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The two types of chiral surface excitons are on the right and left side of the image. They are generated by right- and left-handed light (photons in blue). The excitons consist of an electron (light blue) orbiting a ‘hole’ (black) in the same orientation as the light. The electron and hole are annihilated in less than a trillionth of a second, emitting light (photons in green) that could be harnessed for lighting, solar cells, lasers and electronic displays. Image credit: Hsiang-Hsi (Sean) Kung / Rutgers University-New Brunswick.

Scientists Discover Exotic Spiraling Electrons

Feb 19, 2019 by News Staff

Rutgers University’s Professor Girsh Blumberg and colleagues have discovered an exotic form of electrons that spin like planets. Named chiral surface...

In a normal magnetic material, dense magnetic moments try to align with their neighbors (left); by contrast, in a singlet-based material, unstable magnetic moments pop in and out of existence, and stick to one another in aligned clumps (right). Image credit: Lin Miao, New York University.

New Type of Magnet Discovered: Singlet-Based Magnet

Feb 11, 2019 by News Staff

In conventional magnets, small magnetic constituents align with one another to create a strong magnetic field. By contrast, the newly-discovered type of...

In conventional electronic devices, electricity requires the movement of electrons (blue spheres) and their positive counterparts, called holes (red spheres), which behave much like the gas molecules in our atmosphere. Although they move rapidly and collide infrequently in the gas phase, electrons and holes can condense into liquid droplets akin to liquid water in devices composed of ultrathin materials. Image credit: QMO Lab, University of California, Riverside.

‘Electron Liquid’ Created at Room Temperature

Feb 5, 2019 by News Staff

A team of physicists at the University of California, Riverside, has produced the first ‘electron-hole liquid’ at room temperature. In conventional...

Changala et al used frequency combs, or ‘rulers of light,’ to observe individual quantum energy transitions in buckminsterfullerene. Image credit: Steven Burrows / JILA.

Physicists Uncover Quantum Structure of Buckminsterfullerene

Jan 29, 2019 by News Staff

A team of physicists from the Joint Institute for Lab Astrophysics (JILA) and IMRA America Inc. has measured hundreds of individual quantum energy levels...

Due to the local terbium environment in TbInO3, a honeycomb lattice of terbium spins emerges in the crystal structure upon cooling. Image credit: Clark et al, doi: 10.1038/s41567-018-0407-2.

Signs of Exotic ‘Quantum Spin Liquid’ Observed in Unexpected Material

Jan 24, 2019 by News Staff

The perovskite-related metal oxide TbInO3 exhibits an exotic state of matter called quantum spin liquid, according to a team of researchers from the University...

Reconstruction of the Draupner wave. Image credit: McAllister et al, doi: 10.1017/jfm.2018.886.

Researchers Recreate Famous Draupner Freak Wave in Lab for First Time

Jan 23, 2019 by News Staff

Freak waves are so called because of their unexpectedly large size relative to the population of smaller waves in which they occur. The 84-foot- (25.6...

Photons emitted near rotating black holes encode quantum information that can be measured by actual quantum information technology. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Spacetime Geometry near Rotating Black Holes Acts Like Quantum Computer, Physicist Says

Jan 15, 2019 by News Staff

According to a theoretical paper published in the Annals of Physics, by Dr. Ovidiu Racorean from the General Direction of Information Technology in Bucharest,...

Langin et al created the world’s first laser-cooled neutral plasma. Image credit: Brandon Martin / Rice University.

Physicists Create World’s First Laser-Cooled Neutral Plasma

Jan 7, 2019 by News Staff

Plasmas are naturally formed at high temperatures, such as those reached in the interiors of stars. Neutral plasmas consist of equal numbers of positive...

Banerjee et al propose a new model with dark energy and our Universe riding on an expanding bubble in an extra dimension. Image credit: Suvendu Giri.

Universe May Be Riding on Expanding Bubble in Extra Dimension

Dec 28, 2018 by News Staff

A team of theoretical physicists at Uppsala University, Sweden, has devised a new model for our Universe — one that may solve the mystery of dark...

Blyth et al analyzed the gamma rays emitted during the NPDGamma Experiment and found parity-violating asymmetry, which is a specific change in behavior in the force between a neutron and a proton. They measured a 30 parts per billion preference for gamma rays to be emitted antiparallel to the neutron spin when neutrons are captured by protons in liquid hydrogen. After observing that more gammas go down than up, the experiment resolved for the first time a mirror-asymmetric component or handedness of the weak force. Image credit: Andy Sproles / Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy.

