Today we will explore the concept of the observer effect in quantum mechanics, where simply observing a particle can alter its state
Category: particle physics
Scientists Simulated The Big Bang’s Aftermath, And Found The Universe Was Like Soup
Immediately after the Big Bang boomed, the Universe was a trillion-degree ‘soup’ of unimaginably dense plasma. In a breakthrough experiment, researchers have found the first evidence that this exotic primordial goo did actually slosh and swirl like soup.
In slightly more scientific terms, this gooey soup is called quark-gluon plasma, or QGP. It was the first and hottest liquid ever to exist. Predictions suggest it blazed a billion times hotter than the surface of the Sun for a few millionths of a second before it expanded, cooled, and coalesced into atoms.
As detailed in a recent study, a team of physicists from MIT and CERN recreated heavy-ion collisions like those that created the QGP to explore its properties. For example, when a quark flows through the plasma, does it recoil and splash like a cohesive liquid, or does it scatter randomly like a collection of particles?
Quantum reservoir computing peaks at the edge of many-body chaos, study suggests
Reservoir computing is a promising machine learning-based approach for the analysis of data that changes over time, such as weather patterns, recorded speech or stock market trends. Classical reservoir computing techniques are known to perform best at the “edge of chaos,” or in simpler terms, at a “sweet spot” in which the behavior of systems is neither entirely predictable (i.e., order) nor completely unpredictable (i.e., chaos).
In recent years, some physicists and quantum engineers have been exploring the possibility of realizing a quantum equivalent of classical reservoir computing, known as quantum reservoir computing (QRC). These approaches enable the processing of temporal data and the prediction of events unfolding over time, leveraging high-dimensional quantum states.
Researchers at the University of Tokyo carried out a study investigating how QRC would behave when applied to complex quantum many-body systems, which consist of several interacting quantum particles. Their paper, published in Physical Review Letters, introduces a physics-based framework that could inform the future development of QRC systems.
‘All-in-one,’ single-atom could power both sides of water splitting
Green hydrogen production technology, which utilizes renewable energy to produce eco-friendly hydrogen without carbon emissions, is gaining attention as a core technology for addressing global warming. Green hydrogen is produced through electrolysis, a process that separates hydrogen and oxygen by applying electrical energy to water, requiring low-cost, high-efficiency, high-performance catalysts.
A research team led by Dr. Na Jongbeom and Dr. Kim Jong Min from Korea Institute of Science and Technology’s Center for Extreme Materials Research has developed next-generation water electrolysis catalyst technology. This technology integrates a single-atom “All-in-one” catalyst precisely controlled down to the atomic level with binder-free electrode technology. The study is published in the journal Advanced Energy Materials.
A key feature of this technology is its ability to stably perform both hydrogen evolution and oxygen evolution reactions simultaneously on a single electrode.
Chemistry-powered ‘breathing’ membrane opens and closes tiny pores on its own
Ion channels are narrow passageways that play a pivotal role in many biological processes. To model how ions move through these tight spaces, pores need to be fabricated at very small length scales. The narrowest regions of ion channels can be just a few angstroms wide, about the size of individual atoms, making reproducible and precise fabrication a major challenge in modern nanotechnology.
In a study published in Nature Communications, researchers at The University of Osaka have addressed this challenge by using a miniature electrochemical reactor to create ultra-small pores approaching subnanometer dimensions.
In biological cells, ions flow in and out through channels in cell membranes. This ion flow is the basis for generating electrical signals, such as nerve impulses that trigger muscle contraction. The channels themselves are made of proteins and can have angstrom-wide narrow regions. Conformational changes of these proteins in response to external stimuli open and close the channels.
MIT physicists improve the precision of atomic clocks
Every time you check the time on your phone, make an online transaction, or use a navigation app, you are depending on the precision of atomic clocks.
An atomic clock keeps time by relying on the “ticks” of atoms as they naturally oscillate at rock-steady frequencies. Today’s atomic clocks operate by tracking cesium atoms, which tick over 10 billion times per second. Each of those ticks is precisely tracked using lasers that oscillate in sync, at microwave frequencies.
Scientists are developing next-generation atomic clocks that rely on even faster-ticking atoms such as ytterbium, which can be tracked with lasers at higher, optical frequencies. If they can be kept stable, optical atomic clocks could track even finer intervals of time, up to 100 trillion times per second.
The persistence of gravitational wave memory
Neutron stars are ultra-dense remnants of massive stars that collapsed after supernova explosions and are made up mostly of subatomic particles with no electric charge (i.e., neutrons). When two neutron stars collide, they are predicted to produce gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of spacetime that travel at the speed of light.
Gravitational waves typically take the form of oscillations, periodically and temporarily influencing the universe’s underlying fabric (i.e., spacetime). However, general relativity suggests that for some cosmological events, in addition to the oscillatory displacement of test masses (as produced by the passage of a gravitational wave train), there exists a final permanent displacement of them via a phenomenon referred to as “gravitational wave memory.”
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the Academy of Athens, the University of Valencia and Montclair State University recently carried out a study exploring the gravitational wave memory effects that would arise from neutron star mergers.
Atom-thin electronics withstand space radiation, potentially surviving for centuries in orbit
Atom-thick layers of molybdenum disulfide are ideally suited for radiation-resistant spacecraft electronics, researchers in China have confirmed. In a study published in Nature, Peng Zhou and colleagues at Fudan University put a communications system composed of the material through a gauntlet of rigorous tests—including the transmission of their university’s Anthem—confirming that its performance is barely affected in the harsh environment of outer space.
Beyond the protection of Earth’s magnetic field, the electronic components of modern spacecraft are extremely vulnerable to constant streams of cosmic rays and heavy ions. While onboard systems can be shielded with radiation-protective materials, this approach takes up valuable space and adds weight to spacecraft.
That extra mass drives up launch costs and can limit the payload available for scientific instruments or communications hardware. A far better solution would be to fabricate the electronics themselves from materials that are intrinsically resistant to radiation damage.