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Category: physics – Page 2

Unusual CO₂-rich disk detected around young star challenges planet formation models

A study led by Jenny Frediani at Stockholm University has revealed a planet-forming disk with a strikingly unusual chemical composition: an unexpectedly high abundance of carbon dioxide (CO2) in regions where Earth-like planets may one day form.

The discovery, made using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), challenges long-standing assumptions about the chemistry of planetary birthplaces. The study is published in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

“Unlike most nearby planet-forming disks, where dominates the inner regions, this disk is surprisingly rich in ,” says Jenny Frediani, Ph.D. student at the Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University.

Physicists achieve record precision in measuring proton-to-electron mass ratio with H₂⁺

The molecular hydrogen ion H₂⁺ is the simplest molecule. This simplicity makes it a perfect study object for physicists, as its properties—for example, its energy levels—can be calculated precisely. In turn, this enables theoretical predictions to be compared with experimental measurements to determine whether the theories reflect reality correctly.

Rethinking Physics: Scientists Discover a “Giant” New Twist on a 140-Year-Old Effect

Their results pave the way for developing advanced electronic devices that rely on nonmagnetic materials. For the first time, researchers in Japan have detected a giant anomalous Hall effect (AHE) in a material that is not magnetic. The breakthrough was made using high-quality thin films of Cd3As

Elon’s Cryptic Post Sparks Big Questions

Questions to inspire discussion.

🌐 Q: What distinguishes embedded AI from language models like ChatGPT? A: Embedded AI interacts with the real world, while LLMs (Large Language Models) primarily answer questions based on trained information.

Chip Production and Supply.

💻 Q: What are Samsung’s plans for chip production in Texas? A: Samsung’s new Texas chip plant will produce 2nm chips with 16,000 wafers/month by the end of 2024, boosted by a $16B Tesla deal.

🔧 Q: How will the Samsung-Tesla deal impact Tesla’s chip supply? A: The deal will significantly boost Tesla’s chip supply, producing 17,000 wafers per month of 2 nanometer chips reserved solely for Tesla.

AI Infrastructure and Applications.

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The Hofstadter butterfly: Twisted bilayer graphene reveals two distinct strongly interacting topological phases

Magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene (MATBG) is a material created by stacking two sheets of graphene onto each other, with a small twist angle of about 1.1°. At this “magic angle,” electrons move very slowly, which can lead to the emergence of highly correlated electron states.

Due to its unique properties and characteristics, MATBG has become the focus of numerous studies rooted in physics and materials science. Some physicists discovered that when an is applied to MATBG, the flat energy bands in the material transform into a fractal-like energy pattern known as a Hofstadter spectrum.

Researchers at University of Washington, Florida State University and other institutes recently carried out a study aimed at further investigating the emergence of these energy patterns in ultraclean MATBG.

World First: Physicists Created a Time Crystal That We Can Actually See

Physicists have just made a new breakthrough in the enigmatic realm of time crystals.

For the first time, a time crystal has been built that can be directly seen by human eyes, rippling in an array of neon-hued stripes. The material’s construction could open up a whole new world of technological possibilities, including new anti-counterfeiting measures, random number generators, two-dimensional barcodes, and optical devices.

“They can be observed directly under a microscope and even, under special conditions, by the naked eye,” says physicist Hanqing Zhao of the University of Colorado Boulder.

Could We Accidentally Destroy the Universe?

What if the end of everything came not from cosmic fate, but from us? This episode examines the physics, probability, and peril of experiments that could, in theory, unravel the universe.

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Credits:
Could We Accidentally Destroy the Universe?
Written, Produced & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur.
Editors: Lukas Konecny.
Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images.
Music Courtesy of Epidemic Sound http://epidemicsound.com/creator.
Chapters.
0:00 Intro.
2:38 Vacuum Decay (False Vacuum Collapse)
9:59 Strange Matter Conversion.
13:09 Gray Goo Scenario (Nanotechnology Out of Control)
16:05 Runaway Energy Reaction.
19:06 Altering the Constants of Nature.
20:49 Brane Collision (M-Theory Catastrophe)
22:27 Time Travel or Causality Paradox.
23:55 Nebula.
25:20 Simulation Shutdown.
27:21 Big Rip or Cosmological Instability.
28:35 Baby Universe Creation or Collapse.
29:51 Why It Hasn’t Happened Yet (Anthropic Principle & More)
31:49 Channel Updates

A new generative AI approach to predicting chemical reactions improves accuracy and reliability

Many attempts have been made to harness the power of new artificial intelligence and large language models (LLMs) to try to predict the outcomes of new chemical reactions. These have had limited success, in part because until now they have not been grounded in an understanding of fundamental physical principles, such as the laws of conservation of mass.

Now, a team of researchers at MIT has come up with a way of incorporating these physical constraints into a reaction prediction model, and thus greatly improving the accuracy and reliability of its outputs.

The new work is reported in the journal Nature, in a paper by recent postdoc Joonyoung Joung (now an assistant professor at Kookmin University, South Korea); former software engineer Mun Hong Fong (now at Duke University); chemical engineering graduate student Nicholas Casetti; postdoc Jordan Liles; physics undergraduate student Ne Dassanayake; and senior author Connor Coley, who is the Class of 1957 Career Development Professor in the MIT departments of Chemical Engineering and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Inflation without an inflaton! This Model Challenges Big Bang Inflation

A new study suggests the universe didn’t need inflation to begin. Instead, gravitational waves could explain how structure formed in the early cosmos.

Paper link: https://journals.aps.org/prresearch/a…

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction.
00:40 The Discovery/Event.
02:42 Scientific Significance & Theories.
04:48 Implications and What’s Next.
07:16 Outro.
07:54 Enjoy.

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Caltech Physicists Discover “Double Helix,” a New Equilibrium State of Cosmic Plasma

Caltech experiments uncovered a stable double helix state in plasma flux ropes. The same principles explain cosmic structures such as the Double Helix Nebula. Research into the Sun’s outer atmosphere has led Caltech applied physics professor Paul Bellan and his former graduate student Yang Zhang

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