Physics Awards: March 2025

Saturday, March 29, 2025

“Infinite energy could exist” ― Is it possible to convert cosmic rays into electricity?

A new form of energy is being explored that is entirely renewable, cost effective, and environmentally friendly. Infinite energy sounds too good to be true, but is it?

What are these cosmic rays known as neutrinos?

In 2015, Japanese scientist, Takaaki Kajita and Canadian scientist, Arthur McDonald were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery that neutrinos have a mass. Neutrinos are the tiny subatomic particles that permeate just about everything in the universe.

These neutrinos, once thought to be massless, are capable of converting their miniscule mass into energy, in accordance with Einstein’s famous equation, E=mc2.

This equation underpins much of our contemporary understanding of the universe. This same theory posits that neutrinos can be used to generate energy on earth to power our homes, cars, and cell phones.

If it is possible, how would neutrino power work?

A neutrino power cell would work much like the photovoltaic cell (found in this fence that is revolutionising solar power) in solar panels. Part of the neutrino’s kinetic energy would be converted to electricity through the use of a neutrino power cell likely made of layers of silicon and carbon applied to a metallic substrate.

When the neutrinos hit the neutrino power cells, their resonance would be converted into the optimal resonating frequency for an electrical conductor.

What would the benefits of neutrino power be?

Though neutrino power cells function in much the same way as photovoltaic cells, there is one crucial way in which they differ they do not require sunlight. One of the greatest drawbacks of solar power is its reliance on the sun for its power. In regions where sunlight is scarce, solar power is not a viable means of producing electricity. Neutrino-generated electricity does not have this same constraint. It will work day and night, all year round.

Sounds good, but what are neutrino power’s potential drawbacks?

Some people in the scientific community are concerned that these particles could be damaging to humans and the environment due to the fact that they are highly ionizing and contain high amounts of energy. Additionally, because only a small amount of cosmic rays make it to earth, they would be very difficult to harvest and channel into electricity.

However, as technology develops and scientists create new ways of harvesting neutrinos (like Enhanced Air Dynamo collection technology), the possibility for the widespread use of neutrino power will only grow.

Because neutrino power cubes would generate much less power than solar power, our entire power system would need to be overhauled. Devices that require lots of electricity to run (like televisions) will need to be modified so that they require less electricity to operate.

Though the initial infrastructure cost would be substantial, the long-term benefits of this power would far outweigh the initial investment fee. Some estimates place the cost of neutrino power at 50% of the cost of solar power. As devices require less and less power to run, the potential viability of neutrino power looks more and more promising.

Are neutrinos the long-awaited key to “infinite power”?

It is hard to say with absolute certainty what neutrinos will mean for the way we produce and think about electricity. Despite this uncertainty, if neutrinos prove to be a viable means of producing electricity at scale, the possibilities are certainly infinite.

Neutrino power has the potential to fundamentally alter how we conceive of electricity. Electricity will cease to be the often tenuous resource it is now and will be come as natural to everyone on the globe as the air that we breathe. Infinite energy production is a hot-button issue (see this potentially infinite source of energy). Could neutrinos be the answer to all our energy needs? Only time will tell.

Website: International Research Awards on High Energy Physics and Computational Science.

#HighEnergyPhysics#ParticlePhysics#QuantumPhysics#AstroparticlePhysics#ColliderPhysics#HiggsBoson#LHC#QuantumFieldTheory#NeutrinoPhysics#PhysicsResearch#ComputationalScience#DataScience#ScientificComputing#NumericalMethods#HighPerformanceComputing#MachineLearningInScience#BigData#AlgorithmDevelopment#SimulationScience#ParallelComputing

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Friday, March 28, 2025

New Research Suggests Dark Energy Is Evolving, Challenging Cosmology Models

Fresh DESI data suggests dark energy may evolve over time, contradicting long-standing cosmic expansion theories.

New research suggests that dark energy, the unknown force driving the accelerated expansion of the universe, may not be behaving as previously believed. Observations from a large-scale 3D map indicate that this force could be evolving over time, contradicting long-standing models of cosmology. The data, derived from extensive observations of millions of galaxies, provides fresh insights into the fundamental workings of the universe. Scientists are now questioning whether the standard model, which assumes a constant dark energy force, remains valid in explaining the cosmos.

