Physics News

Mars’ Turbulent Winds Can Make Mountains in Impact Craters

Gale Crater is 96 miles (154 km) in diameter and holds a layered mountain rising about 3 miles (5 km) above the crater floor. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU / UA.
Jan 15, 2018 by News Staff

In a paper published in the journal Physical Review E, a duo of fluid dynamics experts proposes a solution to one of long-standing Martian mysteries. The research shows that wind vortices can produce the common Martian phenomenon of a stratified mound positioned downwind from the center of an ancient meteorite impact zone. Gale Crater is 96 miles (154 km) in diameter and holds a layered mountain rising about 3 miles (5 km) above the crater floor....

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A chip with a Coulomb blockade thermometer on it is prepared for experiments at extremely low temperatures. Image credit: University of Basel.

Researchers Create World’s Coldest Chip

Dec 21, 2017 by News Staff

University of Basel’s Professor Dominik Zumbühl and colleagues have succeeded in magnetically cooling a nanoelectronic device to a temperature of 2.8...

Physicists Prove Existence of New Form of Matter: Excitonium

Dec 11, 2017 by News Staff

New research led by a University of Illinois physicist has proved the existence of a new form of matter — ‘excitonium,’ a solid crystal of excitons....

Dr. Wheeler (front) developed a switchable photovoltaic window along with (from left) Nathan Neale, Robert Tenent, Jeffrey Blackburn, Elisa Miller, and David Moore. Image credit: Dennis Schroeder, National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Researchers Develop Switchable Photovoltaic Window

Nov 29, 2017 by News Staff

A team of researchers at the U.S. DoE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory has developed a thermochromic window capable of converting sunlight into...

Proton is a subatomic particle found in the nucleus of every atom. This artist’s impression shows a proton and a neutron. Image credit: Joanna Griffin / Jefferson Lab / Penn State.

Physicists Precisely Measure Proton’s Magnetic Moment

Nov 27, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

In a paper published in the journal Science, a team of physicists from Japan and Germany reports the most precise measurement ever made of the magnetic...

This image shows a visual representation of one of the highest-energy neutrino detections superimposed on a view of the IceCube Observatory at the South Pole. Image credit: IceCube Collaboration.

Earth Can Absorb High-Energy Neutrinos, Physicists Find

Nov 23, 2017 by News Staff

Neutrinos are subatomic particles that are famous for passing through anything and everything. Now, physicists have demonstrated that our planet stops...

Enoto et al describe how gamma rays from lightning react with the air to produce radioisotopes and even positrons. Image credit: Teruaki Enoto, Kyoto University.

Lightning Strikes Produce Antimatter Particles in Earth’s Atmosphere

Nov 23, 2017 by News Staff

Scientists from Japan and Singapore report in the November 23 issue of the journal Nature that they observed positron (antimatter counterpart of the electron)...

Chernobyl disaster aftermath: reactor 4 (center), turbine building (lower left) and reactor 3 (center right).

New Study Rewrites First Seconds of Chernobyl Accident

Nov 21, 2017 by News Staff

According to an analysis published in the journal Nuclear Technology, the first of the two major explosions reported by eyewitnesses of the Chernobyl disaster...

An artist’s impression of an accretion disk around a black hole. Image credit: XMM-Newton / ESA / NASA.

X-Rays from Accretion Disks around Rotating Black Holes Can Act as Carriers of Quantum Information

Nov 17, 2017 by News Staff

In a paper published in the journal New Astronomy, theoretical physicist Ovidiu Racorean suggests that X-ray photons emitted by accretion disks around...

Isinger et al documented the incredibly brief moment when two electrons in a neon atom are emitted. Image credit: Marcus Isinger.

Innovative Interferometric Method Reveals Time of Electron Photoemission from Atom

Nov 15, 2017 by News Staff

According to Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, it’s impossible to know both the position and the speed of an electron at any one time. However, a...

Medical sensing technologies and solar energy storage could be dramatically improved after the team shows the validity of quantum theory first proposed in 1931. Image credit: Jose Manuel Suarez / CC BY 2.0.

Physicists Confirm Quantum Theory Proposed in the 1930s

Nov 13, 2017 by News Staff

Professor David McKenzie from the University of Sydney and his PhD student Enyi Guo have demonstrated quantum tunneling in water — a quantum phenomenon...

A metasurface uses circularly polarized light to generate and control new and complex states of light, such swirling vortices of light. Image credit: Second Bay Studio / Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Newly Developed Metasurface Generates Structured Light Beams

Nov 9, 2017 by News Staff

A team of researchers has developed a new tool that can produce complex states of light. The research appears in the journal Science. A metasurface uses...

Dr. Thomas Gaumnitz, a postdoctoral fellow in Professor Wörner’s group, with the setup that generates the shortest laser pulses in the world. Image credit: ETH Zurich.

Swiss Physicists Set Record for Shortest Laser Pulse

Nov 2, 2017 by News Staff

A team of physicists at ETH Zürich in Switzerland has produced the shortest-ever laser pulses: just 43 attoseconds (an attosecond is an incomprehensible...

Gallium indium forms fractal patterns with the application of low voltage. Image credit: North Carolina State University.

Voltage-Driven Liquid Metal Forms Snowflake-Like Fractals

Oct 31, 2017 by News Staff

A team of scientists at North Carolina State University has demonstrated that a gallium-based liquid metal alloy forms snowflake-like fractal patterns...

Artist’s concept of a colony on Mars. Image credit: NASA.

Plasma Technology Could Hold Key to Creating Oxygen Supply on Mars

Oct 19, 2017 by News Staff

A study published in the journal Plasma Sources Science and Technology argues that Mars, with its 96% carbon dioxide (CO2) atmosphere, has nearly ideal...

Artist’s impression of a cloud of trapped antihydrogen atoms. Image credit: Chukman So.

CERN’s BASE Experiment Reports 350-Fold Improved Measurement of Antiproton’s Magnetic Moment

Oct 19, 2017 by News Staff

In a paper published this week in the journal Nature, the BASE collaboration at CERN reports the most precise measurement ever made of the magnetic moment...

This is a graphic depicting formation of flux tube knots in the early Universe. Image credit: Keith Wood, Vanderbilt University.

New Theory Explains Why Our Universe is Three-Dimensional

Oct 18, 2017 by News Staff

According to a new theory proposed by University of Edinburgh Professor Arjun Berera and colleagues, shortly after the Universe came into existence it...

Tokuda et al apply electrical charges to morph liquid metal into 2D shapes. How the electric field creates deformation: (a) a liquid metal blob far from the electrodes and in absence of field is subject to no force; (b) deformation occurs when the blob is in contact with one of the electrodes and an electric voltage is applied across it; (c) deformation in this work as a 2D process. Image credit: INTERACT Lab, University of Sussex.

Programmable Liquid Matter: Researchers Find Way to Morph Liquid Metal into Physical Shapes

Oct 18, 2017 by News Staff

University of Sussex researcher Yutaka Tokuda and co-authors have applied electrical charges to manipulate liquid metal into 2D shapes such as letters...

Artist’s illustration of two merging neutron stars. Image credit: NSF / LIGO / Sonoma State University / A. Simonnet.

Scientists Detect Gravitational Waves from Colliding Neutron Stars

Oct 17, 2017 by News Staff

The LIGO Scientific Collaboration, Virgo Collaboration, and their partners have directly detected gravitational waves — ripples in space and time...

Periodic table of the elements.

Periodic Table’s Heaviest Elements Alter Theory of Quantum Mechanics

Oct 4, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of chemists led by Florida State University researchers has found that the theory of quantum mechanics does not adequately explain...

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