Physics_News

Quantum physics promises faster and more powerful computers, but quantum versions of basic logic functions are still needed to bring this technology to fruition. Researchers from the University of Cambridge and Toshiba Research Europe Ltd. have taken one step toward this goal by creating an all-semiconductor quantum logic gate, a controlled-NOT (CNOT) gate. They achieved this breakthrough by coaxing nanodots to emit single photons of light on demand.

Vacuum tubes have been retro for decades. They almost completely disappeared from the electronics scene when consumers exchanged their old cathode ray tube monitors for flat screen TVs. Their replacement – the semiconductor – is generally the cheaper, lighter, more efficient, and easier to manufacture of the two technologies. But vacuum tubes are more robust in high-radiation environments such as outer space. And since electrons travel faster in a vacuum than through a semiconductor, vacuum tubes are an intrinsically better medium for electricity.

(Phys.org) -- Ferroelectricity, which was first observed in the 1940s, is an interesting phenomenon involving the spontaneous (non-induced) formation of charge polarization (separation of charge) in certain materials. This is analogous to the spontaneous formation of magnetic fields in iron and other elements via ferromagnetism. Multiferroics (materials exhibiting both ferroelectricity and ferromagnetism) have attracted increased interest of late due to their potential use in various technologies, such as improved electronic memory chips and highly sensitive magnetic field sensors. The crystalline material lutetium-iron-oxide (LuFe2O4) has, in turn, garnered much attention due to its purported multiferroic properties.

(Phys.org) -- A technology that mimics the structure of a lobster's eyes is now being applied to a new instrument that could help revolutionize X-ray astronomy and keep astronauts safe on the International Space Station.

(Phys.org) -- Condensed-matter physicists the world over are in hot pursuit of a comprehensive understanding of high-temperature superconductivity, not just for its technological benefits but for the clues it holds to strongly correlated electron systems.

(Phys.org) -- After fifty years of trying by various researchers, a group made up of teams from Los Alamos National Libratory in the US and the Atomic Energy Agency in Japan, have succeeded in spotting the signature of plutonium-239 with magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Using a super cooled sample of plutonium(IV) oxide, the team as they describe in their paper published in the journal Science, was able to stabilize magnetic interference to find the elusive signature.

(Phys.org) -- In a bit of inspired research, a diverse team of researchers has devised a means for measuring the time it takes for an electron to tunnel through a barrier. Led by Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science, Dror Shafir, the team as they describe in their paper published in the journal Nature used one laser to lower a barrier allowing an electron to escape via tunneling from its Helium atom, and another to prod it back again and in the process were able to measure the time it took to do so.

Our universe may exist inside a black hole. This may sound strange, but it could actually be the best explanation of how the universe began, and what we observe today. It's a theory that has been explored over the past few decades by a small group of physicists including myself. 

(Phys.org) -- The main technical difficulty in building a quantum computer could soon be the thing that makes it possible to build one, according to new research from The Australian National University.

(Phys.org) -- An international team of researchers has used SLAC’s Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) to discover never-before-seen behavior by electrons in complex materials with extraordinary properties.

(Phys.org) -- In a cavern almost a mile underground in the Black Hills, an experiment called the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR, 40 kilograms of pure germanium crystals enclosed in deep-freeze cryostat modules, will soon set out to answer one of the most persistent and momentous questions in physics: are neutrinos their own antiparticles? If the answer is yes, it will require rewriting the Standard Model of Particles and Interactions, our basic understanding of the physical world.

In beautiful agreement with the Standard Model, two new excited states of the Λb beauty particle have just been observed by the LHCb Collaboration. Similarly to protons and neutrons, Λb is composed of three quarks. In the Λb’s case, these are up, down and… beauty.

The first researchers to use the new high-field superconducting magnet at Diamond Light Source, the UK’s national synchrotron facility, are searching for “hidden magnetic states”. If found, they will provide important confirmation of a theoretical model which could have important applications in magnetic data storage. Diamond’s BLADE beamline is providing them with the tools for the search.

(Phys.org) -- Electrons within some materials can stick together like cars on a traffic jam. Swiss researchers studying promising materials for the future of electronics have been able to highlight this phenomenon

In a study about to be published in the European Physical Journal E, French physicists from the Curie Institute in Paris have demonstrated that the behaviour of a thin layer of cells in contact with an unfavourable substrate is akin to that of thin fluid or elastic films. Understanding the mechanism by which a thin layer of cells splits into disjointed patches, thus breaking the layer's structural integrity, bears great significance because the human tissue, or epithelium, covering organs can only fulfil its role if there are no holes or gaps between the cells.

(Phys.org) -- For the first time, scientists have seen an X-ray-irradiated mineral go to two different states of matter in about 40 femtoseconds (a femtosecond is one quadrillionth of a second).

EU-funded scientists made advances in the development of a hybrid quantum system (HQS) by combining different quantum technologies.

(Phys.org) -- Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have published their first archival paper based on data from the institute’s new hydrogen test facility. The paper examines the embrittling effect of pressurized hydrogen gas on three different types of pipeline steel, an important factor for the design of future hydrogen transportation and delivery systems.

(Phys.org) -- Researchers have taken a step toward overcoming a key obstacle in commercializing "hyperbolic metamaterials," structures that could bring optical advances including ultrapowerful microscopes, computers and solar cells.

New research from the University of Southampton has devised a new method to more accurately measure gas bubbles in pipelines.

Atomic processes take place on extremely short time scales. Measurements at the Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna) can now visualize these processes.

More than eight years worth of pristine particle physics data will remain available for analysis or re-analysis at least until 2018, now that BaBar's Long Term Data Access project is complete. The project preserves a complete set of BaBar data – all 530-plus inverse femtobarns of it – by, in a sense, stopping time for it, embedding it in a computational cocoon safe from upgrades, bug fixes and patches. Anything that could disrupt the computing environment where the data is housed is carefully kept out by a clever arrangement of servers, software and networked virtual machines.

(Phys.org) -- Strange new materials experimentally identified just a few years ago are now driving research in condensed-matter physics around the world. First theorized and then discovered by researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and their colleagues in other institutions, these “strong 3-D topological insulators” – TIs for short – are seemingly mundane semiconductors with startling properties. For starters, picture a good insulator on the inside that’s a good conductor on its surface – something like a copper-coated bowling ball.

Research from North Carolina State University will allow the development of energy-efficient LED devices that use ultraviolet (UV) light to kill pathogens such as bacteria and viruses. The technology has a wide array of applications ranging from drinking-water treatment to sterilizing surgical tools.

(Phys.org) -- Researchers from Michigan State University, the NIST Center for Neutron Research, and the NIST Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology have discovered the key to controlling and enhancing the lossless flow of a current with a single electron spin state in a standard superconducting device.

Scientists discover that certain materials like silicon or gold exhibit a surprisingly large refractive index for extremely high energetic gamma-rays.

As a boy growing up in Croatia, Marin Soljacic wanted to be an inventor. But he wasn’t interested only in designing new products; he wanted to discover physical phenomena that would enable completely new technologies.

(Phys.org) -- A team of Chinese physicists has broken the distance record for teleporting qubits, extending it from 16 to 97 kilometers. They did so, as they explain in their paper uploaded to the preprint server arXiv, using the phenomenon known as entanglement.

(Phys.org) -- Using tiny solar-panel-like cells surgically placed underneath the retina, scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have devised a system that may someday restore sight to people who have lost vision because of certain types of degenerative eye diseases.

A team of Duke University engineers has created a master "ingredient list" describing the properties of more than 2,000 compounds that might be combined to create the next generation of quantum electronics devices.