Evidence from DESI's 3D Mapping Project

According to the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), which operates from the Nicholas U. Mayall 4-Meter Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory, findings suggest that dark energy may not be a fixed force. The analysis is based on data collected over three years, covering nearly 15 million galaxies and quasars. DESI's ability to simultaneously capture light from 5,000 galaxies allows researchers to examine large-scale cosmic structures and measure how the universe's expansion rate has changed over time.

Comparisons with Other Cosmic Observations

As reported, inconsistencies arise when DESI's findings are compared with measurements from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and type Ia supernovae. The CMB consists of fossil light from the early universe, has been used to track the expansion history of the cosmos. Similar to thaf type Ia supernovae, often called "standard candles" for their uniform brightness, have provided key distance measurements. The DESI data suggests that dark energy's influence may have weakened over time, a deviation from the accepted cosmological model that assumes it remains unchanged.

Implications for Future Research

Speaking in an official press release, DESI Project Scientist Arjun Dey stated that these findings could redefine humanity's understanding of the universe. The instrument's ongoing observations will continue to refine knowledge of dark energy's role. Scientists anticipate that by the project's conclusion, further data will offer a clearer picture of whether dark energy fluctuates, potentially reshaping existing theories of cosmic evolution.

Website: International Research Awards on High Energy Physics and Computational Science.

Thursday, March 27, 2025

New type of quantum computer studies the dance of elementary particles

The standard model of particle physics is our best theory of the elementary particles and forces that make up our world: particles and antiparticles, such as electrons and positrons, are described as quantum fields. They interact through other force-fields, such as the electromagnetic force that binds charged particles.

To understand the behaviour of these quantum fields and with that our universe, researchers perform complex computer simulations of quantum field theories. Unfortunately, many of these calculations are too complicated for even our best supercomputers and pose great challenges for quantum computers as well, leaving many pressing questions unanswered.

Using a novel type of quantum computer, Martin Ringbauer’s experimental team at the University of Innsbruck, and the theory group led by Christine Muschik at IQC at the University of Waterloo, Canada report in a publication in the journal Nature Physics how they have successfully simulated a complete quantum field theory in more than one spatial dimension.

A natural representation of quantum fields

The crux that makes simulations of quantum field theories challenging for quantum computers comes from the need to capture the fields that represent the forces between particles, such as the electromagnetic force between charged particles. These fields can point in different directions and have different degrees of strength or excitations. Such objects do not neatly fit into the traditional binary computing paradigm based on zeros and ones, which is the basis of today's classical and quantum computers.

The new advance was possible through the combination of a qudit quantum computer developed in Innsbruck, and a qudit algorithm to simulate fundamental particle interactions developed in Waterloo. This approach is based on using up to five values per quantum information carrier, rather than just zero and one, to efficiently store and process information. Such a quantum computer is ideally suited to the challenge of representing complex quantum fields in particle physics calculations. “Our approach enables a natural representation of the quantum fields, which makes the computations much more efficient,” explains Michael Meth, lead author of the study. This enabled the team to observe the fundamental features of quantum electrodynamics in two spatial dimensions.

Huge potential for particle physics

Already in 2016, the creation of particle-antiparticle pairs was demonstrated in Innsbruck. “In that demonstration, we simplified the problem by restricting the particles to move on a line. Removing this restriction is a critical step to use quantum computers to understand fundamental particle interactions,” says Christine Muschik. Now the teams have presented the first quantum simulation in two spatial dimensions, “In addition to the behaviour of particles, we now also see magnetic fields between them, which can only exist if particles are not restricted to move on a line and bring us an important step closer to studying nature,” explains Martin Ringbauer.

The new work on quantum electrodynamics is just the beginning. With only a few qudits more it will be possible to extend the current results not only to three-dimensional models, but also to the strong nuclear force, which holds atoms together and contains many of physics’ remaining mysteries. “We are excited about the potential of quantum computers to contribute to the study of these fascinating questions,” says Ringbauer enthusiastically.

The research was financially supported among others by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research, the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG), the European Union, and the Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

Website: International Research Awards on High Energy Physics and Computational Science.

Wednesday, March 26, 2025

This Tiny Particle is Redefining Our View of the Atomic Nucleus

University of Queensland scientists have cracked a long-standing puzzle in nuclear physics, showing that nuclear polarization, once thought to hinder experiments with muonic atoms, has a much smaller effect than expected.

This surprising result clears a major obstacle and paves the way for a new era of atomic research, offering deeper insights into the mysterious inner workings of atomic nuclei using exotic, muon-based atoms.

