Wien published in Physical Review D may now have brought us a small step closer to this ambitious goal.

U.S government awards Gelsinger-backed EUV developer xLight with $150 million in federal incentives

XLight, a U.S.-based startup developing an EUV light source based on a particle accelerator, on Tuesday signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with the U.S. Department of Commerce for $150 million in proposed federal incentives under the CHIPS and Science Act. xLight came out of the blue earlier this year when it hired Pat Gelsinger, former chief executive of Intel, as executive chairman. The money, if awarded, will be used to bring xLight’s free-electron laser (FEL) based light source closer to reality once it is built in Albany and its viability is proven in practice.

“With the support from the [Department of] Commerce, our investors, and development partners, xLight is building its first free-electron laser system at the Albany Nanotech Complex, where the world’s best lithography capabilities will enable the research and development that will define the future of chip manufacturing,” said Nicholas Kelez, CEO and CTO of xLight.

The Mystery of the Impossible Neutrino. A Dark Matter Detection?

An exploration of the mystery of the impossible neutrino detection and how that might be our first direct detection of dark matter.

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The unique architecture of umbrella toxins permits a two-tiered molecular bet-hedging strategy for interbacterial antagonism

Umbrella toxin particles produced by Actinobacteria contain five spokes tipped with variable lectin domains. Here, Zhao et al. show that these lectins mediate species-specific binding to a previously unrecognized cell surface carbohydrate polymer and propose that the modular nature of umbrella particles enables bet hedging against unpredictable competitor encounters.

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