Posted on 01/27/2022 11:43:13 AM PST by Red Badger
Cosmic physics mimicked on table-top as graphene enables Schwinger effect.
Researchers at The University of Manchester have succeeded in observing the so-called Schwinger effect, an elusive process that normally occurs only in cosmic events. By applying high currents through specially designed graphene-based devices, the team — based at the National Graphene Institute — succeeded in producing particle-antiparticle pairs from a vacuum.
A vacuum is assumed to be completely empty space, without any matter or elementary particles. However, it was predicted by Nobel laureate Julian Schwinger 70 years ago that intense electric or magnetic fields can break down the vacuum and spontaneously create elementary particles.
This requires truly cosmic-strength fields such as those around magnetars or created transitorily during high-energy collisions of charged nuclei. It has been a long-standing goal of particle physics to probe these theoretical predictions experimentally and some are currently planned for high-energy colliders around the world.
Now the research team — led by another Nobel laureate, Prof Sir Andre Geim in collaboration with colleagues from UK, Spain, US, and Japan — has used graphene to mimic the Schwinger production of electron and positron pairs.
In January 2022 issue of Science, they report specially designed devices such as narrow constrictions and superlattices made from graphene, which allowed the researchers to achieve exceptionally strong electric fields in a simple, table-top setup. Spontaneous production of electron and hole pairs was clearly observed (holes are a solid-state analog of positrons) and the process’ details agreed well with theoretical predictions.
The scientists also observed another unusual high-energy process that so far has no analogies in particle physics and astrophysics. They filled their simulated vacuum with electrons and accelerated them to the maximum velocity allowed by graphene’s vacuum, which is 1/300 of the speed of light. At this point, something seemingly impossible happened: electrons seemed to become superluminous, providing an electric current higher than allowed by general rules of quantum condensed matter physics. The origin of this effect was explained as spontaneous generation of additional charge carriers (holes). Theoretical description of this process provided by the research team is rather different from the Schwinger one for the empty space.
“People usually study the electronic properties using tiny electric fields that allows easier analysis and theoretical description. We decided to push the strength of electric fields as much as possible using different experimental tricks not to burn our devices,” said the paper’s first author Dr. Alexey Berduygin.
Co-lead author Dr. Na Xin added: “We just wondered what could happen at this extreme. To our surprise, it was the Schwinger effect rather than smoke coming out of our set-up.”
Dr. Roshan Krishna Kumar, another leading contributor, said: “When we first saw the spectacular characteristics of our superlattice devices, we thought ‘wow … it could be some sort of new superconductivity’. Although the response closely resembles that routinely observed in superconductors, we soon found that the puzzling behavior was not superconductivity but rather something in the domain of astrophysics and particle physics. It is curious to see such parallels between distant disciplines.”
The research is also important for the development of future electronic devices based on two-dimensional quantum materials and establishes limits on wiring made from graphene that was already known for its remarkable ability to sustain ultra-high electric currents.
Reference: “Out-of-equilibrium criticalities in graphene superlattices” 27 January 2022, Science.
DOI: 10.1126/science.abi8627
If reproduced, truly paradigm shattering, who knows what this leads to.
“... used GRAPHENE to mimic the Schwinger production of electron and positron pairs ...”
Just an FYI reminder that GRAPHENE is one of the alleged intentional contaminants in the clot shots. Now how does this story relate to the rollout of 5G, an energy field capable of confusing the altimeters of 747s & 777s ... Let us think, what are TPTB planning to do to us? They did not publish this article, or the one yesterday about galactic magnetic filaments for edification of the public.
Yes, but it is energy into matter then matter into energy. Super dense energy storage
It isn’t something from nothing
You’d be left with gamma rays.Hulk smash.😏
Uhh...graphene has been a hot area for physics, chemistry, and materials science for at least 10+ years, long before anyone ever heard of COVID.
Fascinating results.
YOU mean Joe Brandon's skull was where this happened? ??
Excellent! Anti-matter is the key to warp drive! Now we can produce it as required.
LOL-
LOL- a rousing success
my motto is “Mind over matter- if you don’t mind, it don’t matter”
I think it’s the analog of a vacuum in the graphene lattice. Amazingly, analogs can demonstrate the same physical principles as you’d see in the real thing!
O/T: I ended up with a Radeon 6600 for FS 2020. Was a far better buy than the comparable Nvidias and actually less than 2X MSRP LOL. Haven’t yet assembled the new system but they say it should be more than adequate.
cool- sounds like a good card- i had a 9800 radeon way back in the day, and it ran really good for the time- i might even still have it stashed away somewhere- but it wouldn’t handle todays games- thats for sure- Nvidia is quite expensive- Glad you got a good card and a good price- The 6600 is light years ahead of the 9800, so it should be a great card
system of empty vacuum + high currents through specially designed graphene-based devices.
Not exactly the same
This has been predicted, that at the quantum level, a pure vacuum would spontaneously produce evanescent particles and antiparticles out of “nothing.” They would only exist for a nanosecond or less but the whole idea of “something out of nothing” has been a serious concept and now it seems to have been confirmed. Amazing.
Ah, you’ve discovered the discipline of “bistromathics”.
CC
The materialists will say this proves that the universe came from nothing accidentally. All it did prove is that life can manipulate energy and create matter.
They were trying to figure out how to separate the particles so they wouldn’t self-destruct
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