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Keyword: stringtheory

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  • Neutron Beams Could Help Reveal The Elusive 'Fifth Force' of Nature, Scientists Say

    09/15/2021 10:11:46 PM PDT · by BenLurkin · 18 replies
    sciencealert.com ^ | 14 SEPTEMBER 20214 | MICHELLE STARR
    Using a technique called pendellösung interferometry, a team of physicists...have used neutron beams to probe the crystal structure of silicon at the highest precision yet achieved... This has revealed previously unrecognized properties in silicon, a material crucial to technology; more detailed information about the properties of the neutron; and placed important constraints on the fifth force, if it exists. In a perfect silicon crystal, sheets of atoms in the lattice are arranged in planes that repeat in spacing and orientation. Bouncing the beam precisely off these planes can cause the neutrons to diverge in their routes through the lattice, generating...
  • Scientists Created a New Kind of Metal Where Electrons Flow Like a Fluid

    09/08/2021 10:50:32 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 53 replies
    https://www.sciencealert.com ^ | SEPTEMBER 8, 2021 | DAVID NIELD
    In metals, electrons are normally expected to be diffusive in their movement, operating as individual particles – in other words, they don't gain momentum as a group. In a new study, scientists have now discovered a type of metal where electrons actually do flow in a fluid-like way – like water in a pipe – by interacting with quasiparticles called phonons, which emerge from vibrations in a crystal structure. This causes the electrons to shift from diffusive (particle-like) to hydrodynamic (fluid-like) behavior in their movement. The metal superconductor that causes this behavior is a synthesis of niobium and germanium called...
  • Something Mysterious Near The Galactic Center Is Flashing Radio Signals

    09/07/2021 11:37:33 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 77 replies
    https://www.sciencealert.com ^ | September 7, 2021 | MICHELLE STARR
    The galactic center in radio wavelengths. (MeerKAT/SARAO) ______________________________________________________________________________ As our eyes on the sky grow ever more sensitive, we're going to find more and more things we've never seen before. Such is the case for a newly discovered source of radio signals, located not far from the center of the galaxy. It's called ASKAP J173608.2-321635, and astronomers have been unable to figure out what kind of cosmic object best fits its weird properties. Their paper has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal, and is available on preprint server arXiv. "We have presented the discovery and characterization of ASKAP...
  • Stellar Collision Triggers Supernova Explosion – “This Is the First Time We’ve Actually Seen Such an Event”

    09/02/2021 11:40:43 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 21 replies
    https://scitechdaily.com ^ | Sep 2, 2021 2:20 PM EST | By NATIONAL RADIO ASTRONOMY OBSERVATORY
    Fast-moving debris from a supernova explosion triggered by a stellar collision crashes into gas thrown out earlier, and the shocks cause bright radio emission seen by the VLA. Credit: Bill Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF __________________________________________________________________________ Astronomers have found dramatic evidence that a black hole or neutron star spiraled its way into the core of a companion star and caused that companion to explode as a supernova. The astronomers were tipped off by data from the Very Large Array Sky Survey (VLASS), a multi-year project using the National Science Foundation’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA). “Theorists had predicted that this could...
  • Enigmatic Object Called 'The Accident' Hints of an Entire Population of Unknown Stars

    09/01/2021 7:59:40 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 20 replies
    https://www.sciencealert.com ^ | 1 SEPTEMBER 2021 | MICHELLE STARR
    The galactic plane, seen through infrared eyes. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA) ______________________________________________________________________________________ There are many kinds of stars out there in the big, wide Universe. We have a whole system for categorizing them according to temperature, size, and brightness. Even so, a recently discovered object is suggesting that we're far from knowing everything. It's been nicknamed 'The Accident', and it's a type of object called a brown dwarf, also known as failed stars. But it's unlike any brown dwarf we've ever seen before, with a confusing spectrum – suggesting that it may be nearly as old as the Universe. Since all of the...
  • Physicists Have Successfully Advanced a Key Device For Producing Fusion Power

