http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Things not always run smoothly. It may happen, actually, that when an object slides on another, the advancement may occur through a 'stop and go' series in the characteristic manner which scientists call "stick-slip", a pervasive phenomenon at every scale, from earthquakes to daily-life objects, up to the "nano" dimension. Davide Mandelli, Andrea Vanossi and Erio Tosatti of the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) of Trieste have studied the conditions in which at the nanoscopic level the switch from smooth sliding to stick-slip regime occurs, simulating 'toy-like' systems of 'cold ions'. http://phys.org/news288515408.html Physics Thu, 23 May 2013 08:10:15 EST news288515408 Many discoveries in physics came as a big surprise – for example the phenomenon, that some materials loose almost all their electrical resistance at low temperatures, or that others become superconductors at unexpectedly high temperatures. In the past it was mainly due to theoreticians to develop models explaining these unusual properties. Unfortunately it is not possible to have a direct look into a solid state crystal and follow up the motion of charge carriers as this process happens at extremely short time and length scales. http://phys.org/news282384881.html Physics Wed, 13 Mar 2013 09:14:56 EST news282384881 (Phys.org)—Future computers are expected to use the laws of quantum physics to accomplish certain tasks in the blink of an eye that require decades for present-day computers. Physicists at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching near Munich, have now gained fundamental insights into a particular kind of atomic ensemble – a so-called Rydberg gas – that might play a role in the future design of a quantum computer. They observed how "super atoms" formed in the gas and ordered themselves in geometric shapes such as triangles and squares. In future, the researchers intend to control the number and geometric configuration of these super atoms. That would be an important step towards a scalable system for quantum information processing. http://phys.org/news272879783.html Physics Fri, 23 Nov 2012 07:56:49 EST news272879783 (Phys.org)—Both high-valued diamond and low-prized graphite consist of exactly the same carbon atoms. The subtle but nevertheless important difference between the two materials is the geometrical configuration of their building blocks, with large consequences for their properties. There is no way, any kind of matter could be diamond and graphite at the same time. http://phys.org/news270985124.html Physics Thu, 01 Nov 2012 10:38:54 EST news270985124 A new experiment conducted at the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI) examines the relationship between quantum coherence, an important aspect of certain materials kept at low temperature, and the imperfections in those materials. These findings should be useful in forging a better understanding of disorder, and in turn in developing better quantum-based devices, such as superconducting magnets. http://phys.org/news261931336.html Physics Thu, 19 Jul 2012 15:42:34 EST news261931336 (PhysOrg.com) -- Just as NASA engineers test new rocket designs in computer studies before committing themselves to full prototypes, so physicists will often model matter under various circumstances to see whether something new appears. This is especially true of atomtronics, a relatively new science devoted to creating artificial tailored materials consisting of neutral atoms held in an array with laser beams, or atoms moving along a desired track under electric or magnetic influence. A new study shows how a simple "joystick" consisting of an adjustable magnetic field can create several new phases of atomtronic matter, several of them never seen before. The results appear in an article in the journal Physical Review Letters. http://phys.org/news249718132.html Physics Wed, 29 Feb 2012 06:09:11 EST news249718132 Just as NASA engineers test new rocket designs in computer studies before committing themselves to full prototypes, so physicists will often model matter under various circumstances to see whether something new appears. This is especially true of atomtronics, a relatively new science devoted to creating artificial tailored materials consisting of neutral atoms held in an array with laser beams, or atoms moving along a desired track under electric or magnetic influence. A new study* shows how a simple "joystick" consisting of an adjustable magnetic field can create several new phases of atomtronic matter, several of them never seen before. Charles Clark, Co-Director of the Joint Quantum Institute will report the results at the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Vancouver. http://phys.org/news248863966.html Physics Sun, 19 Feb 2012 08:53:01 EST news248863966 (PhysOrg.com) -- A team of researchers have devised a means for observing the speed with which quasiparticles can travel through an optical lattice. The experiment performed at the Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, as described in the paper the team has published in Nature, was a demonstration of a method that can be used to measure propagation through a non-relativistic lattice, a first of its kind. http://phys.org/news246788363.html Physics Thu, 26 Jan 2012 09:20:01 EST news246788363 (PhysOrg.com) -- In an egg carton of laser light, University of Michigan physicists can trap giant Rydberg atoms with up to 90 percent efficiency, an achievement that could advance quantum computing and terahertz imaging, among other applications. http://phys.org/news243846364.html Physics Fri, 23 Dec 2011 07:06:24 EST news243846364 Atoms trapped by laser light have become excellent platforms for simulating solid state systems. These systems are also a playground for exploring quantum matter and even uncovering new phenomena not yet seen in nature. http://phys.org/news241688987.html Physics Mon, 28 Nov 2011 07:50:20 EST news241688987 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics achieve direct imaging of quantum fluctuations at absolute zero