News tagged with zero temperature

Physicists show standard 'quasiparticle' theory breaks down at 'quantum critical point'

A new study this week finds that "quantum critical points" in exotic electronic materials can act much like polarizing "hot button issues" in an election. Reporting in Nature, researchers from Rice Univer ...

Physics / General Physics

created Apr 25, 2012 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 6 | with audio podcast

'Quantum criticality': Ultracold experiments heat up quantum research

(PhysOrg.com) -- University of Chicago physicists have experimentally demonstrated for the first time that atoms chilled to temperatures near absolute zero may behave like seemingly unrelated natural systems ...

Physics / Quantum Physics

created Mar 18, 2012 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (9) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Rice's 'quantum critical' theory gets experimental boost

New evidence this week supports a theory developed five years ago at Rice University to explain the electrical properties of several classes of materials -- including unconventional superconductors -- that ...

Physics / Superconductivity

created Jan 11, 2012 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (14) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Fusion researchers see frozen pellet tech as way to control ITER's plasma as well as fuel it

(PhysOrg.com) -- Heated to extreme temperatures of up to 150 million degrees Celsius, the plasma in ITER's giant experimental fusion reactor will be fed a fuel of frozen pellets of deuterium-tritium, fired ...

Physics / General Physics

created Nov 03, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (16) | comments 51

A microscopic view on quantum fluctuations

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics achieve direct imaging of quantum fluctuations at absolute zero temperature.

Physics / Quantum Physics

created Oct 14, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (9) | comments 12 | with audio podcast

Etch-a-sketch with superconductors

Reporting in Nature Materials this week, researchers from the London Centre for Nanotechnology and the Physics Department of Sapienza University of Rome have discovered a technique to 'draw' superconducting shapes ...

Physics / Superconductivity

created Aug 22, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Supersolid helium unlikely

(PhysOrg.com) -- Does helium-4 become a "supersolid" near absolute zero? What previous researchers thought might be a supersolid transition is better explained by changes in the solid's resistance to shearing, ...

Physics / General Physics

created May 17, 2011 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Shaking down frozen helium: In a 'supersolid' state, it has liquid-like characteristics

In a four-decade, Holy Grail-like quest to fully understand what it means to be in a "supersolid" state, physicists have found that supersolid isn't always super solid. In other words, this exotic state of frozen helium appears ...

Physics / Condensed Matter

created May 12, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (2) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Heavenly gadgets: Spinoffs from space programmes

What do ceramic teeth braces, artificial hearts, airbags, insulin pumps and Olympics-calibre swimsuits have in common?

Technology / Hi Tech & Innovation

created Apr 10, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 4

Fleeting fluctuations in superconductivity disappear close to transition temperature

(PhysOrg.com) -- As part of an ongoing effort to uncover details of how high-temperature superconductors carry electrical current with no resistance, scientists at Johns Hopkins University and the U.S. Department ...

Physics / Superconductivity

created Feb 13, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (9) | comments 9 | with audio podcast

How do you make lithium melt in the cold?

Sophisticated tools allow scientists to subject the basic elements of matter to conditions drastic enough to modify their behavior. By doing this, they can expand our understanding of matter. A research team including three ...

Physics / Condensed Matter

created Jan 10, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (8) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Scientists using lasers to cool and control molecules

(PhysOrg.com) -- Ever since audiences heard Goldfinger utter the famous line, “No, Mr. Bond; I expect you to die,” as a laser beam inched its way toward James Bond and threatened to cut him in half, lasers ...

Physics / General Physics

created Sep 20, 2010 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (8) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Delving into the world of the ultra-cold

(PhysOrg.com) -- In Swinburne University's 'cold molecules lab', where temperatures one millionth of a degree above absolute zero are routinely achieved, researchers are making significant advances in understanding the weird ...

Physics / Quantum Physics

created Sep 02, 2010 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (10) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Physicists propose quantum refrigerator

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the University of Bristol in the UK have proposed a refrigerator that consists of just a few quantum particles -- qubits.

Physics / Quantum Physics

created Sep 01, 2010 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (6) | comments 2 | with audio podcast report

Seeing the quantum in chemistry: Scientists control chemical reactions of ultracold molecules

(PhysOrg.com) -- Physicists at JILA have for the first time observed chemical reactions near absolute zero, demonstrating that chemistry is possible at ultralow temperatures and that reaction rates can be ...

Physics / Quantum Physics

created Feb 11, 2010 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (12) | comments 0 | with audio podcast