Breakthrough in Muonic Atom Research

Researchers at the University of Queensland have made a significant breakthrough in muonic atom research, paving the way for new experiments in nuclear physics.

A team from UQ’s School of Mathematics and Physics combined theoretical models and experimental data to demonstrate that nuclear polarization does not significantly interfere with the study of muonic atoms.

Co-author Dr Odile Smits said this discovery removes a key obstacle, allowing scientists to use muonic atoms to gain clearer insights into the magnetic structure of atomic nuclei.

What Are Muonic Atoms?

“Muonic atoms are really fascinating!” Dr. Smits said.

“A muon is a heavy version of the electron and can be produced by cosmic rays or in the lab.

“They can orbit the nucleus just like electrons, forming muonic atoms, but because they are much closer to the nucleus, they see its structure in far greater detail.”

Tidal Effects Inside the Atom

Experiments using muonic atoms have been hindered by uncertainty over how nuclear polarization affects hyperfine structure, which is a small energy splitting within atoms. Nuclear polarization distorts the shape of the nucleus, in a similar way to how the moon creates tides on Earth.

“Our work has shown that the nuclear polarization effect of muons is far smaller than previously considered,” Dr. Smits said.

The team was led by UQ’s Associate Professor Jacinda Ginges who said the breakthrough removed a major barrier to studying muonic atoms.

“This opens the way for new experiments that will deepen our understanding of nuclear structure and fundamental physics.”

New Pathways for Nuclear Physics

The team worked with Dr. Natalia Oreshkina at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany, who confirmed the results with independent calculations.

The UQ finding will be a stimulus for new experiments with muonic atoms such as at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Zurich where a research program is underway to study these exotic atoms in greater detail.

Website: International Research Awards on High Energy Physics and Computational Science.

Tuesday, March 25, 2025

A Simple Way to Control Superconductivity

Scientists from the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS) and collaborators have discovered a groundbreaking way to control superconductivity an essential phenomenon for developing more energy-efficient technologies and quantum computing by simply twisting atomically thin layers within a layered device. By adjusting the twist angle, they were able to finely tune the “superconducting gap,” which plays a key role in the behavior of these materials. The research was published in Nature Physics.

The superconducting gap is the energy threshold required to break apart Cooper pairs bound electron pairs that enable superconductivity at low temperatures. Having a larger gap allows superconductivity to persist at higher, more accessible temperatures, and tuning the gap is also important for optimizing Cooper pair behavior at the nanoscale, contributing to the high functionality of quantum devices.

To date, efforts to control the superconducting gap have largely focused on “real space,” in the physical position of particles. However, achieving control in momentum space, a different mapping that shows the energy state of the system has remained elusive. Fine-tuning the gap in momentum space is crucial for the next generation of superconductors and quantum devices.

In an effort to achieve this, the group began working with ultrathin layers of niobium diselenide, a well-known superconductor, deposited on a graphene substrate. Using advanced imaging and fabrication techniques, such as spectroscopic-imaging scanning tunnelling microscopy and molecular beam epitaxy, they precisely adjusted the twist angle of the layers. This modification produced measurable changes in the superconducting gap within momentum space, unlocking a novel “knob” for precisely tuning superconducting properties.

According to Masahiro Naritsuka of CEMS, the first author of the paper, “Our findings demonstrate that twisting provides a precise control mechanism for superconductivity by selectively suppressing the superconducting gap in targeted momentum regions. One surprising discovery was the emergence of flower-like modulation patterns within the superconducting gap that do not align with the crystallographic axes of either material. This underscores the unique role of twisting in shaping superconducting properties.”

Tetsuo Hanaguri of CEMS, the last author, added, “In the short term, our research deepens the understanding of superconducting systems and inter-layer interactions, advancing the design of superconductors with tailored properties. In the long term, it lays the foundation for developing energy-efficient technologies, quantum computing, and beyond. Next steps involve investigating whether magnetic layers can be integrated into the structure to enable both spin and momentum selectivity. These advances could unlock new research opportunities and pave the way for developing innovative materials and devices.”

Website: International Research Awards on High Energy Physics and Computational Science.

Saturday, March 22, 2025

What Is Dark Energy? The Mystery Behind The Expanding Universe

Dark energy is the placeholder name scientists have given to the unknown force causing the universe to expand faster and faster over time.

Paris: Dark energy makes up roughly 70 percent of the universe, yet we know nothing about it.

