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Lawson et al propose a new instrument for searching dark matter axions using tunable plasmas. Image credit: Alexander Millar / Stockholm University.

Physicists Propose New Way to Detect Dark Matter Particles

Oct 10, 2019 by News Staff

In a paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, an international team of physicists proposes a new strategy for searching for hypothetical...

Ran et al observed re-entrant superconductivity in uranium ditelluride. Image credit: Emily Edwards / JQI.

Physicists Observe ‘Lazarus Superconductivity’ in Uranium Ditelluride

Oct 8, 2019 by News Staff

Physicists have observed a rare phenomenon called re-entrant superconductivity in uranium ditelluride (UTe2). The discovery, reported in the journal Nature...

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured this image of the Sun with sunspots in February 2013. The picture combines images from two SDO instruments: the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI), which takes pictures in visible light that show sunspots, and the Advanced Imaging Assembly (AIA), which took an image in the 304 angstrom wavelength showing the lower atmosphere of the Sun, which is colorized in red. Image credit: NASA / SDO / AIA / HMI / Goddard Space Flight Center.

New Model for Plasma Flow within Sun Provides Explanations for Sunspots, Other Solar Phenomena

Sep 20, 2019 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the University of Washington proposes a new model of plasma motion that would...

To confirm the presence of non-Abelian gauge fields, Yang et al produced interference patterns (top) and a Wilson loop (bottom). Image credit: Yang et al, doi: 10.1126/science.aay3183.

Non-Abelian Gauge Fields Directly Observed for First Time

Sep 10, 2019 by News Staff

After decades of unsuccessful attempts, physicists have directly observed an exotic physical phenomenon called the non-Abelian Aharonov-Bohm effect. The...

Mackay et al found theoretically a new type of electromagnetic surface wave. Image credit: Arek Socha.

New Type of Electromagnetic Wave Discovered

Sep 4, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of scientists from the United Kingdom and the United States has discovered a previously unknown type of electromagnetic wave: a Dyakonov-Voigt...

Zych et al provide the first direct analysis of quantum causal relations arising from a spatial superposition of a massive object; they show how the temporal order between time-like events can become superposed or even entangled. Image credit: University of Queensland.

Theoretical Physicists Describe New Kind of Quantum Time Order

Aug 31, 2019 by News Staff

One of the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics is quantum superposition, in which a particle exists in two or more states simultaneously. In a...

The world’s first neutrino observation in a hydrogen bubble chamber. It was found November 13, 1970, on this photograph from the Zero Gradient Synchrotron’s 12-foot bubble chamber. The invisible neutrino strikes a proton where three particle tracks originate (lower right). The neutrino turns into a mu-meson, the long center track (extending up and left). The short track is the proton. The third track (extending down and left) is a pi-meson created by the collision. Image credit: Argonne National Laboratory.

Physicists Determine Maximum Possible Mass for Lightest Neutrino

Aug 23, 2019 by News Staff

Using data from the large scale structure of galaxies, the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), Type Ia supernovae, and Big Bang nucleosynthesis, a team...

The nanoscale heat engine. Image credit: John Goold, Trinity College Dublin.

World’s Tiniest Engine Created

Aug 23, 2019 by News Staff

A team of researchers from Trinity College Dublin and the Universität Mainz has developed the world’s smallest engine. The nanoscale heat engine. Image...

Cyclo[18]carbon. Image credit: Kaiser et al.

Cyclocarbon: New Form of Carbon Synthesized

Aug 16, 2019 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the University of Oxford and IBM Research-Zürich has, for the first time, synthesized and characterized a ring of 18 carbon...

Mayer et al show experimentally in Josephson junctions a transition between trivial and topological superconductivity. Image credit: GamOl.

Topological Superconductivity Holds Promise for Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing

Aug 16, 2019 by News Staff

A team of physicists from New York University, Wayne State University and the University at Buffalo has found experimental evidence for a transition between...

This electron microscope (colorized) image shows the arrangement of electrons on the gold particle. Image credit: Ye et al, doi: 10.1002/advs.201900911.

Researchers Create World’s Thinnest Gold Sheets Ever, Just Two Atoms Thick

Aug 12, 2019 by News Staff

A team of researchers at the University of Leeds, UK, has created gold nanosheets with a thickness of only 0.47 nm (two atomic layers thick) — the...

This artist’s impression shows the evolution of the Universe beginning with the Big Bang on the left followed by the appearance of the Cosmic Microwave Background. The formation of the first stars ends the cosmic dark ages, followed by the formation of galaxies. Image credit: M. Weiss / Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Dark Matter May Have Existed before Big Bang, Theoretical Physicist Says

Aug 9, 2019 by News Staff

Dark matter, the mysterious substance that makes up roughly a quarter of the Universe, may have its origin in pre-Big-Bang times, according to a new paper...

In this illustration, one photon (purple) carries a million times the energy of another (yellow). Image credit: NASA / Sonoma State University / Aurore Simonnet.

Scientists Find Way to Measure Quantum Entanglement in Chemical Reactions

Aug 7, 2019 by News Staff

A duo of researchers at Purdue University has modified a popular theorem — called Bell’s inequality — for identifying quantum entanglement...

A 3D representation of the spin-excitation continuum -- a possible hallmark of a quantum spin liquid -- observed in a single crystal sample of cerium zirconium pyrochlore. Image credit: Tong Chen / Rice University.

Researchers Find First Candidate for 3D Quantum Spin Liquid

Jul 25, 2019 by News Staff

A quantum spin liquid is a state of matter where unpaired electrons’ spins, although entangled, do not show magnetic order even at the zero temperature....

One of the first collisions of lead ions recorded by the ALICE detector. Image credit: ALICE Collaboration / CERN.

CERN Physicists Measure Elliptic Flow of Bottomonium Particles

Jul 22, 2019 by News Staff

Physicists in the ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) Collaboration at CERN have announced the first measurements of an elliptic-shaped flow of upsilons,...

The Castle Bravo nuclear weapon test on Bikini Atoll. Image credit: U.S. Department of Energy.

Northern Marshall Islands More Radioactive than Chernobyl and Fukushima, New Research Finds

Jul 18, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

From 1946 to 1958, the U.S. tested 67 nuclear weapons in the Marshall Islands, a remote constellation of atolls in the Pacific Ocean that was then a U.S....

Vibrational motions of N-methyl morpholine. Image credit: Brown University.

Scientists Observe Molecular Motions in Real Time

Jul 17, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of researchers led by Brown University has used ultra-high-speed X-ray pulses to image subtle motions of a molecule of N-methyl morpholine. Vibrational...

Full-frame single image of Bell entanglement. Scale bar - 1 mm. Image credit: Moreau et al, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aaw2563.

Physicists Unveil First-Ever Photo of Quantum Entanglement

Jul 15, 2019 by News Staff

A team of physicists from the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Glasgow has captured an image of Bell entanglement, a strong form of...

This image shows 4D atomic motion is captured in an iron-platinum nanoparticle at three different annealing times. Image credit: Alexander Tokarev.

Physicists Capture Atomic Motion in 4D

Jul 8, 2019 by News Staff

A process called nucleation plays a critical role in many physical and biological phenomena that range from crystallization, melting and evaporation to...