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Category: particle physics

Astrophysicists discover largest sulfur-containing molecular compound in space

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE), in collaboration with astrophysicists from the Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), CSIC-INTA, have identified the largest sulfur-bearing molecule ever found in space: 2,5-cyclohexadiene-1-thione (C₆H₆S). They made this breakthrough by combining laboratory experiments with astronomical observations. The molecule resides in the molecular cloud G+0.693–0.027, about 27,000 light-years from Earth near the center of the Milky Way.

With a stable six-membered ring and a total of 13 atoms, it far exceeds the size of all previously detected sulfur-containing compounds in space. The study is published in Nature Astronomy.

Transforming hydrogen energy by flattening granular catalysts into paper-thin sheets

Catalysts are the invisible engines of hydrogen energy, governing both hydrogen production and electricity generation. Conventional catalysts are typically fabricated in granular particle form, which is easy to synthesize but suffers from inefficient use of precious metals and limited durability.

KAIST researchers have introduced a paper-thin sheet architecture in place of granules, demonstrating that a structural innovation—rather than new materials—can simultaneously reduce precious-metal usage while enhancing both hydrogen production and fuel-cell performance.

Professor EunAe Cho of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering has developed a new catalyst architecture that dramatically reduces the amount of expensive precious metals required while simultaneously improving hydrogen production and fuel-cell performance.

Harnessing nanoscale magnetic spins to overcome the limits of conventional electronics

Researchers at Kyushu University have shown that careful engineering of materials interfaces can unlock new applications for nanoscale magnetic spins, overcoming the limits of conventional electronics. Their findings, published in APL Materials, open up a promising path for tackling a key challenge in the field and ushering in a new era of next-generation information devices.

The study centers around magnetic skyrmions—swirling, nanoscale magnetic structures that behave like particles. Skyrmions possess three key features that make them useful as data carriers in information devices: nanoscale size for high capacity, compatibility with high-speed operations in the GHz range, and the ability to be moved around with very low electrical currents.

A skyrmion-based device could, in theory, surpass modern electronics in applications such as large-scale AI computing, Internet of Things (IoT), and other big data applications.

Particle permutation task can be tackled by quantum but not classical computers, study finds

Quantum computers, systems that process information leveraging quantum mechanical effects, are expected to outperform classical computers on some complex tasks. Over the past few decades, many physicists and quantum engineers have tried to demonstrate the advantages of quantum systems over their classical counterparts on specific types of computations.

Researchers at Autonomous University of Barcelona and Hunter College of CUNY recently showed that quantum systems could tackle a problem that cannot be solved by classical systems, namely determining the even or odd nature of particle permutations without marking all and each one of the particles with a distinct label. This task essentially entails uncovering whether re-arranging particles from their original order to a new order requires an even or odd number of swaps in the position of particle pairs.

These researchers have been conducting research focusing on problems that entail the discrimination between quantum states for several years. Their recent paper, published in Physical Review Letters, demonstrates that quantum technologies could solve one of these problems in ways that are unfeasible for classical systems.

A Study Appears to Stunningly Contradict Newton and Einstein’s Theory of Gravity

“This systematic deviation agrees with the boost factor that the AQUAL theory predicts for kinematic accelerations in circular orbits under the Galactic external field,” Chae says in the paper.

Similar to how the Newton-Einstein theory relies on the ever-elusive particle known as dark matter, MOND contains its own limitations and challenges. Chae’s study appears to be a big +1 in the pro column for Modified Newtonian Dynamics, but the theory is still just that—a theory. It will need much more observational support before it upends our modern understanding of gravity and the universe we inhabit.

New code connects microscopic insights to the macroscopic world

In inertial confinement fusion, a capsule of fuel begins at temperatures near zero and pressures close to vacuum. When lasers compress that fuel to trigger fusion, the material heats up to millions of degrees and reaches pressures similar to the core of the sun. That process happens within a miniscule amount of space and time.

To understand this process, scientists need to know about the large-scale conditions, like temperature and pressure, throughout the target chamber. But they also want detailed information about the material—and the atoms—contained within. Until now, computer models have struggled to bridge that gap across the wide range of conditions encountered in such experiments.

ATLAS confirms collective nature of quark soup’s radial expansion

Scientists analyzing data from heavy ion collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)—the world’s most powerful particle collider, located at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research—have new evidence that a pattern of “flow” observed in particles streaming from these collisions reflects those particles’ collective behavior. The measurements reveal how the distribution of particles is driven by pressure gradients generated by the extreme conditions in these collisions, which mimic what the universe was like just after the Big Bang.

The research is described in a paper published in Physical Review Letters by the ATLAS Collaboration at the LHC. Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and Stony Brook University played leading roles in the analysis.

The international team used data from the LHC’s ATLAS experiment to analyze how particles flow outward in radial directions when two beams of lead ions—lead atoms stripped of their electrons—collide after circulating around the 17-mile circumference of the LHC at close to the speed of light. The findings offer new insight into the nature of the hot, dense matter generated in these collisions—with temperatures more than 250,000 times hotter than the sun’s core. These extreme conditions essentially melt the protons and neutrons that make up the colliding ions, setting free their innermost building blocks, quarks and gluons, to create a quark-gluon plasma (QGP).

Magnetic ‘sweet spots’ enable optimal operation of hole spin qubits

Quantum computers, systems that process information leveraging quantum mechanical effects, could reliably tackle various computational problems that cannot be solved by classical computers. These systems process information in the form of qubits, units of information that can exist in two states at once (0 and 1).

Hole spins, the intrinsic angular momentum of holes (i.e., missing electrons in semiconductors that can be trapped in nanoscale regions called quantum dots), have been widely used as qubits. These spins can be controlled using electric fields, as they are strongly influenced by a quantum effect known as spin-orbit coupling, which links the motion of particles to their magnetism.

Unfortunately, due to this spin-orbit coupling, hole spin qubits are also known to be highly vulnerable to noise, including random electrical disturbances that can prompt decoherence. This in turn can result in the loss of valuable quantum information.

Entangled Atoms Are Transforming How We Measure the World

Entangled atoms, separated in space, are giving scientists a powerful new way to measure the world with stunning precision.

Researchers from the University of Basel and the Laboratoire Kastler Brossel have shown that quantum entanglement can be used to measure multiple physical quantities at the same time with greater accuracy than previously possible.

What makes quantum entanglement so unusual.

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