News tagged with atomic level

Japan firm unveils radiation-gauging smartphone

Mobile phone operator Softbank on Tuesday unveiled a smartphone that can measure radiation as consumers in Japan clamour for reassurance following last year's Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Electronics / Consumer & Gadgets

created 3 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

A magnetic approach to lattices

(Phys.org) -- JQI experimentalists under the direction of Ian Spielman are in the business of using lasers to create novel environments for neutral atoms. For instance, this research group previously enticed ...

Physics / General Physics

created May 22, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Neutron scattering charts moves of memory-shape alloys that change structure in response to environmental cues

(Phys.org) -- Shape-memory alloys (SMAs) are an engineer's dream, able to shape-shift spontaneously to accommodate changing operating conditions. A research team from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ...

Physics / Condensed Matter

created May 09, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

How heroin works: Imaging opioid receptors in the brain

(Phys.org) -- Researchers and doctors have gleaned new clues to the molecular mechanisms behind some of the most addictive substances in the world, thanks to two new studies that uncovered the structures of ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Apr 25, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Metal oxides hold the key to cheap, green energy

Harnessing the energy of sunlight can be as simple as tuning the optical and electronic properties of metal oxides at the atomic level by making an artificial crystal or super-lattice 'sandwich' says a Binghamton ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Apr 19, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (10) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Computer simulations suggest graphynes may be even more useful than graphene

(PhysOrg.com) -- The past several years have seen a virtual explosion in the amount of research dedicated to graphene and as a result there has been a nearly constant stream of news pertaining to new discoveries ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Mar 05, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (10) | comments 26 | with audio podcast report

New picture of atomic nucleus emerges

(PhysOrg.com) -- When most of us think of an atom, we think of tiny electrons whizzing around a stationary, dense nucleus composed of protons and neutrons, collectively known as nucleons. A collaboration between ...

Physics / General Physics

created Mar 02, 2012 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (29) | comments 14 | with audio podcast

Metadynamics technique offers insight into mineral growth and dissolution

By using a novel technique to better understand mineral growth and dissolution, researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are improving predictions of mineral reactions and laying the groundwork ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Jan 23, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

A new class of electron interactions in quantum systems

Physicists at the University of New South Wales have observed a new kind of interaction that can arise between electrons in a single-atom silicon transistor.

Physics / Quantum Physics

created Jan 23, 2012 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (15) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

When will artificial molecular machines start working for us?

Physicist Richard Feynman in his famous 1959 talk, "Plenty of Room at the Bottom," described the precise control at the atomic level promised by molecular machines of the future. More than 50 years later, synthetic molecular ...

Chemistry / Other

created Nov 25, 2011 | popularity 3.8 / 5 (6) | comments 5 | with audio podcast

Hungary likely source of elevated radioactivity levels: IAEA

Elevated levels of the radioactive element iodine-131 that were detected in several nations have been identified as likely originating at a Hungarian research institute, nuclear authorities said Thursday.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Nov 17, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Frogs skin gives researchers the hop on bacteria

Skin secretions found in Australian frogs may hold the key to designing powerful new antibiotics that are not prone to bacterial resistance in humans, say researchers.

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Nov 09, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Putting artificial atoms on the clock

Around the turn of the century, scientists began to understand that atoms have discrete energy levels. Within the field of quantum physics, this sparked the development of quantum optics in which light is ...

Physics / General Physics

created Nov 07, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Radium 'likely cause' of Tokyo radiation hotspot

Japanese authorities believe radium was to blame for a radiation hotspot at a Tokyo supermarket, a local city office said on Tuesday, in another scare for a nation still on edge over Fukushima.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Nov 01, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Making sodium-ion batteries that are worth their salt

(PhysOrg.com) -- Although lithium-ion technology dominates headlines in battery research and development, a new element is making its presence known as a potentially powerful alternative: sodium.

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Oct 25, 2011 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (6) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Perturbation theory (quantum mechanics)

In quantum mechanics, perturbation theory is a set of approximation schemes directly related to mathematical perturbation for describing a complicated quantum system in terms of a simpler one. The idea is to start with a simple system for which a mathematical solution is known, and add an additional "perturbing" Hamiltonian representing a weak disturbance to the system. If the disturbance is not too large, the various physical quantities associated with the perturbed system (e.g. its energy levels and eigenstates) can, from considerations of continuity, be expressed as 'corrections' to those of the simple system. These corrections, being 'small' compared to the size of the quantities themselves, can be calculated using approximate methods such as asymptotic series. We can therefore study the complicated system based on our knowledge of the simpler one.

For more information about Perturbation theory (quantum mechanics), read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Related topics: physical review letters