https://phys.org/physics-news/ en-us Physorg.com provides the latest news on physics, materials, nanotech, science and technology. Updated Daily. New experimental evidence of a collective behavior of electrons to form "quasiparticles" called "anyons" has been reported by a team of scientists at Purdue University. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-evidence-quantum-world-stranger-thought.html Quantum Physics Fri, 04 Sep 2020 16:08:09 EDT news518454479 In a recent report, Xiaolei Peng and a team of scientists in materials science and engineering at the University of Texas, U.S., and the Tsinghua University, China, developed opto-thermoelectric microswimmers bioinspired by the motion behaviors of Escherichia coli (E. coli). They engineered the microswimmers using dielectric gold Janus particles driven by a self-sustained electric field arising from the optothermal response of the particles. When they illuminated the constructs with a laser beam, the Janus particles showed an optically generated temperature gradient along the particle surfaces, forming an opto-thermoelectrical field to propel themselves along. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-opto-thermoelectric-microswimmers.html General Physics Optics & Photonics Fri, 04 Sep 2020 13:10:01 EDT news518442238 Electric current is everywhere, from powering homes to controlling the plasma that fuels fusion reactions to possibly giving rise to vast cosmic magnetic fields. Now, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have found that electrical currents can form in ways not known before. The novel findings could give researchers greater ability to bring the fusion energy that drives the sun and stars to Earth. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-unexpected-electrical-current-stabilize-fusion.html Plasma Physics Fri, 04 Sep 2020 12:43:48 EDT news518442223 Materials scientists at Duke University have uncovered an atomic mechanism that makes certain thermoelectric materials incredibly efficient near high-temperature phase transitions. The information will help fill critical knowledge gaps in the computational modeling of such materials, potentially allowing researchers to discover new and better options for technologies that rely on transforming heat into electricity. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-floppy-atomic-dynamics-electricity.html General Physics Fri, 04 Sep 2020 12:43:06 EDT news518442181 A polarized petahertz current is driven by an ultrashort laser in an organic superconductor. This is in contrast to the common sense belief which is justified by Ohm's law, i.e., a net current cannot be induced by an oscillating electric field of light. The current enhances near the superconducting transition temperature. The light-driven petahertz current opens a way to high-speed operation of computers which is one million times faster than conventional ones. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-electric-current-superconductor.html Optics & Photonics Superconductivity Fri, 04 Sep 2020 12:39:07 EDT news518441945 Quantum bits, or qubits, can hold quantum information much longer now thanks to efforts by an international research team. The researchers have increased the retention time, or coherence time, to 10 milliseconds—10,000 times longer than the previous record—by combining the orbital motion and spinning inside an atom. Such a boost in information retention has major implications for information technology developments since the longer coherence time makes spin-orbit qubits the ideal candidate for building large quantum computers. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-technology-quantum-bits-longer-previous.html Quantum Physics Fri, 04 Sep 2020 11:09:34 EDT news518436571 In physics, it is essential to be able to show a theoretical assumption in actual, physical experiments. For more than a hundred years, physicists have been aware of the link between the concepts of disorder in a system, and information obtained by measurement. However, a clean experimental assessment of this link in common monitored systems, that is systems which are continuously measured over time, was missing so far. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-quantum-shown-experimentally.html Quantum Physics Fri, 04 Sep 2020 09:50:03 EDT news518430888 EPFL researchers, working at the boundary between classical and quantum physics, have developed a method for quickly spotting molecules with particularly interesting electron properties. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-molecular-dynamics.html Condensed Matter Fri, 04 Sep 2020 09:20:03 EDT news518429472 Low-temperature plasmas offer promise for applications in medicine, water purification, agriculture, pollutant removal, nanomaterial synthesis and more. Yet making these plasmas by conventional methods takes several thousand volts of electricity, says David Go, an aerospace and mechanical engineer at the University of Notre Dame. That limits their use outside high-voltage power settings. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-low-temperature-plasma-device-efficient.html Plasma Physics Fri, 04 Sep 2020 09:20:01 EDT news518429481 Nature's speed limits aren't posted on road signs, but Rice University physicists have discovered a new way to deduce them that is better—infinitely better, in some cases—than previous methods. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-quantum-limit-bounds.html Quantum Physics Fri, 04 Sep 2020 09:10:43 EDT news518429440 In atomic nuclei, protons and neutrons share energy and momentum in tight quarters. But exactly how they share the energy that keeps them bound within the nucleus—and even where they are within the nucleus—remain key puzzles for nuclear physicists. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-skin-deep-growth-neutron-stars.html General Physics Fri, 04 Sep 2020 07:47:18 EDT news518424436 Venus flytraps do it, trap-jaw ants do it, and now materials scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst can do it, too—they discovered a way of efficiently converting elastic energy in a spring to kinetic energy for high-acceleration, extreme velocity movements as nature does it. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-imitate-natural-spring-loaded-snapping-movement.html General Physics Thu, 03 Sep 2020 16:51:58 EDT news518370713 Adding noise to enhance a weak signal is a sensing phenomenon common in the animal world but unusual in manmade sensors. Now Penn State researchers have added a small amount of background noise to enhance very weak signals in a light source too dim to sense. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-sensor-noise.html General Physics Optics & Photonics Thu, 03 Sep 2020 16:46:23 EDT news518370380 Researchers have developed a new CMOS-compatible silicon photonics photon source that satisfies all the requirements necessary for large-scale photonic quantum computing. The research represents a significant step toward mass-manufacturable ideal single photon sources. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-near-optimal-chip-based-photon-source-quantum.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 03 Sep 2020 12:24:05 EDT news518354640 Professor Wang Jian at Peking University and collaborators investigated the superconducting properties of two-dimensional crystalline superconducting PdTe2 films grown by molecular beam epitaxy. They observed the experimental evidence of anomalous metallic state and detected type-II Ising superconductivity existing in centrosymmetric systems. Moreover, the superconductivity of PdTe2 films remains almost the same for more than 20 months without any protection layer. This macro-size ambient-stable superconducting system with strong spin-orbit coupling shows great potentials in superconducting electronic and spintronic applications. The paper was published online in Nano Letters and selected for the Editors' Choice of Science with a title of "An unusual superconductor" (Science 369, 388 2020). https://phys.org/news/2020-09-unusual-superconductor.html Superconductivity Thu, 03 Sep 2020 12:14:23 EDT news518354059 "One more centimeter," said the chief technician, while operating the hydraulic jack system on 14 August. The 5-m-diameter, 5-m-long cylindrical detector gently slid into the parking position, 56 meters below the ground in the ALICE cavern at LHC Point 2, where it will stand for some time. This operation culminates the many-years-long upgrade of ALICE's Time Projection Chamber (TPC), the large tracking device of the LHC's heavy-ion specialist. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-alice-tpc.html General Physics Thu, 03 Sep 2020 10:28:34 EDT news518347712 The Large Hadron Collider plays with Albert Einstein's famous equation, E = mc2, to transform matter into energy and then back into different forms of matter. But on rare occasions, it can skip the first step and collide pure energy—in the form of electromagnetic waves. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-lhc.html General Physics Thu, 03 Sep 2020 10:27:11 EDT news518347627 A team of researchers from Institut Langevin and Sorbonne Université has shown that it is possible to float boats on both the top and underside of a suspended fluid. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes experiments they conducted with levitating fluids and what they learned from them. Vladislav Sorokin and Iliya Blekhman with the Russian Academy of Science have published a News & Views piece in the same journal issue outlining the work by the team in France. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-boat-underside-liquid.html General Physics Soft Matter Thu, 03 Sep 2020 09:05:23 EDT news518342708 Scientists from Regensburg and Zurich have found a fascinating way to push an atom with controlled forces so quickly that they can choreograph the motion of a single molecule within less than a trillionth of a second. The extremely sharp needle of their unique ultrafast microscope serves as the technical basis: It carefully scans molecules, similar to a record player. Physicists at the University of Regensburg now showed that shining light pulses onto this needle can transform it into an ultrafast "atomic hand." This allows molecules to be steered—and new technologies can be inspired. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-physicists-nudge-atoms-trillionth.html Quantum Physics Wed, 02 Sep 2020 19:00:01 EDT news518173795 The world is one step closer to having a totally secure internet and an answer to the growing threat of cyber-attacks, thanks to a team of international scientists who have created a unique prototype which could transform how we communicate online. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-revolutionary-quantum-breakthrough-paves-safer.html Quantum Physics Wed, 02 Sep 2020 14:00:03 EDT news518249550 Theoretical frameworks of chiroptical properties of electromagnetic materials and fields are reviewed. Based on these fundamentals, chiroptical systems can be understood, and complicated chiroptical phenomena can be described. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-electromagnetic-chirality-fundamentals-nontraditional-chiroptical.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 02 Sep 2020 12:23:45 EDT news518268222 Cosmologists have zoomed in on the smallest clumps of dark matter in a virtual universe—which could help us to find the real thing in space. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-dark.html General Physics Wed, 02 Sep 2020 11:00:03 EDT news518239329 The technology behind the quantum computers of the future is fast developing, with several different approaches in progress. Many of the strategies, or "blueprints," for quantum computers rely on atoms or artificial atom-like electrical circuits. In a new theoretical study in the journal Physical Review X, a group of physicists at Caltech demonstrates the benefits of a lesser-studied approach that relies not on atoms but molecules. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-molecular-approach-quantum.html Quantum Physics Wed, 02 Sep 2020 10:10:00 EDT news518260195 The charge-coupled device (CCD) revolutionized photography by enabling the capture of light electronically, as recognized by the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics. However, CCD/CMOS pixel size has become a bottleneck for digital imaging resolution. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-super-resolution-imaging-diagonal-sampling.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 02 Sep 2020 07:50:02 EDT news518251318 For a wide variety of high-powered scientific instruments, from free-electron lasers to wakefield accelerators to electron microscopes, generating a bright electron beam that has specific properties represents one of the most significant challenges. These instruments can be used for investigating the atomic level properties of matter or for accelerating particles to high energies. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-scientists-important-property.html General Physics Wed, 02 Sep 2020 07:47:41 EDT news518251658 With the addition of just a small number of autonomous vehicles (AVs) on the road, traffic flow can become faster, greener, and safer in the near future, a new study suggests. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-small-self-organizing-autonomous-vehicles-significantly.html General Physics Tue, 01 Sep 2020 12:03:01 EDT news518180574 Glass windows typically offer some amount of soundproofing, sometimes unintentionally. In general, ventilation is required to achieve large sound transmission. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-windows-optimal-transmission.html General Physics Tue, 01 Sep 2020 11:00:06 EDT news518162160 If the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines aren't enough to convince you that face shields alone shouldn't be used to stop the spread of COVID-19, then maybe a new visualization study will. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-shields-masks-valves-ineffective-covid-.html General Physics Soft Matter Tue, 01 Sep 2020 11:00:05 EDT news518162555 Researchers at Delft University of Technology have succeeded in independently manipulating two different types of magnetism within a single atom. The results are relevant for the development of extremely small forms of data storage. In time, this new discovery could make it possible to store two bits of information in one atom. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-bits-atom.html Quantum Physics Tue, 01 Sep 2020 10:00:09 EDT news518173206 Spectroscopy is an important tool of observation in many areas of science and industry. Infrared spectroscopy is especially important in the world of chemistry, where it is used to analyze and identify molecules. The current state-of-the-art method can make approximately 1 million observations per second. UTokyo researchers have greatly surpassed this figure with a new method about 100 times faster. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-giant-molecular.html General Physics Optics & Photonics Tue, 01 Sep 2020 09:59:25 EDT news518173162