    09/02/2021 8:44:24 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 42 replies
    https://www.sciencealert.com ^ | 2 SEPTEMBER 2021 | MICHELLE STARR
    Physicists working on a type of fusion reactor called a stellarator are getting closer to actually harnessing the power of nuclear fusion. According to a new paper, the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator in Germany is now capable of containing heat that reaches temperatures twice as high as those found in the core of the Sun. This means physicists have been able to reduce heat loss - a major step forward in stellarator technology. "It's really exciting news for fusion that this design has been successful," said physicist Novimir Pablant of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL). "It clearly shows that this...
  • In a first, scientists capture a 'quantum tug' between neighboring water molecules

    08/29/2021 8:40:58 PM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 14 replies
    Phys dot org ^ | August 25, 2021 | SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
    Water is the most abundant yet least understood liquid in nature. It exhibits many strange behaviors that scientists still struggle to explain. While most liquids get denser as they get colder, water is most dense at 39 degrees Fahrenheit, just above its freezing point. This is why ice floats to the top of a drinking glass and lakes freeze from the surface down, allowing marine life to survive cold winters. Water also has an unusually high surface tension, allowing insects to walk on its surface, and a large capacity to store heat, keeping ocean temperatures stable.Now, a team that includes...
  • Quantum Crystal With “Time Reversal” Could Be a New Dark Matter Sensor

    08/05/2021 12:30:47 PM PDT · by Red Badger · 35 replies
    https://scitechdaily.com ^ | AUGUST 5, 2021 | By NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY (NIST)
    Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have linked together, or “entangled,” the mechanical motion and electronic properties of a tiny blue crystal, giving it a quantum edge in measuring electric fields with record sensitivity that may enhance understanding of the universe. The quantum sensor consists of 150 beryllium ions (electrically charged atoms) confined in a magnetic field, so they self-arrange into a flat 2D crystal just 200 millionths of a meter in diameter. Quantum sensors such as this have the potential to detect signals from dark matter — a mysterious substance that might turn out to...
  • Quantum Physics Helps Break DNA and Destroy Cancer Cells

    07/15/2021 12:20:12 PM PDT · by Red Badger · 11 replies
    scitechdaily.com ^ | July 14, 2021 | By KYOTO UNIVERSITY
    When X-rays are irradiated onto tumor tissue containing iodine-carrying nanoparticles, the iodine releases electrons that break DNA and kill the cancer cells. Credit: Mindy Takamiya/Kyoto University iCeMS Researchers have found a way to enhance radiation therapy using novel iodine nanoparticles. Cancer cell death is triggered within three days when X-rays are shone onto tumor tissue containing iodine-carrying nanoparticles. The iodine releases electrons that break the tumor’s DNA, leading to cell death. The findings, by scientists at Kyoto University’s Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS) and colleagues in Japan and the US, were published in the journal Scientific Reports. “Exposing a...
  • This Fast Radio Burst Repeats in a Strict Pattern, And We Still Can't Figure Out Why

    08/26/2021 9:43:40 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 30 replies
    https://www.sciencealert.com ^ | AUGUST 26, 2021 | MICHELLE STARR
    Visualization of the blue short-wavelength and red long-wavelength bursts. (Joeri van Leeuwen) After taking new radio observations, astronomers have ruled out a leading explanation for the cyclic nature of a particularly curious repeating space signal. The signal in question is FRB 20180916B, which repeats with a 16.35-day periodicity. According to existing models, this could result from interactions between closely orbiting stars; however, the new detections - which include fast radio burst (FRB) observations at the lowest frequencies yet - do not make sense for such a binary system. "Strong stellar winds from the companion of the fast radio burst source...
  • This Physicist Discovered an Escape From Hawking’s Black Hole Paradox