Around 25 percent of the universe is the equally mysterious dark matter, leaving just five percent for everything that we can see and touch matter made up of atoms. Dark energy is the placeholder name scientists have given to the unknown force causing the universe to expand faster and faster over time.

But some recent cosmic clues have been chipping away at the leading theory for this phenomenon, which could eventually mean humanity will have to rethink our understanding of the universe. And with several new telescopes taking aim at the problem, scientists hope to have some concrete answers soon.

Here is what you need to know about what many scientists have called the greatest mystery in the universe.

So what is dark energy exactly?

No one knows. It is invisible and it does not interact with matter or light. And it may not even exist. This story begins like everything else at the Big Bang around 13.8 billion years ago, when the universe first started expanding.

Since then, there has been "cosmic tug-of-war" between two mysterious forces, Joshua Frieman, a theoretical astrophysicist at the University of Chicago, told AFP. Dark matter is thought to pull galaxies together, while dark energy pushes them apart.

During the first nine or so billion years of the universe, "dark matter was winning," forming galaxies and everything else, Frieman said. Then dark energy gained the upper hand, starting to speed up the expansion of the universe. However, for most of history, scientists had little idea this almighty tussle was going on. They thought that the expansion of the universe would simply start to slow down because of gravity.

Everything changed in 1998 when two separate groups of astronomers noticed that distant exploding stars called supernovae were farther away than they ought to be. This led to the discovery that the universe is not just expanding it is do so faster and faster. So what could be causing this acceleration? They gave this strange force a name: dark energy.

What are the main theories?

The leading theory has long been that empty space itself produces dark energy.

Think of a cup of coffee, Frieman said.

"If I remove all the particles from the cup of coffee, there is still energy in there due to what we call the quantum vacuum," he said. This energy of empty space is known as the cosmological constant. It is the theory used in the standard model of cosmology, Lambda-CDM, which is our best guess for how the universe works. But in recent years, several scientific results have appeared to support a rival theory called evolving dark energy which has brought the standard model into question.

On Wednesday, new results from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument provided the latest signs that dark energy could actually be weakening over time. However, the scientists behind the research emphasise there is not yet definitive proof. If proven right, this would rule out that dark energy is a cosmological constant.

It could not be "the energy of empty space because empty space doesn't change," explained Frieman, a leading proponent of the theory. For dark matter to change, it would likely require the existence of some incredibly light, as-yet-unknown particle. Another possibility is that there is something wrong with our calculations or our understanding of gravity.

Einstein's theory of relativity has withstood an incredible amount of scientific scrutiny over the last century, and has been proven right again and again. There is no evidence that Einstein was wrong, but there is "a little bit of room" to change his theory when it comes to the largest scales of the universe, Frieman said.

When could we know more?

Soon. The best way to understand dark energy is to look at a vast swathe of sky, taking in as many galaxies with as much data as possible. And a bunch of new telescopes are working to do just that.

On Wednesday, Europe's Euclid space telescope released its first astronomical data since launching in 2023 but any dark energy results are a couple of years away.

NASA's Nancy Grace Roman space telescope, planned for launch in 2027, and the under-construction Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile will also take aim at the problem. It is an exciting time for dark energy, Frieman said, adding that he expected a "definitive answer" in the next couple of years.

There is no time to waste, Frieman said.

"Every minute we wait, galaxies are disappearing from view."

Website: International Research Awards on High Energy Physics and Computational Science.

Friday, March 21, 2025

A possible way to generate electricity using Earth's rotational energy

A trio of physicists from Princeton University, CIT's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Spectral Sensor Solutions, all in the U.S., is proposing the possibility of generating electricity using energy from the rotation of the Earth. In their study, published in the journal Physical Review Research, Christopher Chyba, Kevin Hand and Thomas Chyba tested a theory that electricity could be generated from the Earth's rotation using a special device that interacts with the Earth's magnetic field.

Over the past decade, members of the team have been toying with the idea of generating electricity using the Earth's rotation and its magnetic field, and they even published a paper describing the possibility back in 2016. That paper was met with criticism because prior theories have suggested that doing so would be impossible because any voltage created by such a device would be canceled as the electrons rearrange themselves during the generation of an electric field.

The researchers wondered what would happen if this cancelation was prevented and the voltage was instead captured. To find out, they built a special device consisting of a cylinder made of manganese-zinc ferrite, a weak conductor, which served as a magnetic shield. They then oriented the cylinder in a north-south direction set at a 57° angle. That made it perpendicular to both the Earth's rotational motion and the Earth's magnetic field.

