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Astrophysicists test a new piece of the sky to probe dark matter and dark energy

In the leading model of cosmology, most of the universe is invisible: a combined 95% is made of dark matter and dark energy. Exactly what these dark components are remains a mystery, but they have a tremendous impact on our universe, with dark matter exerting a gravitational pull and dark energy driving the universe’s accelerating expansion.

What scientists know about dark matter and dark energy comes from observing their effects on the visible universe. Astrophysicists from the University of Chicago have measured those effects on a new patch of sky to illuminate the invisible cosmos.

CERN’s ATLAS detects evidence for decay of Higgs boson into muon–antimuon pair

Although its existence had been theorized for decades, the Higgs boson was finally observed to exist in 2012 at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. Since then, it has continued to be heavily studied at the LHC. Now, a new study from the researchers at CERN combines the last two runs of ATLAS—one of the two general-purpose detectors at the LHC—to lay out evidence that the Higgs boson can decay into a muon–antimuon pair.

The study, published in Physical Review Letters, reports a significance of 3.4 standard deviations of excess signal over background, when the two runs are combined—higher than previous evidence from the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) of 3.0 standard deviations.

Quantum technology moves from lab to life, but widespread use remains years away

Quantum technology is accelerating out of the lab and into the real world, and a new article argues that the field now stands at a turning point—one that is similar to the early computing age that preceded the rise of the transistor and modern computing.

The article, authored by scientists from University of Chicago, Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Innsbruck in Austria, and the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, offers an assessment of the rapidly advancing field of quantum information hardware, outlining the major challenges and opportunities shaping scalable quantum computers, networks, and sensors. The paper appears in Science.

“This transformative moment in quantum technology is reminiscent of the transistor’s earliest days,” said lead author David Awschalom, the Liew Family Professor of molecular engineering and physics at the University of Chicago, and director of the Chicago Quantum Exchange and the Chicago Quantum Institute.

Space debris poses growing threat, but new study suggests cleanup is feasible

High up in Earth’s orbit, millions of human-made objects large and small are flying at speeds of over 15,000 miles per hour. The objects, which range from inactive satellites to fragments of equipment resulting from explosions or collisions of previously launched rockets, are space debris, colloquially referred to as space junk. Sometimes the objects collide with each other, breaking into even smaller pieces.

No matter the size, all of this debris poses a problem. Flying at high speeds caused by prior launches or explosions, they create danger for operational satellites and spacecraft, which are vital for the efficacy of modern technologies like GPS, digital communication and weather forecasting. At orbital speeds, even tiny fragments can cause significant damage to operational equipment, endangering future space missions and the people who would participate in them.

“Even if a tiny, five-millimeter object hits a solar panel or a solar array of a satellite, it could break it,” says Assistant Professor Hao Chen, whose research involves space systems design. “And we have over 100 million objects smaller than one centimeter in orbit. So if you want to avoid a collision, you have to maneuver your spacecraft, which takes up fuel and is costly. Additionally, we have humans on the International Space Station who sometimes must go outside the spacecraft where the space debris can hit them too. It’s really dangerous.”

Lightning channels reveal hidden bursts: Lateral negative re-discharges observed for first time

A new study led by researchers from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has uncovered the first observational evidence of lateral negative re-discharges occurring on negative leader channels. Published recently in Geophysical Research Letters, the findings offer new insights into how lightning channels remain electrically active and how their structures evolve before and after a return stroke.

Prior to this research, negative-polarity lateral breakdowns had only been observed near the tips of positive leaders—never documented along negative leader channels.

Scientists develop a glasses-free 3D system with a little help from AI

Watching 3D movies and TV shows is a fun and exciting experience, where images leap out of the screen. To get this effect, you usually have to wear a special pair of glasses. But that could soon be a thing of the past as scientists have developed a new display system that delivers a realistic 3D experience without the need for any eyewear.

The main reason why we’ve waited so long for a screen like this is a tough physics rule called the Space-Bandwidth Product (SBP). To get a perfect 3D image, you need a big screen (the “space”) and a wide viewing area (the “bandwidth”) so the picture looks good even when you turn your head. Unfortunately, according to the rule, you can’t have both at the same time. If you make the screen big, the viewing angle shrinks. If you increase the viewing area, the TV must get smaller. All previous attempts to break this trade-off have failed. But not this time.

Classical Indian dance inspires new ways to teach robots how to use their hands

Researchers at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) have extracted the building blocks of precise hand gestures used in the classical Indian dance form Bharatanatyam—and found a richer “alphabet” of movement compared to natural grasps. The work could improve how we teach hand movements to robots and offer humans better tools for physical therapy.

A paper describing this work is published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Ramana Vinjamuri, a professor at UMBC and lead researcher on the work, has focused his lab on understanding how the brain controls complex hand movements. More than a decade ago, he and his research partners began searching for and cataloging the building blocks of hand motions, drawing on a concept called kinematic synergies, in which the brain simultaneously coordinates multiple joint movements to simplify complex motions.

A solid-state quantum processor based on nuclear spins

Quantum computers, systems that process information leveraging quantum mechanical effects, have the potential of outperforming classical systems on some tasks. Instead of storing information as bits, like classical computers, they rely on so-called qubits, units of information that can simultaneously exist in superpositions of 0 and 1.

Researchers at University Paris-Saclay, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and other institutes have developed a new quantum computing platform that utilizes the intrinsic angular momentum (i.e., spin) of nuclei in tungsten-183 (183 W) atoms as qubits.

Their proposed system, introduced in a paper published in Nature Physics, was found to achieve long coherence times and is compatible with existing superconductor-based quantum information processing platforms.

Frequent flares from TRAPPIST-1 could impact habitability of nearby planets

Like a toddler right before naptime, TRAPPIST-1 is a small yet moody star. This little star, which sits in the constellation Aquarius about 40 light-years from Earth, spits out bursts of energy known as “flares” about six times a day.

New research led by the University of Colorado Boulder takes the deepest look yet at the physics behind TRAPPIST-1’s celestial temper tantrums. The team’s findings could help scientists search for habitable planets beyond Earth’s solar system.

The researchers used observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and computer simulations (models) to understand how TRAPPIST-1 produces its flares—first building up magnetic energy, then releasing it to kick off a chain of events that launches radiation deep into space. The results could help scientists unravel how the star has shaped its nearby planets, potentially in drastic ways.

High-energy-density barocaloric material could enable smaller, lighter solid-state cooling devices

A collaborative research team from the Institute of Solid State Physics, the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has discovered a high-energy-density barocaloric effect in the plastic superionic conductor Ag₂Te₁₋ₓSₓ

“This material shows a volumetric barocaloric performance far beyond that of most known inorganic materials,” said Prof. Tong Peng, who led the team, “Its high energy density makes it well-suited for smaller and lighter cooling devices.”

The findings were published online in Advanced Functional Materials.

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