    08/25/2021 10:56:56 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 50 replies
    https://www.quantamagazine.org ^ | August 23, 2021 | Natalie Wolchover
    The five-decade-old paradox — long thought key to linking quantum theory with Einstein’s theory of gravity — is falling to a new generation of thinkers. Netta Engelhardt is leading the way. =============================================================================== In 1974, Stephen Hawking calculated that black holes’ secrets die with them. Random quantum jitter on the spherical outer boundary, or “event horizon,” of a black hole will cause the hole to radiate particles and slowly shrink to nothing. Any record of the star whose violent contraction formed the black hole — and whatever else got swallowed up after — then seemed to be permanently lost. Hawking’s calculation...
  • Why Don't Black Holes Swallow All of Space? This Explanation Is Blowing Our Minds

    08/16/2021 11:38:08 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 36 replies
    https://www.sciencealert.com ^ | Aug 16, 2021 | MIKE MCRAE
    Black holes are great at sucking up matter. So great, in fact, that not even light can escape their grasp (hence the name). But given their talent for consumption, why don't black holes just keep expanding and expanding and simply swallow the Universe? In 2018, one of the world's top physicists came up with a dazzling explanation. Conveniently, the idea could also unite the two biggest theories in all of physics. The researcher behind this explanation is none other than Stanford University physicist Leonard Susskind, also known as one of the fathers of string theory. He gave his two cents...
  • Random twists of place: How quiet is quantum space-time at the Planck scale?

    08/15/2021 6:12:39 PM PDT · by LibWhacker · 7 replies
    Fermilab ^ | 2/12/2021 | Craig Hogan
    Random twists of place: How quiet is quantum space-time at the Planck scale?February 12, 2021 | Craig Hogan Fermilab scientists have been conducting experiments to look for quantum fluctuations of space and time at the smallest scale imaginable according to known physics. At this limit, the Planck length, our classical notions of space and time break down.Imagine the ratio of the size of the universe compared to a speck of dust. That’s about how big the speck of dust is compared to the Planck length, 10-33 centimeters. The Planck time is how long it takes light to travel that distance.Quantum...
  • Physicists Create a Bizarre ‘Wigner Crystal’ Made Purely of Electrons ... The unambiguous discovery of a Wigner crystal relied on a novel technique for probing the insides of complex materials.

    08/13/2021 11:14:21 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 19 replies
    https://www.quantamagazine.org ^ | AUGUST 12, 2021 | Karmela Padavic-Callaghan
    In 1934, Eugene Wigner, a pioneer of quantum mechanics, theorized a strange kind of matter — a crystal made from electrons. The idea was simple; proving it wasn’t. Physicists tried many tricks over eight decades to nudge electrons into forming these so-called Wigner crystals, with limited success. In June, however, two independent groups of physicists reported in Nature the most direct experimental observations of Wigner crystals yet. “Wigner crystallization is such an old idea,” said Brian Skinner, a physicist at Ohio State University who was not involved with the work. “To see it so cleanly was really nice.” To make...
  • Eternal Change for No Energy: A Time Crystal Finally Made Real

    08/10/2021 11:19:59 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 22 replies
    https://www.quantamagazine.org ^ | July 30, 2021 | Natalie Wolchover Senior Writer/Editor
    Like a perpetual motion machine, a time crystal forever cycles between states without consuming energy. Physicists claim to have built this new phase of matter inside a quantum computer. A time crystal flips back and forth between two states without burning energy. Maylee for Quanta Magazine Natalie Wolchover Senior Writer/Editor July 30, 2021 VIEW PDF/PRINT MODE condensed matter physicscrystalsphase transitionsphysicsquantum computingAll topics Watch and Learn In a preprint posted online Thursday night, researchers at Google in collaboration with physicists at Stanford, Princeton and other universities say that they have used Google’s quantum computer to demonstrate a genuine “time crystal.” In...
  • The ‘Weirdest’ Matter, Made of Partial Particles, Defies Description [fractons]