Next, they placed electrodes at each end of the cylinder to measure voltage and then turned out the lights to prevent photoelectric effects. They found that 18 microvolts of electricity were generated across the cylinder that they could not attribute to any other source, strongly suggesting that it was due to the energy from the Earth's rotation.

The researchers note that they accounted for the voltage that might have been caused by temperature differences between the ends of the cylinder. They also noted that no such voltage was measured when they changed its angle or used control cylinders.

The results will have to be verified by others running the same type of experiment under different scenarios to ensure that there were no other sources of electricity generation that they failed to account for. But the researchers note that if their findings turn out to be correct, there is no reason the amount produced could not be increased to a useful level.

Website: International Research Awards on High Energy Physics and Computational Science.

Thursday, March 20, 2025

Attempt to Harness Energy from Earth’s Rotation

Experiments support a controversial proposal to generate electricity from our planet’s rotation by using a device that interacts with Earth’s magnetic field.

Attractive planet. Earth’s magnetic field might potentially allow the harvesting of energy from the planet’s rotation, according to new experimental results.

“It seems crazy,” says Chris Chyba of Princeton University, talking about the hollow magnetic cylinder he has built to generate electricity using Earth’s magnetic field. The cylinder doesn’t move at least not in the lab but it rotates with the planet and is thus dragged through Earth’s magnetic field. “It has a whiff of a perpetual motion machine,” Chyba says, but his calculations show that the harvested energy comes from the planet’s rotational energy. He and his colleagues now report that 18 microvolts (µV) are generated across the cylinder when it is held perpendicular to Earth’s field. Next they have to convince other scientists that the effect is real.

Chyba became interested in electricity generation about a decade ago while studying a possible warming mechanism in moons moving through a planet’s magnetic field. He wondered if a similar effect might occur for objects on Earth’s surface.

At first glance, it seems impossible. One can calculate the magnetic force: The electrons in a metal object located in a Princeton lab, for example, are moving at 350 meters per second through the local magnetic field of 45 microtesla, giving a force per charge of about 10 millinewtons per coulomb. But those electrons will quickly rearrange on the surface of the metal so as to create an electric field of 10 millivolts per meter that exactly cancels the magnetic force. Chyba realized, however, that there could be situations where the electrons can’t arrange themselves in a magnetic-force-canceling pattern.

Field harvesting. The cylinder is positioned on an inclined surface so that it is perpendicular to both Earth’s magnetic field and the direction of Earth’s rotational motion. Sensors record the voltage between the cylinder’s ends. The experiments were conducted in the dark to avoid contaminating the signal through the photoelectric effect.

One noncanceling situation is in a hollow cylinder made of manganese-zinc ferrite. This material is both a magnetic shield and a weak conductor two essential properties for allowing a small voltage to build up on the cylinder when positioned properly in Earth’s magnetic field. At least that was the idea that Chyba and Kevin Hand of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California proposed in 2016 (see Focus: Electric Power from the Earth’s Magnetic Field).

Criticisms of that proposal appeared shortly afterward, some based on theoretical arguments and others involving experimental tests. Chyba and Hand defended their proposal with more theory, but they knew that an experimental demonstration was necessary. Chyba’s brother, Thomas Chyba, an applied physicist in New Mexico contributed to this effort.

The researchers acquired a 30-cm-long, 2-cm-wide, hollow, manganese-zinc-ferrite cylinder and orientated it along the north–south direction at an angle of 57° with respect to the ground. This position was perpendicular to both Earth’s magnetic field and the direction of Earth’s rotational motion, an arrangement the researchers predicted would give the maximum voltage. They placed an electrode at each end of the cylinder and recorded the voltage. For comparison, they also took voltage measurements with the cylinder rotated by 90° (a zero-voltage orientation) and by 180° (a reversed voltage orientation).

In interpreting the data, the team had to deal with a temperature-dependent phenomenon called the Seebeck effect, which causes a small voltage to develop when a material is hotter on one end than the other. The researchers found that the Seebeck effect could account for some of the voltage that they measured. But they showed that there was an additional signal of 18 µV that depended on the orientation of the cylinder. This signal did not appear when the researchers tested several control cylinders, including a solid manganese-zinc-ferrite cylinder, for which their theory predicted no effect. They concluded that this extra voltage was generated by motion through Earth’s magnetic field.