temperature. http://phys.org/news237799167.html Physics Fri, 14 Oct 2011 08:26:59 EST news237799167 (PhysOrg.com) -- University of Michigan physicists used the electric fields generated by intersecting laser beams to trap and manipulate thousands of microscopic plastic spheres, thereby creating 3-D arrays of optically induced crystals. http://phys.org/news226136384.html Physics Wed, 01 Jun 2011 08:40:27 EST news226136384 (PhysOrg.com) -- Harvard physicists have expanded the possibilities for quantum engineering of novel materials such as high-temperature superconductors by coaxing ultracold atoms trapped in an optical lattice -- a light crystal -- to self-organize into a magnet, using only the minute disturbances resulting from quantum mechanics. The research, published in the journal Nature, is the first demonstration of such a “quantum magnet” in an optical lattice. http://phys.org/news221979566.html Physics Thu, 14 Apr 2011 05:59:47 EST news221979566 A Rice University-led team of physicists is reporting the first success in a three-year effort to build a precision simulator for superconductors using a grid of intersecting laser beams and ultracold atomic gas. http://phys.org/news204985533.html Physics Wed, 29 Sep 2010 13:26:03 EST news204985533 At extremely low temperatures atoms can aggregate into so-called Bose Einstein condensates forming coherent laser-like matter waves. Due to interactions between the atoms fundamental quantum dynamics emerge and give rise to periodic collapses and revivals of the matter wave field. http://phys.org/news193051053.html Physics Fri, 14 May 2010 10:17:47 EST news193051053 In an achievement that could help enable fast quantum computers, University of Michigan physicists have built a better Rydberg atom trap. Rydberg atoms are highly excited, nearly-ionized giants that can be thousands of times larger than their ground-state counterparts. http://phys.org/news192376064.html Physics Thu, 06 May 2010 14:48:26 EST news192376064 (PhysOrg.com) -- In general, the field of many-body physics involves the interactions and collective behavior of large numbers of particles. Scientists have made significant progress in exploring this field, which has led to applications in condensed matter physics, nuclear physics, and astrophysics. However, one challenging area that remains is understanding many-body systems on the quantum level. http://phys.org/news184402943.html Physics Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:10:01 EST news184402943 As physicists strive to cool atoms down to ever more frigid temperatures, they face the daunting task of developing new, reliable ways of measuring these extreme lows. Now a team of physicists has devised a thermometer that can potentially measure temperatures as low as tens of trillionths of a degree above absolute zero. Their experiment is reported in the current issue of Physical Review Letters and highlighted with a Viewpoint in the December 7 issue of Physics. http://phys.org/news179428518.html Physics Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:15:43 EST news179428518 (PhysOrg.com) -- Physicists at Harvard University have created a quantum gas microscope that can be used to observe single atoms at temperatures so low the particles follow the rules of quantum mechanics, behaving in bizarre ways. http://phys.org/news176569616.html Physics Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:07:42 EST news176569616 (PhysOrg.com) -- What if atoms could be used to perform the functions currently the province of electronic devices? The goal of atomtronics is to do just that by creating analogues to the common items found in electronic devices. Ron Pepino, a graduate student at JILA and the University of Colorado, believes that he and his colleagues have found a way to create the atomtronic versions of diode and transistor circuits. The work of Pepino, Cooper, Anderson and Holland is described in Physical Review Letters: "Atomtronic Circuits of Diodes and Transistors." http://phys.org/news174303837.html Physics Fri, 09 Oct 2009 10:44:44 EST news174303837 A Rice University-led team of physicists at seven U.S. universities has won $5 million from the Department of Defense to build a simulator capable of tackling high-temperature superconductivity, one of the most vexing mysteries of modern physics. http://phys.org/news172925114.html Physics Wed, 23 Sep 2009 12:00:03 EST news172925114 An experimental atomic clock based on ytterbium atoms is about four times more accurate than it was several years ago, giving it a precision comparable to that of the NIST-F1 cesium fountain clock, the nation's civilian time standard, scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology report in Physical Review Letters. http://phys.org/news169227022.html Physics Tue, 11 Aug 2009 16:31:02 EST news169227022 Ohio State University researchers have developed a new strategy to overcome one of the major obstacles to a grand challenge in physics. http://phys.org/news158516549.html Physics Thu, 09 Apr 2009 17:23:07 EST news158516549 (PhysOrg.com) -- “The concept of matter waves is at the heart of quantum mechanics,” Oliver Morsch tells PhysOrg.com. “At the beginning of the last century, scientists discovered that solid particles could exhibit properties of waves, such as interference and diffraction. Until then, it was assumed that only light behaved as a wave. But in the quantum world everything is basically a wave.” http://phys.org/news157375449.html Physics Fri, 27 Mar 2009 12:25:06 EST news157375449 The investigation of complex materials such as high-temperature superconductors is problematic because of the presence of disorder and many competing interactions in real crystalline materials. "This makes it difficult to identify the role of specific interactions and, in particular, to decide whether repulsive interactions between electrons alone can explain high-temperature superconductivity," says Dr. Theodoulos Costi from the Institute of Solid State Research, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany. http://phys.org/news147623041.html Physics Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:24:01 EST news147623041