Experimental Physicists Measure Weak Force between Protons and Neutrons in Atom’s Nucleus

Dec 27, 2018 by News Staff

Physicists from the NPDGamma Experiment at the DoE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have measured the weak interaction between protons and neutrons...

An artist’s depiction of loop quantum gravity effects in a black hole. The bottom half of the image depicts the black hole which, according to general relativity, traps everything including light. Loop quantum gravity overcomes this tremendous pull and liberates everything shown in the top half of image, thus solving the fundamental problem of black hole singularity. Image credit: A. Corichi & J.P. Ruiz.

Loop Quantum Gravity Theory Could Answer Fundamental Questions about Black Holes

Dec 26, 2018 by News Staff

Loop quantum gravity is a theory that uses quantum mechanics to extend gravitational physics beyond Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Previous...

Visualization of an expanding drop of quark-gluon plasma. Image credit: Javier Orjuela Koop, University of Colorado, Boulder.

Physicists Create Quark-Gluon Plasma Droplets

Dec 12, 2018 by News Staff

Physicists from the PHENIX Collaboration have created droplets of a liquid-like state of matter called quark-gluon plasma, forming three distinct shapes...

The current, widely recognized model of the Universe, called LambdaCDM, tells us nothing about what dark matter and dark energy are like physically. We only know about them because of the gravitational effects they have on other, observable matter. Dr. Farnes’ model offers a new explanation. Image credit: NASA / ESA / M. Livio / Hubble 20th Anniversary Team, STScI.

Negative-Mass Dark Fluid: Astonishing New Theory Could Explain Universe’s Missing 95%

Dec 5, 2018 by News Staff

The standard cosmological model known as LambdaCDM can only explain 5% of the observable Universe. The remaining 95% is famously made up almost entirely...

The collision of two black holes is seen in this still from a computer simulation. Image credit: SXS.

Physicists Detect Four New Gravitational Waves

Dec 4, 2018 by News Staff

The twin LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) detectors, located in Livingston, Louisiana, and Hanford, Washington, and the Virgo...

Left: average of known decay properties assigned to 288Mc and its daughters. Right: details of decay chains detected at the FIONA focal plane. Unobserved decays within each decay chain are indicated as ‘unobserved’ and are assumed to have been emitted out of the open end of the detector array. The x position of decays observed in the focal-plane detector is also given. Image credit: Gates et al, doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.222501.

Physicists Measure Mass Numbers of Nihonium and Moscovium

Dec 3, 2018 by News Staff

Physicists using the FIONA (For the Identification Of Nuclide A) device at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s 88-inch...

A replica of the prototype of the kilogram at the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie in Paris, France. Image credit: Japs / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Scientists Redefine Four Basic Metric Units: Kilogram, Ampere, Kelvin and Mole

Nov 20, 2018 by News Staff

After decades of groundbreaking laboratory work, the world’s scientific and technical community came together on November 16, 2018, to redefine kilogram...

Using electron tomography, Pellenq et al probed a sample of kerogen to determine its internal structure. At left, the sample as seen from the outside, and at right, the detailed 3D image of its internal pore structure. Image credit: Pellenq et al, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1808402115.

Researchers Finally Decode Internal Structure of Kerogen

Nov 14, 2018 by News Staff

Kerogen is a waxy, insoluble organic substance dispersed in sedimentary rocks and is the precursor of oil and gas. In a new study, published in the Proceedings...

Turnbull et al synthesized a single crystal of ι–N2 in a diamond anvil cell from ε–N2 at 65 GPa and 477 degrees Celsius. Image credit: Turnbull et al, doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-07074-4.

Physicists Solve Structure of Unusually Complex Form of Nitrogen

Nov 13, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of experimental physicists has for the first time determined the structure of ι-N2, a crystallized version of nitrogen. Turnbull...

Atomic chamber in which tractor beams were created. Image credit: Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing.

Physicists Create Tractor Beam for Atoms

Nov 2, 2018 by News Staff

Rather than sucking space ships into a space-station, a tractor beam created by University of Adelaide researcher Ashby Hilton and his colleagues pulls...