Chyba says the next step is for an independent research team to try to reproduce the results. If confirmed, he imagines that the setup could be optimized for power generation. He speculates that many miniature cylindrical components could be connected in series to produce a useful amount of voltage.

Yong Zhu, a microelectronics expert from Griffith University in Australia, is not convinced by the evidence. “There are so many factors that can produce microvolt signals,” he says, such as stray capacitance and eddy currents. Ruling out all these possibilities will require more experimental evidence, Zhu says.

Carlo Rovelli, a theoretical physicist from Aix-Marseille University in France, is more open to the idea. He notes that energy is conserved for an electric charge moving in a uniform magnetic field, which seems to rule out the effect. But since the charges in the experiments are moving in a solid material, Rovelli says, this argument is not relevant. “Maybe there is a subtler version of the argument that rules out this possibility; I do not know,” he says. “In any case, it is a very interesting story.”

Website: International Research Awards on High Energy Physics and Computational Science.

Saturday, March 15, 2025

Unifying physics’ biggest divide: Equation links Einstein’s relativity, quantum mechanics

A modified version of Einstein’s general relativity equation reveals the strange connection between gravity and entropy.

Several physicists have proposed theories that try to unite quantum mechanics with Einstein’s general theory of relativity. But a new study goes one step ahead; it not only links the two theories but also suggests that gravity emerges from quantum entropy.

The study author, Ginestra Bianconi, who is a physicist and a professor of applied mathematics at the Queen Mary University of London, proposes that “gravity is derived from an entropic action coupling matter fields with geometry.”

In simple words, this means that gravity is not a fundamental force by itself but instead comes from the way matter interacts with the shape (geometry) of space. This interaction is driven by entropy, which is a measure of disorder in a system. This indirectly suggests that a lack of entropy growth might cause gravitational effects to diminish, leading to unpredictable consequences for our universe.

Connecting quantum entropy and gravity

Physicists have long attempted to find a single theory that unites quantum mechanics and general relativity. This has been very tricky because quantum mechanics focuses on the unpredictable nature of particles at microscopic scales, whereas general relativity explains gravity as the curvature of spacetime caused by massive objects.

The two theories discuss forces existing on different scales. Bianconi employed an interesting approach to deal with this challenge. She proposes an entropic action where, instead of being a fixed background, spacetime works like a quantum operator acting on quantum states and deciding how they change over time.

Next, she introduced a mathematical tool called G-field into the entropic action. This tool ensured that when spacetime interacts with matter as the quantum operator, the equations remain valid and don’t break any fundamental rules.

“By introducing the G-field, we obtain the modified Einstein equations and the equations of motion for the matter and the G-field,” Bianconi notes. The equations revealed how matter influenced the geometry of spacetime.

Moreover, at low energies, their modified equations behaved just like Einstein’s general relativity, suggesting that gravity may be an effect of the entropy. “This work proposes that quantum gravity has an entropic origin and suggests that the G-field might be a candidate for dark matter,” Bianconi added.

The equations go beyond general relativity

In addition to explaining the link between gravity and entropy and connecting quantum mechanics with general relativity, the equations in the study also left the researchers with a constant value that can explain why the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate.

“The theory goes further, predicting the emergence of a small, positive cosmological constant – a value that aligns with experimental observations of the universe’s accelerated expansion much better than for other pre-existing theories,” Bianconi notes.

These interesting findings could completely change our understanding of gravity, dark matter, and the universe. However, further research is needed to gather more evidence supporting these results.

Website: International Research Awards on High Energy Physics and Computational Science.

Friday, March 14, 2025

Freezing light? Italian scientists froze fastest thing in universe, here’s how

In a rare occurrence, physics made it possible to control the fastest travelling element - light. Italian scientists have managed to freeze the light, as per reports.

A recent study published in a British weekly journal reportedly revealed that light can exhibit ‘supersolid behavior’ a unique state of matter that flows without friction while retaining a solid-like structure.

The research, led by Antonio Gianfate from CNR Nanotec and Davide Nigro from the University of Pavia, marks a significant step in understanding supersolidity in light. The scientists described their findings as “just the beginning” of this exploration, as per reports.

In what can be termed as ‘manipulating photons under controlled quantum conditions’, the scientists demonstrated that light, too, can exhibit this behaviour.

