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Category: particle physics – Page 8

First beta-delayed neutron emission observed in rare fluorine-25 isotope

A research team at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) is the first ever to observe a beta-delayed neutron emission from fluorine-25, a rare, unstable nuclide. Using the FRIB Decay Station Initiator (FDSi), the team found contradictions in prior experimental findings. The results led to a new line of inquiry into how particles in exotic, unstable isotopes remain bound under extreme conditions. Led by Robert Grzywacz, professor of physics at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK), the team included Jack Peltier, undergraduate student at UTK, Zhengyu Xu, postdoctoral researcher at UTK, Sean Liddick, professor of chemistry at FRIB and interim chairperson of MSU’s Department of Chemistry, and Rebeka Lubna, scientist at FRIB.

The team published its results in Physics Letters B.

“The different results on decay lifetime we obtained for fluorine-25 were similar to previously measured decay of oxygen-24. And while we are not entirely certain why we found this difference between previously published results, we have conducted numerous checks on our results and are confident in our findings,” Grzywacz said.

Anything-goes ‘anyons’ may be at the root of surprising quantum experiments

“When you have anyons in the system, what happens is each anyon may try to move, but it’s frustrated by the presence of other anyons,” Todadri explains. “This frustration happens even if the anyons are extremely far away from each other. And that’s a purely quantum mechanical effect.”

Even so, the team looked for conditions in which anyons might break out of this frustration and move as one macroscopic fluid. Anyons are formed when electrons splinter into fractions of themselves under certain conditions in two-dimensional, single-atom-thin materials, such as MoTe2. Scientists had previously observed that MoTe2 exhibits the FQAH, in which electrons fractionalize, without the help of an external magnetic field.

AI uncovers double-strangeness: A new double-Lambda hypernucleus

Researchers from the High Energy Nuclear Physics Laboratory at the RIKEN Pioneering Research Institute (PRI) in Japan and their international collaborators have made a discovery that bridges artificial intelligence and nuclear physics. By applying deep learning techniques to a vast amount of unexamined nuclear emulsion data from the J-PARC E07 experiment, the team identified, for the first time in 25 years, a new double-Lambda hypernucleus.

This marks the world’s first AI-assisted observation of such an exotic nucleus—an atomic nucleus containing two strange quarks. The finding, published in Nature Communications, represents a major advance in experimental nuclear physics and provides new insight into the composition of neutron star cores, one of the most extreme environments in the universe.

Controlling exciton flow in moiré superlattices: New method leverages correlated electrons

Excitons are pairs of bound negatively charged electrons and positively charged holes that form in semiconductors, enabling the transport of energy in electronic devices. These pairs of charge carriers also emerge in transition metal dichalcogenides, thin semiconducting materials comprised of a transition metal and two chalcogen atoms.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, UC Riverside, and other institutes have introduced a new strategy to control the flow of energy in structures comprised of two transition metal dichalcogenide layers stacked with a small rotational mismatch, also known as moiré superlattices.

Their proposed approach, introduced in a paper published in Nature Communications, entails the active tuning of electronic states in moiré superlattices in ways that alter the transport of excitons.

Cosmic knots may finally explain why the Universe exists

Knotted structures once imagined by Lord Kelvin may actually have shaped the universe’s earliest moments, according to new research showing how two powerful symmetries could have created stable “cosmic knots” after the Big Bang. These exotic objects may have briefly dominated the young cosmos, unraveled through quantum tunneling, and produced heavy right-handed neutrinos whose decays tipped the balance toward matter over antimatter.

In 1867, Lord Kelvin pictured atoms as tiny knots in an invisible medium called the ether. That picture turned out to be wrong, since atoms are built from subatomic particles rather than twists in space. Yet his discarded idea of knotted structures may still help explain one of the deepest questions in science: why anything in the universe exists at all.

