Lifeboat Foundation

Nanoscale materials offer remarkable chemical and physical properties that transform theoretical applications, like single-molecule sensing and minimally invasive photothermal therapy, into practical realities.

The unparalleled features of nanoparticles make them promising for various research and industrial uses. However, effectively using these materials is challenging due to the absence of a rapid and consistent method to transfer a uniform monolayer of nanoparticles, a crucial step in device manufacturing.

One potential solution to this challenge lies in electrostatic assembly processes, where oppositely charged nanoparticles adhere to a surface, forming a monolayer that repels other similarly charged particles from attaching further. While effective, this process is often slow. Nature provides an innovative model to address this limitation through underwater adhesion strategies, which have evolved to circumvent similar problems.

Since Nobel-Prize-winning physicist Frank Wilczek first proposed his theory over a decade ago, researchers have been on the search for elusive “time crystals”—many-body systems composed of particles and quasiparticles like excitons, photons, and polaritons that, in their most stable quantum state, vary periodically in time.

Wilczek’s theory centered around a puzzling question: Can the most stable state of a quantum system of many particles be periodic in time? That is, can it display temporal oscillations characterized by a beating with a well-defined rhythm?

It was quite rapidly shown that time crystal behavior cannot occur in isolated systems (systems which do not exchange energy with the surrounding environment). But far from closing the subject, this disturbing question motivated scientists to search for the conditions under which an open system (i.e., one that exchanges energy with the environment) may develop such time crystal behavior.

Transferring information from one location to another without transmitting any particles or energy seems to run counter to everything we’ve learned in the history of physics.

Yet there is some solid reasoning that this ‘counterfactual communication’ might not only be plausible, but depending on how it works could reveal fundamental aspects of reality that have so far been hidden from view.

Counterfactual physics isn’t a new thing in itself, describing a way of deducing activity by an absence of something. In one sense, it’s pretty straight forward. If your dog barks at strangers, and you hear silence when the front door opens, you’ve received information that says a familiar person has entered your house in spite of the absence of sound.

A new discovery could pave the way for supercapacitors that can charge phones and laptops in 60 seconds and electric cars in a mere ten minutes.

In a press release, the University of Colorado at Boulder announced that its researchers have achieved a breakthrough when it comes to our understanding of the way charged ion particles behave — a discovery that could be the key to figuring out the logistics for the long-anticipated energy storage capabilities of supercapacitors.

Supercapacitors have long been proposed as a means of charging electronics lightning-fast, but until now, figuring out how to increase the energy density to match or exceed those of lithium-ion batteries has, for the most part, eluded scientists. Compared to conventional batteries, which can store as much as ten times more energy than today’s supercapacitors, this technology has remained in the realm of the possible but not yet practical.

Fewer miniature black holes found:

Researchers at the University of Tokyo have found that the universe contains far fewer miniature black holes than previously thought, potentially shaking up current theories about dark matter.

Using advanced quantum field theory, typically reserved for subatomic particles, they applied this understanding to the early universe. They discovered new insights into primordial black holes (PBHs), which have been a strong contender for dark matter. Upcoming observations could soon confirm their surprising findings.

Lenses are used to bend and focus light. Normal lenses rely on their curved shape to achieve this effect, but physicists from the University of Amsterdam and Stanford University have made a flat lens of only three atoms thick which relies on quantum effects. This type of lens could be used in future augmented reality glasses.

The findings have been published in Nano Letters (“Temperature-Dependent Excitonic Light Manipulation with Atomically Thin Optical Elements”).

The thinnest lens on Earth, made of concentric rings of tungsten disulphide (WS2), uses excitons to efficiently focus light. The lens is as thick as a single layer of WS2, just three atoms thick. The bottom left shows an exciton: an excited electron bound to the positively charged ‘hole’ in the atomic lattice. (Image: Ludovica Guarneri and Thomas Bauer)

A new method developed by Amsterdam researchers uses non-Gaussian states to efficiently describe and configure quantum spin-boson systems, promising advancements in quantum computing and sensing.

Many modern quantum devices operate using groups of qubits, or spins, which have just two energy states: ‘0’ and ‘1’. However, in actual devices, these spins also interact with photons and phonons, collectively known as bosons, making the calculations much more complex. In a recent study published in Physical Review Letters, researchers from Amsterdam have developed a method to effectively describe these spin-boson systems. This breakthrough could help in efficiently setting up quantum devices to achieve specific desired states.

Quantum devices use the quirky behavior of quantum particles to perform tasks that go beyond what ‘classical’ machines can do, including quantum computing, simulation, sensing, communication, and metrology. These devices can take many forms, such as a collection of superconducting circuits, or a lattice of atoms or ions held in place by lasers or electric fields.

Time loops have long been the stuff of science fiction. Now, using the rules of quantum mechanics, we have a way to effectively transport a particle back in time – here’s how.

By Miriam Frankel

Year 2023 face_with_colon_three

A team led by researchers at Osaka University and University of California, San Diego has conducted simulations of creating matter solely from collisions of light particles. Their method circumvents what would otherwise be the intensity limitations of modern lasers and can be readily implemented by using presently available technology. This work might help experimentally test long-standing theories such as the Standard Model of particle physics, and possibly the need to revise them.

One of the most striking predictions of quantum physics is that matter can be generated solely from light (i.e., photons), and in fact, the astronomical bodies known as pulsars achieve this feat. Directly generating matter in this manner has not been achieved in a laboratory, but it would enable further testing of the theories of basic quantum physics and the fundamental composition of the universe.

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