https://phys.org/physics-news/physics en-us The latest news on physics, materials, nanotech, science and technology. New interference radar functions employed by a team of researchers from Chapman University and other institutions improve the distance resolution between objects using radar waves. The results may have important ramifications in military, construction, archaeology, mineralogy and many other domains of radar applications. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-radar-century-old-trade-off-wavelength-distance.html General Physics Wed, 02 Aug 2023 16:18:04 EDT news610211879 Rice University physicists have shown that immutable topological states, which are highly sought for quantum computing, can be entangled with other manipulable quantum states in some materials. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-materials-immutable-topological-states-entangled.html General Physics Quantum Physics Wed, 02 Aug 2023 16:10:29 EDT news610211424 Atomic nuclei consist of nucleons such as protons and neutrons, which are bound together by nuclear force or strong interaction. This force allows protons and neutrons to form bound states; however, when only two neutrons are involved, the attractive force is slightly insufficient to create such a state. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-neutron-pairs-helium-nuclei.html General Physics Wed, 02 Aug 2023 08:13:00 EDT news610182709 A research team led by Prof. Yossi Paltiel at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem with groups from HUJI, Weizmann and IST Austria has published a new study that reveals the influence of nuclear spin on biological processes. This discovery challenges long-held assumptions and opens up exciting possibilities for advancements in biotechnology and quantum biology. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-uncover-nuclear-impact-biological.html General Physics Mon, 31 Jul 2023 15:19:50 EDT news610035548 The CMS collaboration has recently presented new results in searches for long-lived heavy neutral leptons (HNLs). Also known as "sterile neutrinos", HNLs are interesting hypothetical particles that could solve three major puzzles in particle physics: they could explain the smallness of neutrino masses via the so-called "see-saw" mechanism, they could explain the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the universe, and at the same time they could provide a candidate for dark matter. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-sterile-neutrinos-cms-muon.html General Physics Quantum Physics Fri, 28 Jul 2023 14:06:50 EDT news609772008 Researchers have explored the evolution of systems of interacting spins, as they transition from random to orderly alignments. Through new simulations, they show that this evolution can be investigated by measuring the changing strength of the system's magnetism. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-ising-magnetization.html General Physics Condensed Matter Fri, 28 Jul 2023 13:43:33 EDT news609770610 Researchers at the Racah Institute of Physics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, have made a discovery that challenges the conventional understanding of fracture mechanics. The team, led by Dr. Meng Wang, Dr. Songlin Shi, and Prof. Jay Fineberg, has experimentally demonstrated the existence of "supershear" tensile cracks that exceed classical speed limits and transition to near-supersonic velocities. Their paper is published in the journal Science. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-discovery-tensile-shatter-classical-limits.html General Physics Thu, 27 Jul 2023 16:57:28 EDT news609695842 Researchers at Leipzig University have developed a highly efficient method to investigate systems with long-range interactions that were previously puzzling to experts. These systems can be gases or even solid materials such as magnets whose atoms interact not only with their neighbors but also far beyond. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-physicists-breakthrough-monte-carlo-simulations.html General Physics Condensed Matter Thu, 27 Jul 2023 12:09:05 EDT news609678539 A hot bath is a place to relax. For scientists, it is also where molecules or tiny building blocks meet to form materials. Researchers at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) take it to the next level and use the energy of swimming bacteria to forge materials. A study published in Nature Physics shows how this works and the potential sustainability benefits that may arise from this innovative approach. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-scientists-bacteria-unconventional-materials.html General Physics Thu, 27 Jul 2023 11:00:01 EDT news609672906 The way that water molecules behave in proton conducting materials is very important for understanding—and making the most of—their properties. This means being able to look at very rapid snapshots to catch changes in the water motion. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-bromide-ions-ripples-semiclathrate-hydrates.html General Physics Condensed Matter Wed, 26 Jul 2023 09:59:02 EDT news609584341 The most abundant, massive particles in the universe may be ones you've never even heard of: neutrinos. These particles are all around us—even streaming through us—though they almost never interact with other particles. They are so light and weakly interacting that no one has recorded their mass. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-detectors-dune.html General Physics Tue, 25 Jul 2023 17:21:29 EDT news609524482 If you take an object and set it out in the sun, it will begin to warm up. This is because it is absorbing energy from the sun's rays and converting that energy to heat. If you leave that object outside, it will continue getting warmer, but only to a point. A sunbather lying on a beach won't catch fire, after all. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-energy-harvesting-law-breaking-device.html General Physics Optics & Photonics Tue, 25 Jul 2023 16:42:33 EDT news609522149 Light-to-heat conversion has been intensively investigated due to the potential applications including photothermal therapy and solar energy harvesting. Light-to-heat conversion efficiency (LHCE) is the most important figure of merit for evaluating photothermal materials, such as organic molecules, carbon-based materials and nanocrystals. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-general-methodology-light-to-heat-conversion-efficiency.html General Physics Optics & Photonics Mon, 24 Jul 2023 16:54:46 EDT news609436483 The Spallation Neutron Source at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory set a world record when its particle accelerator beam operating power reached 1.7 megawatts, substantially improving on the facility's original design capability. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-spallation-neutron-source-world-record-megawatt.html General Physics Fri, 21 Jul 2023 17:20:33 EDT news609178824 In the 11 years since its discovery at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the Higgs boson has become a central avenue for shedding light on the fundamental structure of the universe. Precise measurements of the properties of this special particle are among the most powerful tools physicists have to test the Standard Model, currently the theory that best describes the world of particles and their interactions. At the Lepton Photon Conference this week, the ATLAS collaboration reported how it has measured the mass of the Higgs boson more precisely than ever before. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-atlas-precision-higgs-boson-mass.html General Physics Quantum Physics Fri, 21 Jul 2023 13:32:02 EDT news609165121 Scientists working on the Dark SRF experiment at the U.S. Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory have demonstrated unprecedented sensitivity in an experimental setup used to search for theorized particles called dark photons. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-ultra-sensitivity-dark-photon.html General Physics Optics & Photonics Fri, 21 Jul 2023 12:27:04 EDT news609161221 Researchers at the University of Twente have developed a theoretical method for designing fluidic networks that has direct applications for scientists and engineers. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-minimal-energy-loss-smart-fluidic.html General Physics Soft Matter Fri, 21 Jul 2023 09:54:03 EDT news609152041 The discovery of the Higgs Boson in 2012 represented a major turning point for particle physics marking the completion of what is known as the standard model of particle physics. Yet, the standard model can't answer every question in physics, thus, since this discovery at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) physicists have searched for physics beyond the standard model and to determine what shape future physics will take. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-particle-era-physics.html General Physics Quantum Physics Thu, 20 Jul 2023 12:15:17 EDT news609074114 In a new paper published in Physical Review Letters, researchers working at CERN's ISOLDE facility describe how an upgrade to the ISOLTRAP experiment has allowed them to determine the energy necessary to bring the atomic nucleus of indium-99 from its ground state to a long-lived excited state called an isomer. The result follows an earlier ISOLTRAP measurement of indium-99 in the ground state, offering an even closer look at the nucleus of tin-100—a "doubly magic" nucleus that is a mere proton above indium-99. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-closer-doubly-magic-tin-nucleus.html General Physics Thu, 20 Jul 2023 12:04:03 EDT news609073442 Quantum technologies, a wide range of devices that operate by leveraging the principles of quantum mechanics, could significantly outperform classical devices on some tasks. Physicists and engineers worldwide have thus been working hard to achieve this long-sought "quantum advantage" over classical computing approaches. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-quantum-radar-outperforms-classical.html General Physics Quantum Physics Thu, 20 Jul 2023 09:10:01 EDT news609062270 Teams of physicists worldwide have been trying to detect dark matter, an elusive type of matter that does not emit, absorb, or reflect light. Due to its lack of interactions with electromagnetic forces, this matter is very difficult to observe directly, thus most researchers are instead searching for signals originating from its interactions with other particles in its surroundings. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-pandax-constraints-dark-ionization.html General Physics Wed, 19 Jul 2023 10:32:04 EDT news608981519 Physicists worldwide are trying to detect dark matter (DM) particles and their interactions with visible matter using various strategies and detectors. As these particles do not emit, reflect or absorb light, they have so far proved to be very difficult to observe, particularly using common experimental methods. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-method-strongly-interacting-dark-neutrino.html General Physics Tue, 18 Jul 2023 11:10:01 EDT news608895433 Predicting the numerical value of the magnetic moment of the muon is one of the most challenging calculations in high-energy physics. Some physicists spend the bulk of their careers improving the calculation to greater precision. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-standard-magnetic-moment-muon.html General Physics Quantum Physics Mon, 17 Jul 2023 16:37:43 EDT news608830659 Over the past decades, physicists and engineers have been trying to develop various technologies that leverage quantum mechanical effects, including quantum microscopes. These are microscopy tools that can be used to study the properties of quantum particles and quantum states in depth. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-solid-state-quantum-microscope-functions-atomic.html General Physics Quantum Physics Mon, 17 Jul 2023 11:20:01 EDT news608810721 The early success of physics comes mainly from solving direct or forward problems in which the physical state of a system can be described from a well-defined physical model and from governing equations. Yet, there exists a different type of problem—inverse problems—that are trickier to solve but are crucial to fields such as engineering, astrophysics and geophysics. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-noise-inverse-physical-problems.html General Physics Fri, 14 Jul 2023 13:22:02 EDT news608559721 In the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), proton and lead beams travel close to the speed of light. They carry a strong electromagnetic field that acts like a flux of photons as the beam moves through the accelerator. When the two beams at the LHC pass by close to each other without colliding, one of the beams may emit a photon of very high energy that strikes the other beam. This can result in photon—nucleus, photon—proton, and even photon—photon collisions. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-alice-results-nature-gluonic-large.html General Physics Quantum Physics Fri, 14 Jul 2023 11:14:16 EDT news608552053 Researchers have been looking for ways to decompose sound into its basic ingredients for more than 200 years. In the 1820s, French scientist Joseph Fourier proposed that any signal, including sounds, can be built using a sufficient number of sine waves. These waves sound like whistles, each have their own frequency, level and start time, and are the basic building blocks of sound. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-acoustics-decompose-accurately-basic-components.html General Physics Thu, 13 Jul 2023 15:48:18 EDT news608482095 Let's imagine a hypothetical scenario where two individuals are gripping a rope, each holding one end. Person A proceeds to shake the rope in an up-and-down motion, thus generating a propagating wave that travels towards person B. Now, if person C, positioned between person A and B, engages in a comparable frequency of waving motion as that of the rope's wave, could the wave be redirected back to person A rather than reaching person B? https://phys.org/news/2023-07-bound-states-continuum-acoustoelastic-coupling.html General Physics Thu, 13 Jul 2023 14:55:25 EDT news608478920 University of Copenhagen researchers have invented a "quantum drum" that can measure pressure, a gas leak, heat, magnetism and a host of other things with extreme precision. It can even scan the shape of a single virus. The invention has now been adapted to work at room temperature and may be finding its way into our phones. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-extreme-device-quantum-technology-smartphone.html General Physics Thu, 13 Jul 2023 14:54:52 EDT news608478885 A burning flame is full of charged particles that can be affected by an electric field. KAUST researchers have now studied the use of high voltages to control these particles, which could potentially reduce soot formation and improve a flame's stability. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-laser-reveal-high-voltage-affects.html General Physics Plasma Physics Thu, 13 Jul 2023 13:24:55 EDT news608473492