A team of physicists in Japan has now shown that knotted structures can naturally appear in a realistic particle physics model that also addresses several major mysteries, including the origins of neutrino masses, dark matter, and the strong CP problem. Their study, published in Physical Review Letters, suggests that such “cosmic knots” could have formed in the violently changing early universe, briefly taken over as a dominant form of energy, and then collapsed in a way that slightly favored matter over antimatter. As they formed and decayed, these knots would have stirred spacetime itself, producing a distinctive pattern of gravitational waves that future detectors might be able to pick up, which is rare for a problem that is usually very difficult to test directly.

Turning plastic waste into valuable chemicals with single-atom catalysts

The rapid accumulation of plastic waste is currently posing significant risks for both human health and the environment on Earth. A possible solution to this problem would be to recycle plastic waste, breaking it into smaller molecules that can be used to produce valuable chemicals.

Researchers at Nanjing Forestry University and Tsinghua University recently introduced a new approach to convert polystyrene (PS), a plastic widely used to pack some foods and other products, into toluene, a hydrocarbon that is of value in industrial and manufacturing settings. Their proposed strategy, outlined in a paper published in Nature Nanotechnology, entails heating polystyrene waste in hydrogen and breaking it down into smaller vapor molecules, a process known as hydro-pyrolysis.

Life-cycle and techno-economic analyses performed by the team showed that the newly introduced process could reduce the carbon footprint of toluene production by 53%, producing toluene at an estimated cost of $0.61/kg, which is below the current industry benchmark.

Where’s my qubit? Scientists develop technique to detect atom loss

Quiet quitting isn’t just for burned out employees. Atoms carrying information inside quantum computers, known as qubits, sometimes vanish silently from their posts. This problematic phenomenon, called atom loss, corrupts data and spoils calculations.

But Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico have for the first time demonstrated a practical way to detect these “leakage errors” for neutral atom platforms. This achievement removes a major roadblock for one branch of quantum computing, bringing scientists closer to realizing the technology’s full potential. Many experts believe quantum computers will help reveal truths about the universe that are impossible to glean with current technology.

“We can now detect the loss of an atom without disturbing its ,” said Yuan-Yu Jau, Sandia atomic physicist and principal investigator of the experiment team.

Physicists found a way to see heat in empty space

Physicists have found a clever way to detect the elusive Unruh effect without extreme accelerations. By using atoms that emit light cooperatively between mirrors, acceleration subtly shifts when a powerful light burst appears. That early flash acts like a timestamped signature of the effect. The method could make once-theoretical physics experimentally reachable.

A cryogenic winter for tomorrow’s accelerator

Behind every particle collision generated at the Large Hadron Collider is a multitude of technical feats. One of these is refrigeration on an industrial scale. To guide the particles, the thousands of superconducting magnets in the accelerator must be cooled to a temperature of close to absolute zero. This makes the LHC the largest cryogenic installation in the world: 23 of its 27 kilometers are maintained at 1.9 Kelvin (−271°C) using refrigerators in which superfluid helium circulates.

This unique cooling system needs to be further strengthened in preparation for the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC), a major upgrade to the LHC that is scheduled to begin operation in 2030. On both sides of the two large experiments, ATLAS and CMS, more powerful focusing magnets and new types of cavities will considerably increase the number of collisions at each beam crossing or, in other words, the luminosity. This ultra-sophisticated equipment requires increased cooling power. Two new refrigerators are therefore being installed, in addition to the eight that are already needed for the existing accelerator.

The LHC’s refrigerators work on the same principle as the one in your kitchen, except that they are gigantic installations that occupy several buildings. Located on the surface, they include large compressors and an enormous cold box that contains the heat exchangers and the expansion turbines. These installations lower the helium temperature to 4.5 Kelvin (−268.6°C). Six compression units were installed in October.

A Long-Standing Spintronics Mystery May Finally Be Solved

A long-standing explanation for magnetoresistance may be incomplete. New evidence suggests a universal interfacial mechanism is at play. A major advance in spintronics came with the discovery of unusual magnetoresistance (UMR). In this effect, the electrical resistance of a heavy metal changes wh

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