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Archive for the ‘physics’ category: Page 7

Sep 23, 2023

Theoretical study shows that Kerr black holes could amplify new physics

Posted by in categories: cosmology, physics

Black holes are regions in space characterized by extremely strong gravity, which prevents all matter and electromagnetic waves from escaping it. These fascinating cosmic bodies have been the focus of countless research studies, yet their intricate physical nuances are yet to be fully uncovered.

Researchers at University of California–Santa Barbara, University of Warsaw and University of Cambridge recently carried out a theoretical study focusing on a class of known as extremal Kerr black holes, which are uncharged stationary black holes with a coinciding inner and outer horizon. Their paper, published in Physical Review Letters, shows that these black holes’ unique characteristics could make them ideal “amplifiers” of new, unknown .

“This research has its origin in a previous project started during my visit to UC Santa Barbara,” Maciej Kolanowski, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told Phys.org. “I started discussing very cold (so called, extremal) black holes with Gary Horowitz (UCSB) and Jorge Santos (at Cambridge). Soon we realized that in fact, generic extremal black holes look very different than it was previously believed.”

Sep 20, 2023

Recoiling black holes could move at nearly one-tenth the speed of light

Posted by in categories: cosmology, physics

Knowing black holes’ speed after being kicked by gravitational waves can reveal how much energy converging black holes can release.

Sep 20, 2023

Paradox-free time travel is ‘logically’ possible, say physicists

Posted by in categories: physics, time travel

Grandfathers, take heart. You’ll survive the paradox that’s been gunning for you since the 1930s.

Sep 19, 2023

World’s most powerful X-ray laser fired for the first time

Posted by in categories: biological, chemistry, physics

With up to a million X-ray flashes a second, the laser will help study mechanisms in physics, chemistry, and biology.

The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory has fired the first X-rays using the upgraded Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL), a press release said. The upgraded version, dubbed LCLS-II, was built for $1.1 billion.

Continue reading “World’s most powerful X-ray laser fired for the first time” »

Sep 19, 2023

Scientists figured out how to write in water

Posted by in category: physics

Human writing and drawing dates back at least 30,000 years and incorporates traditional techniques such as carving, engraving, and printing/writing with ink, as well as more novel methods such as electron lithography. Now a team of German physicists has figured out a unique method for writing in water and other fluid substrates, according to a recent paper published in the journal Small.

According to the authors, most classical writing methods involve the same basic approach, in which a line is carved out or ink deposited. On a solid substrate, strong intermolecular forces help the written figures hold their shape, but that’s not the case for surfaces submerged in fluids. Prior research has used scanning probe lithography to “write’ on self-assembled monolayers submerged in fluids, or to bring structures at the micron scale using two-photon polymerization. ” There are now even commercial scuba diver slates available for underwater writing on a substrate,” they wrote.

All of these methods still rely on a substrate, however. The German team wanted to devise a means of literally writing into a fluid. Such a method would need to be robust enough to counter the rapid dispersion of drawn lines, and they would need a very tiny pen that didn’t stir up lots of turbulence as it moved through the fluid medium. (The smaller the object moving through a fluid, the fewer vortices, or eddies, it will create.)

Sep 19, 2023

Fact Check: Do Warp Drive Engines Violate the Laws of Physics?

Posted by in categories: alien life, mathematics, physics

The universe is bigger than you think.

This means any deep-space future awaiting humanity outside our solar system will remain beyond the span of a single life until we develop a means of propulsion that outclasses conventional rockets. And, when three studies rocked the world earlier this year, it felt like a dream come true: Warp drive was no longer science fiction, potentially unlocking a theoretical basis to build faster-than-light warp drive engines that could cut a trip to Mars down to minutes.

However, a recent study shared in a preprint journal cast doubt on the theory, pointing to a gap in the math that could put the viability of a physical warp drive back into the realm of speculation.

Sep 17, 2023

ESA and NASA join forces to answer the Sun’s heating riddle

Posted by in categories: physics, space

A 65-year old perplexing question may have finally been answered: Why is the Sun’s atmosphere hotter than its surface?

For over six decades, scientists have been baffled by a cosmic mystery of scorching proportions: Why is the Sun’s atmosphere, known as the corona, hotter than its surface?

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Sep 15, 2023

World’s first 3D simulations reveal the physics of exotic supernovae

Posted by in categories: cosmology, physics, supercomputing

After years of dedicated research and over 5 million supercomputer computing hours, a team has created the world’s first high-resolution 3D radiation hydrodynamics simulations for exotic supernovae. This work is reported in The Astrophysical Journal.

Ke-Jung Chen at Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA) in Taiwan, led an international team and used the powerful supercomputers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan to make the breakthrough.

Supernova explosions are the most spectacular endings for massive stars, as they conclude their in a self-destructive manner, instantaneously releasing brightness equivalent to billions of suns, illuminating the entire universe.

Sep 14, 2023

We’ve Been Misreading a Major Law of Physics For The Past 300 Years

Posted by in categories: mathematics, physics

When Isaac Newton inscribed onto parchment his now-famed laws of motion in 1,687, he could have only hoped we’d be discussing them three centuries later.

Writing in Latin, Newton outlined three universal principles describing how the motion of objects is governed in our Universe, which have been translated, transcribed, discussed and debated at length.

But according to a philosopher of language and mathematics, we might have been interpreting Newton’s precise wording of his first law of motion slightly wrong all along.

Sep 14, 2023

This is why physicists suspect the Multiverse very likely exists

Posted by in categories: cosmology, physics

A wild, compelling idea without a direct, practical test, the Multiverse is highly controversial. But its supporting pillars sure are stable.

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