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A research team from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), led by Prof. Jianwei Pan, Qiang Zhang, and Kai Chen, in collaboration with CHEN Jingling from Nankai University, has achieved the loophole-free test of Hardy's paradox for the first time. The team successfully demonstrated Hardy's nonlocality, closing both the detection efficiency loophole and the locality loophole...Hardy's paradox, introduced by Lucien Hardy in the 1990s, offers a simplified test of local realism—the classical idea that physical properties exist independently of observation and that no signals exceed the speed of light. This...

A new imaging method has uncovered modern alterations on Iron Age Iranian bronze swords, showing they were tampered with to boost their value in the illicit antiquities market. This discovery, using neutron tomography, highlights the challenge of detecting forgeries in ancient metalworking artifacts, essential for understanding early metallurgical innovation. Credit: Cranfield University Modern tampering on Iron Age Iranian swords was revealed using neutron tomography, complicating efforts to study ancient metalworking techniques. For the first time, an imaging technique has been applied to study Iron Age bronze swords from Iran, uncovering significant modern modifications that prove the weapons that the weapons...

TOCKHOLM (AP) — Two pioneers of artificial intelligence — John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton — won the Nobel Prize in physics Tuesday for helping create the building blocks of machine learning that is revolutionizing the way we work and live but also creates new threats for humanity. Hinton, who is known as the godfather of artificial intelligence, is a citizen of Canada and Britain who works at the University of Toronto, and Hopfield is an American working at Princeton. “These two gentlemen were really the pioneers,” said Nobel physics committee member Mark Pearce. The artificial neural networks — interconnected computer...

The galaxy NGC 1549, seen 700 million years after the Big Bang. Credit: JADES Collaboration =================================================================== Scientists using the James Webb Space Telescope have spotted an ‘inside-out’ galaxy that formed around 13 billion years ago. Like a large city, the galaxy has its densest collection of stars at its core. However, that density decreases as one moves from the city center to the galactic ‘suburbs,’ giving the galaxy its inside-out shape. Although scientists have seen similarly shaped galaxies form in the last 10 million years, the unique ability of the JWST to peer billions of years back in time has...

Two symbols of the Cold War, nuclear explosions and U2 spy planes, combine in new storm research investigating the radioactive nature of lightning. NASA satellites that are usually pointed at the stars detected something entirely unexpected coming from the Earth; gamma radiation bursts. Now, scientists are getting to the bottom of the decades-long mystery of those readings from the 1990s. Discovering that thunderstorms were the cause of the bursts didn’t take long, but many questions remained. The scale and frequency of radioactive lightning storms were unknown. Existing satellites were designed to look for energy coming from space, not the Earth....

Scientists have for the first time observed quantum entanglement — a state in which particles intermingle, losing their individuality so they can no longer be described separately — between quarks. The feat, achieved at CERN, Europe’s particle-physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland, could open the door to further probes of quantum information in particles at high energies. Entanglement has been measured in particles such as electrons and photons for decades, but it is a delicate phenomenon and easiest to measure in low-energy, or ‘quiet’, environments, such as in the ultracold refrigerators that house quantum computers. Particle collisions, such as those between...

This is a new image of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. By comparing Hubble Wide Field Camera 3 near-infrared exposures taken in 2009, 2012, and 2023, astronomers found evidence for flickering supermassive black holes in the hearts of early galaxies. One example is seen as a bright object in the inset. Some supermassive black holes do not swallow surrounding material constantly, but in fits and bursts, making their brightness flicker. Credit: NASA, ESA, Matthew Hayes (Stockholm University), Steven V.W. Beckwith (UC Berkeley), Garth Illingworth (UC Santa Cruz), Richard Ellis (UCL), Joseph DePasquale (STScI) =========================================================================== A Survey of Hubble’s Deepest Look...

A recent study led by a Kansas State University engineer has provided evidence that supports the "Tired Light" theory, a century-old concept that challenges the widely accepted Big Bang theory. ... Shamir's findings align with the long-standing "Tired Light" theory, originally proposed in the 1920s. "In the 1920s, Edwin Hubble and George Lemaitre discovered that the farther away a galaxy is, the faster it appears to move away from Earth," Shamir explained. "That discovery led to the Big Bang theory, which suggests that the universe began expanding approximately 13.8 billion years ago. Around the same time, astronomer Fritz Zwicky proposed...

Webb Telescope observations reveal that supermassive black holes starve galaxies of star-forming gas, as seen in ‘Pablo’s Galaxy’, where high-speed gas expulsion by the black hole has ceased new star formation. (Artist’s concept.) Credit: SciTechDaily.com ================================================================================= Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have uncovered that supermassive black holes can exhaust the resources necessary for star formation in their host galaxies, effectively starving them. This was observed in a galaxy similar in size to the Milky Way, located in the early universe. The discovery reveals that the black hole is actively preventing star formation by expelling essential star-forming gas at...

