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Archive for the ‘particle physics’ category: Page 227

Nov 11, 2022

Physicists Just Achieved Quantum Teleportation Underwater For The First Time

Posted by in categories: particle physics, quantum physics

face_with_colon_three circa 2017.


Chinese scientists have successfully sent information between entangled particles through sea water, the first time this type of quantum communication has been achieved underwater.

Nov 10, 2022

Gamma Ray Generation Using High-Powered Lasers

Posted by in category: particle physics

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This article focuses on the concept of gamma rays, their sources and emitters. It then focuses on the presence of gamma rays in the cosmos and how they are generated. Finally, it talks about joint research between facilities in the US and Czech Republic and how they would benefit the gamma-ray generation process.

Image Credit: sakkmesterke/Shutterstock.com

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Nov 10, 2022

Matter–antimatter gigaelectron volt gamma ray laser rocket propulsion

Posted by in categories: particle physics, robotics/AI, space

face_with_colon_three circa 2012.


It is shown that the idea of a photon rocket through the complete annihilation of matter with antimatter, first proposed by SĂ€nger, is not a utopian scheme as it is widely believed. Its feasibility appears to be possible by the radiative collapse of a relativistic high current pinch discharge in a hydrogen–antihydrogen ambiplasma down to a radius determined by Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. Through this collapse to ultrahigh densities the proton–antiproton pairs in the center of the pinch can become the upper gigaelectron volt laser level for the transition into a coherent gamma ray beam by proton–antiproton annihilation, with the magnetic field of the collapsed pinch discharge absorbing the recoil momentum of the beam and transmitting it by the Moessbauer effect to the spacecraft. The gamma ray laser beam is launched as a photon avalanche from one end of the pinch discharge channel. Because of the enormous technical problems to produce and store large amounts of anti-matter, such a propulsion concept may find its first realization in small unmanned space probes to explore nearby solar systems. The laboratory demonstration of a gigaelectron volt gamma ray laser by comparison requiring small amounts of anti-matter may be much closer.

Nov 10, 2022

An early universe analog built in a lab in Germany

Posted by in categories: cosmology, particle physics, quantum physics

A team of researchers at UniversitÀt Heidelberg has built an early universe analog in their laboratory using chilled potassium atoms. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes their simulator and how it might be used. Silke Weinfurtner, with the University of Nottingham, has published a News & Views piece in the same journal issue outlining the work done by the team in Germany.

Understanding what occurred during the first few moments after the Big Bang is difficult due to the lack of evidence left behind. That leaves astrophysicists with nothing but theory to describe what might have happened. To give credence to their theories, scientists have built models that theoretically represent the conditions being described. In this new effort, the researchers used a new approach to build a in their laboratory to simulate conditions just after the Big Bang.

Beginning with the theory that that the Big Bang gave rise to an , the researchers sought to create what they describe as a “quantum field simulator.” Since most theories suggest it was likely that the was very cold, near absolute zero, the researchers created an environment that was very cold. They then added potassium atoms to represent the universe they were trying to simulate.

Nov 10, 2022

Quantum trick sees light move forwards and back in time simultaneously

Posted by in categories: particle physics, quantum physics

Placing a particle of light in a superposition so that it is travelling both forwards and backwards in time could prove useful for quantum computation.

Nov 10, 2022

Gravitational waves could reveal the existence of quark matter

Posted by in categories: particle physics, space

Two neutron stars smashing together may produce a form of matter not seen before. If that happens, simulations suggest there would be a signal in gravitational waves resulting from the collision.

Nov 10, 2022

Scientists use a quantum state of matter to simulate the early universe’s expansion

Posted by in categories: cosmology, evolution, particle physics, quantum physics

The scientists said their spacetime simulation “agrees very well with theory.”

A team of physicists used a “quantum field simulator” to simulate a tiny expanding universe made out of ultracold atoms, a report from VICE

Simulating spacetime.

Continue reading “Scientists use a quantum state of matter to simulate the early universe’s expansion” »

Nov 9, 2022

Theorists React to Potential Signal in Dark Matter Detector

Posted by in categories: cosmology, particle physics

A tantalizing signal reported by the XENON1T dark matter experiment has sparked theorists to investigate explanations involving new physics.

On June 16, 2020, the collaboration running XENON1T—one of the world’s most sensitive dark matter detectors—reported a signal it couldn’t explain (see today’s accompanying article, Viewpoint: Dark Matter Detector Delivers Enigmatic Signal). The signal has yet to reach the “5-sigma” bar for discovery, and a mundane explanation could still be the culprit. But theorists have been quick to explore whether exotic particles or interactions might be involved. Physical Review Letters followed a special procedure to get a coherent expert review of the proposals it received. Now, the journal is publishing five papers that represent the breadth of theories being pursued.

All of the reported scenarios explain two aspects of the signal, which was produced in the huge vat of ultrapure xenon that makes up XENON1T’s detector. First, the signal looks like it came from particles that collided mostly with the xenon atoms’ electrons. And second, each of these interactions dumped a few keV into the atom.

Nov 9, 2022

Sensors Deep Under Antarctic Ice Located a Source of ‘Ghost Particles’ from Space

Posted by in categories: electronics, particle physics

Scientists used the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a special telescope that extends for more than a mile under the Antarctic ice at the South Pole, to capture roughly 80 astrophysical neutrinos from a galaxy known as NGC 1,068, or Messier 77, which has an extremely active galactic core. The finding suggests that these active galaxies provide “a substantial contribution” to the abundance of astrophysical neutrinos, and therefore cosmic rays, that permeate through the universe, according to a study published on Thursday in Science.

“This is a very exciting result because for the first time, we actually understand that astrophysical neutrinos can be related to this very special type of galaxy,” said Theo Glauch, an experimental physicist at the Technical University of Munich and a co-author of the new study, in a call with Motherboard. “We physicists call them active galaxies because they’re very different from, for example, our Milky Way.”

Unlike our own galaxy, which is currently dormant, NGC 1,068 contains “an extremely bright environment which we can only study in neutrinos,” Glauch added. “Neutrinos are the only particles that can directly escape from the processes that drive this extremely high luminosity in the core of those galaxies.”

Nov 9, 2022

Experimental data validates new theory for molecular diffusion in polymer matrices

Posted by in categories: chemistry, engineering, particle physics

After several years of developing the theoretical ideas, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers have validated multiple novel predictions about the fundamental mechanism of transport of atoms and molecules (penetrants) in chemically complex molecular and polymer liquid matrices.

The study from Materials Science and Engineering (MatSE) Professor Ken Schweizer and Dr. Baicheng Mei, published recently in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), extended the theory and tested it against a large amount of experimental data. MatSE Associate Professor Chris Evans and graduate student Grant Sheridan collaborated on this research by providing additional experimental measurements.

“We developed an advanced, state-of-the art theory to predict how move through complex media, especially in polymer liquids,” Schweizer said. “The theory abstracted what the important features are of the chemically complex molecules and of the polymeric medium that they’re moving through that control their rate of transport.”