    07/26/2021 11:55:54 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 22 replies
    https://www.quantamagazine.org ^ | JULY 26, 2021 | Thomas Lewton
    Theorists are in a frenzy over “fractons,” bizarre, but potentially useful, hypothetical particles that can only move in combination with one another ================================================================================= Your desk is made up of individual, distinct atoms, but from far away its surface appears smooth. This simple idea is at the core of all our models of the physical world. We can describe what’s happening overall without getting bogged down in the complicated interactions between every atom and electron. So when a new theoretical state of matter was discovered whose microscopic features stubbornly persist at all scales, many physicists refused to believe in its existence....
  • LENR Solution of the Cosmological Lithium Problem

    07/21/2021 1:22:57 AM PDT · by Kevmo · 11 replies
    Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv, 01601, Ukraine ^ | June 2021 | V.I.Vysotskii1 , M.V.Vysotskyy1 , Sergio Bartalucci2
    LENR Solution of the Cosmological Lithium Problem # V.I.Vysotskii1 , M.V.Vysotskyy1 , Sergio Bartalucci2 1 Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv, 01601, Ukraine 2 http://ikkem.com/iccf23/orppt/ICCF23-OA-10%20Vysotskii.pdf INFN Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, Frascati, 00044 Italy # E-mail: vivysotskii@gmail.com, Volodymyrska Str. 64, Kyiv, 01601, Ukraine The basis of modern cosmology is the Big Bang theory. The validity of this theory is based on three main facts: a) the redshift of spectral lines of distant stars; b) the presence of cosmic microwave background radiation; c) the theory of primary Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) of light H2 , He3 , He4 , Li6 and...
  • Researchers account for some of the lithium missing from our universe

    07/01/2021 3:09:48 PM PDT · by LibWhacker · 29 replies
    Phys.org ^ | 7/01/2021 | by University of Tokyo
    Experimental setup. As a beam of beryllium comes in from the left, the deuteron Trojan horse intercepts it at the target and delivers its neutron soldier. This allows the decay products of the beryllium and neutron reactions to be captured by a curved array of six detectors on the right. Credit: Hayakawa et al. There is a significant discrepancy between theoretical and observed amounts of lithium in our universe. This is known as the cosmological lithium problem, and it has plagued cosmologists for decades. Now, researchers have reduced this discrepancy by around 10%, thanks to a new experiment on...
  • Edgar Allan Poe--Cosmologist? ... The treatise Eureka, which he published the year before his death in 1849, anticipates a surprising amount of modern science

    06/30/2021 6:40:08 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 21 replies
    Scientific American ^ | February 1, 2017 | René van Slooten
    Credit: Public Domain The cosmogony Eureka, which Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) published the year before his death, anticipates modern science and cosmology.1 It describes a process that is now popularly known as the ‘Big Bang’ and the expanding universe. But it also contains ideas about the unity of space and time, the mathematical equality of matter and energy, the velocity of light and a rudimentary concept of relativity, black holes (including one at the center of our Milky Way), a "pulsating" universe that renews itself eternally, and other universes in other dimensions with different laws of nature. Contrary to the...
  • A new rare topological superconductor discovered

    06/26/2021 10:36:28 AM PDT · by Right Wing Vegan · 8 replies
    Tech Explorist ^ | 6/26/2021 | Pranjal Mehar
    Superconductors are highly desirable, especially when it comes to reducing energy consumption. They show quantum properties on the scale of ordinary items. This makes them exciting candidates for building computers that use quantum physics. However, qubits, the elementary units of quantum computers, are extremely sensitive. When contact electromagnetic fields, heat, and collisions with air molecules, qubits lose their quantum properties. The addition of more resilient qubits using topological superconductors can protect qubits from losing their properties. In a new study, scientists led by Kent and the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory have reported about the discovery of a new rare topological...