Artistic view of the imploding wire: a strong current of high-energy electrons (pink) heats up the surface, thus driving subsequent shockwaves that compress the wire radially. Credit: HZDR / T. Toncian, edited Using a novel laser method, scientists mimicked the extreme environments of stars and planets, enhancing our understanding of astrophysical phenomena and supporting nuclear fusion research. Extreme conditions prevail inside stars and planets. The pressure reaches millions of bars, and it can be several million degrees hot. Sophisticated methods make it possible to create such states of matter in the laboratory – albeit only for the blink of an...

“We proved that the Einstein field equation from general relativity is actually a relativistic quantum mechanical equation,” the researchers note in their study. In simple words, this new framework connects the science that governs the macroscopic world with that of the microscopic world. Therefore, it has the potential to explain every physical phenomenon known to humanity ranging from the mysterious dark matter in space to the photons emitted by your phone’s flashlight. “To date, no globally accepted theory has been proposed to explain all physical observations,” the researchers added. They claim that their theory can challenge the foundations of physics...

The Higgs field is like an endless ocean through which all matter swims. Some particles are like sponges and sop up mass as they lumber along, while others are as sprightly as tiny minnows and dart right through. … "We know that the Higgs interacts with massive force-carrying particles, like the W boson, because that's how we originally discovered it," said scientist Patty McBride ... "Now we're trying to understand its relationship with fermions." Fermions are particles that click together to form the invisible scaffolding inside atoms. Bosons, on the other hand, are the physical manifestation of forces and perform...

A recent study underscores the dynamic nature of black holes and extends similar thermodynamic characteristics to Extremely Compact Objects, advancing our comprehension of their behavior in quantum gravity scenarios.A paper titled "Universality of the thermodynamics of a quantum-mechanically radiating black hole departing from thermality," published in Physics Letters B highlights the importance of considering black holes as dynamical systems, where variations in their geometry during radiation emissions are critical to accurately describing their thermodynamic behavior.The study also suggests that extremely compact objects (ECOs) share these thermodynamic properties with black holes, regardless of their event horizon status. The significance of this...

A research group in China has shown that many entangled photons can be generated inside the myelin sheath that covers nerve fibers...It could explain the rapid communication between neurons, which so far has been thought to be below the speed of sound, too slow to explain how the neural synchronization occurs.

An international team of astronomers has overturned a longstanding belief that stars and dark matter interact in a mysterious way to create uniform density structures across different galaxies. This finding, published in 'Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS)', challenges a theory that had perplexed scientists for 25 years. The research team, which includes scientists from Australia, the UK, Austria, and Germany, utilized the Very Large Telescope in Chile to observe and analyze 22 galaxies that are approximately four billion years old. The results revealed that the perceived uniformity in galaxy density may not be a real phenomenon but...

Sandia National Laboratories’ four-channel, silicon photonic single-sideband modulator chip, measuring 8 millimeters on each side and marked with a green Sandia thunderbird logo, sits inside packaging that incorporates optical fibers, wire bonds, and ceramic pins. Credit: Craig Fritz, Sandia National Laboratories ==================================================================== A milestone in quantum sensing is drawing closer, promising exquisitely accurate, GPS-free navigation. Peel apart a smartphone, fitness tracker or virtual reality headset, and inside you’ll find a tiny motion sensor tracking its position and movement. Bigger, more expensive versions of the same technology, about the size of a grapefruit and a thousand times more accurate, help navigate...

More than any other equation in physics, E = mc² is recognizable and profound. But what do we actually learn about reality from it? ===================================================================== This 1934 photograph shows Einstein in front of a blackboard, deriving special relativity for a group of students and onlookers. Although special relativity is now taken for granted, it was revolutionary when Einstein first put it forth, and doesn't even describe his most famous equation, which is E = mc². - Public Domain ====================================================================== Key Takeaways: * First introduced way back in 1905, Einstein’s most famous equation, E = mc², put forth the mathematical formula...

Unofficial reports of 10 antihelium nuclei smacking into the International Space Station have inspired theoretical physicists to speculate beyond our current models in search of an explanation. While a small handful of cosmic particles might appear trivial, the signature of the antihelium shower is strange enough for researchers to treat the event like a rainstorm in a desert. In their recently published analysis, scientists from the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Canada and Johns Hopkins University in the US make a case for considering physics outside of the currently accepted Standard Model, going as far as suggesting dark matter...

A long-term Hubble Space Telescope study of the Draco dwarf galaxy’s stars suggests dark matter is concentrated at the galaxy’s center, supporting the density cusp theory. This finding challenges earlier observations and improves our understanding of dark matter’s role in galaxy formation. (Artist’s concept.) Credit: SciTechDaily.com =================================================================================== The Hubble Space Telescope’s longevity is an asset in gaining clarity about the universe’s invisible glue. When theory and observations favor different results, how can astronomers determine which one is more feasible? Increasing confidence in one theory over another oftentimes requires building a richer dataset to improve current models and lower uncertainties. A...

Scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, announced today that they have for the first time used a beam of titanium to make a known superheavy element, livermorium — element 116. After upgrading the lab’s equipment, the team plans to use similar techniques to try to produce element 120. The heaviest element that has been made so far is oganesson, element 118, which was first synthesized in 2002.