Phys.org Physics

• 'Optical sieve' detects the smallest pieces of plastic in the environment more easily than ever before

  Plastic pollution is everywhere: in rivers and oceans, in the air and the mountains, even in our blood and vital organs. Most of the public attention has focused on the dangers of microplastics. These are fragments smaller than 5 millimeters.

• Research reveals hidden damage caused by heat

  Heat affects not only our well-being, but also the performance and lifespan of systems and devices. However, it is often difficult to measure these effects accurately.

• Our understanding of lightning has been driven by fear and shaped by curiosity

  Playwright Tom Stoppard, in "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead," provides one of the best definitions of science: "The scientific approach to the examination of phenomena is a defense against the pure emotion of fear."

• Physicists devise an idea for lasers that shoot beams of neutrinos

  At any given moment, trillions of particles called neutrinos are streaming through our bodies and every material in our surroundings, without noticeable effect. Smaller than electrons and lighter than photons, these ghostly entities are the most abundant particles with mass in the universe.

• A new way to control terahertz light for faster electronics

  In a breakthrough for next-generation technologies, scientists have learned how to precisely control the behavior of tiny waves of light and electrons, paving the way for faster communications and quantum devices.

• Shedding light on insulators: How light pulses unfreeze electrons

  Metal oxides are abundant in nature and central to technologies such as photocatalysis and photovoltaics. Yet, many suffer from poor electrical conduction, caused by strong repulsion between electrons in neighboring metal atoms.

• The Hofstadter butterfly: Twisted bilayer graphene reveals two distinct strongly interacting topological phases

  Magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene (MATBG) is a material created by stacking two sheets of graphene onto each other, with a small twist angle of about 1.1°. At this "magic angle," electrons move very slowly, which can lead to the emergence of highly correlated electron states.

• Super-X' design shows major advantages in handling hot exhaust of fusion energy

  Temperatures of more than 10,000°C and a hail of charged particles from the fusion fuel (plasma): These are extreme conditions that the exhaust wall (divertor) of future fusion power plants will need to withstand. It makes handling the exhaust stream one of the main challenges to realizing clean, safe and affordable commercial fusion power plants.

• What is a quantum computer's speed limit? Entanglement can provide an answer

  Since the 1990s, evidence has been growing that quantum computers should be able to solve a range of particularly complex computational problems, with applications in everything from supply chain management to medicine and beyond.

• Hidden mechanisms that prevent bridge collapse under catastrophic events uncovered

  A team from the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) and the University of Vigo (UVigo) has just published in Nature the results of a study in which they have uncovered why bridges—specifically steel truss bridges—do not collapse when affected by a catastrophic event such as an impact or an earthquake. And their conclusions are similar to the behavior of spider webs.

• 'Atoms, ja, atoms': Physics pioneer key to microscopy 'revolution in resolution'

  Seventy years ago, in Osmond Laboratory on Penn State's University Park campus, Erwin W. Müller, Evan Pugh Research Professor of Physics, became the first person to "see" an atom. In doing so, Müller cemented his legacy, not only at Penn State, but also as a pioneer in the world of physics and beyond.

• Physicists create a new kind of time crystal that humans can actually see

  Imagine a clock that doesn't have electricity, but its hands and gears spin on their own for all eternity. In a new study, physicists at the University of Colorado Boulder have used liquid crystals, the same materials that are in your phone display, to create such a clock—or, at least, as close as humans can get to that idea. The team's advancement is a new example of a "time crystal." That's the name for a curious phase of matter in which the pieces, such as atoms or other particles, exist in constant motion.

• Floquet effects unlock graphene's potential for future electronics

  Graphene is an extraordinary material—a sheet of interlocking carbon atoms just one atom thick that is stable and extremely conductive. This makes it useful in a range of areas, such as flexible electronic displays, highly precise sensors, powerful batteries, and efficient solar cells.

• 3D-printed micro ion traps could solve quantum tech's miniaturization problem

  The existing bottleneck in efficiently miniaturizing components for quantum computers could be eased with the help of 3D printing.

• Shaky cameras can make for sharper shots, new research shows

  It doesn't take an expert photographer to know that the steadier the camera, the sharper the shot. But that conventional wisdom isn't always true, according to new research led by Brown University engineers.

• Why we slip on ice: Physicists challenge centuries-old assumptions

  For over a hundred years, schoolchildren around the world have learned that ice melts when pressure and friction are applied. When you step out onto an icy pavement in winter, you can slip up because of the pressure exerted by your body weight through the sole of your (still warm) shoe. But it turns out that this explanation misses the mark.

• A twist in spintronics: Chiral magnetic nanohelices control spins at room temperature

  Spintronics, or spin-electronics, is a revolutionary approach to information processing that utilizes the intrinsic angular momentum (spin) of electrons, rather than solely relying on electric charge flow. This technology promises faster, more energy-efficient data storage and logic devices. A central challenge in fully realizing spintronics has been the development of materials that can precisely control electron spin direction.

• Deep learning method enables efficient Boltzmann distribution sampling across a continuous temperature range

  A research team has developed a novel direct sampling method based on deep generative models. Their method enables efficient sampling of the Boltzmann distribution across a continuous temperature range. The findings have been published in Physical Review Letters. The team was led by Prof. Pan Ding, Associate Professor from the Departments of Physics and Chemistry, and Dr. Li Shuo-Hui, Research Assistant Professor from the Department of Physics at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST).

• Quantum emitter discovery in diamonds enables a new type of coupling

  Researchers at The City College of New York have shown how a quantum emitter, the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond, interacts in unexpected ways with a specially engineered photonic structure when moved around with a scanning tip.

• Algorithms that address malicious noise could result in more accurate, dependable quantum computing

  Quantum computers promise enormous computational power, but the nature of quantum states makes computation and data inherently "noisy." Rice University computer scientists have developed algorithms that account for noise that is not just random but malicious. Their work could help make quantum computers more accurate and dependable.

• Particle detector proves precision as it prepares to probe properties of quark-gluon plasma

  A new and powerful particle detector just passed a critical test in its goal to decipher the ingredients of the early universe. The sPHENIX detector is the newest experiment at Brookhaven National Laboratory's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and is designed to precisely measure products of high-speed particle collisions.

• Crystalline material conducts heat even worse than glass and water—and that's promising

  A research team from Aarhus University, Denmark, has measured and explained the exceptionally low thermal conductivity of the crystalline material AgGaGe3Se8. Despite its ordered structure, the material behaves like a glass in terms of heat transport—making it one of the least heat-conductive crystalline solids known to date.

• A light-programmable, dynamic ultrasound wavefront

  The notion of a phased array was initially articulated by Nobel Prize recipient K. F. Braun. Phased arrays have subsequently evolved into a formidable mechanism for wave manipulation. This assertion holds particularly true in the realm of ultrasound, wherein arrays composed of ultrasound-generating transducers are employed in various applications, including therapeutic ultrasound, tissue engineering, and particle manipulation.

• Fabrication technique opens door to new materials for quantum hardware

  Researchers have demonstrated a new fabrication approach that enables the exploration of a broader range of superconducting materials for quantum hardware.

• Soft materials hold onto 'memories' of their past for longer than previously thought

  If your hand lotion is a bit runnier than usual coming out of the bottle, it might have something to do with the goop's "mechanical memory."