(A photon is a bundle of electromagnetic energy which is massless, and travel at the speed of light)

How did scientists freeze light?

As we know, freezing involves lowering a liquid’s temperature until it becomes solid.

In this experiment, the researchers reportedly took a different approach, creating a supersolid state in light using advanced quantum techniques.

They worked with a semiconductor platform where photons, the fundamental particles of light, behaved similarly to electrons.

Using a gallium arsenide (used in various applications like lasers, LEDs, and high-speed electronics) structure with microscopic ridges, they fired a laser to produce hybrid light-matter particles known as polaritons, as per reports.

As the photon count increased, a pattern known as satellite condensates emerged. These condensates possessed the same energy but opposite wavenumbers, creating a distinctive spatial structure a defining feature of supersolidity.

In future, according to reports, this can help in more stable quantum bits which would in turn help the field of quantum computing.

According to researchers, quantum effects emerge at temperatures near absolute zero.

Website: International Research Awards on High Energy Physics and Computational Science.

Thursday, March 13, 2025

Scientists take important step toward mitigating errors in analog quantum simulations of many-body problems

Simulations of quantum many-body systems are an important goal for nuclear and high-energy physics. Many-body problems involve systems that consist of many microscopic particles interacting at the level of quantum mechanics. They are much more difficult to describe than simple systems with just two particles. This means that even the most powerful conventional computers cannot simulate these problems.

Quantum computing has the potential to address this challenge using an approach called analog quantum simulation. To succeed, these simulations need theoretical approximations of how quantum computers represent many-body systems. In research on this topic, nuclear physicists at the University of Washington developed a new framework to systematically analyze the interplay of these approximations. They showed that the impact of such approximations can be minimized by tuning simulation parameters.

This method provides a new tool for quantifying the uncertainties in analog quantum simulations of dynamical processes. Quantum computers are becoming more and more reliable and resilient to noise. However, to make reliable predictions, scientists need to understand and quantify sources of error and their effects on analog quantum simulations.

Researchers can use the techniques developed in this work to improve the precision of future simulations. Such optimizations are demonstrated in the context of spin models sharing key features with nuclear interactions.

In an analog quantum simulation, a highly controllable quantum system replicates the behavior of a more exotic system. A leading architecture for such simulations is Rydberg-atom quantum computers, which are scalable arrays of Rydberg atoms that support a universal quantum gate set. Scientists expect that with rapidly improving control, analog quantum computers will enable near-term advantages in uncovering new physics.

Website: International Research Awards on High Energy Physics and Computational Science.

#HighEnergyPhysics#ParticlePhysics#QuantumPhysics#AstroparticlePhysics#ColliderPhysics#HiggsBoson#LHC#QuantumFieldTheory#NeutrinoPhysics#PhysicsResearch#ComputationalScience#DataScience#ScientificComputing#NumericalMethods#HighPerformanceComputing#MachineLearningInScience#BigData#AlgorithmDevelopment#SimulationScience#ParallelComputing

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Wednesday, March 12, 2025

A single particle in the deep sea could prove Stephen Hawking right about the early universe

Five decades ago, famed astrophysicist Stephen Hawking theorized that the Big Bang may have flooded the universe with tiny black holes. Now, researchers believe they may have seen one explode.

In Feb. 2025, the European collaboration KM3NeT which consists of underwater detectors off the coasts of France, Italy and Greece announced the discovery of a stupendously powerful neutrino. This ghostly particle had an energy of around 100 PeV over 25 times more energetic than the particles accelerated in the Large Hadron Collider, the world's most powerful atom smasher.

Physicists have struggled to come up with an explanation for such an energetic neutrino. But now, a team of researchers who were not involved in the original detection have proposed a surprising hypothesis: The neutrino is the signature of an evaporating black hole. The team described their proposal in a paper that was uploaded to the arXiv database and has not been peer-reviewed yet.
Hawking's elephant-size black holes

In the 1970s, Hawking realized that black holes aren't entirely black. Instead, through complex interactions between the black hole event horizon and the quantum fields of space-time, they can emit a slow-but-steady stream of radiation, now known as Hawking radiation. This means black holes evaporate and eventually disappear. In fact, as the black hole gets smaller, it emits even more radiation, until it essentially explodes in a firestorm of high-energy particles and radiation like the neutrino spotted by the KM3Net collaboration.

But all known black holes are very large at least a few times the mass of the sun, and often significantly larger. It will take well over 10^100 years for even the smallest known black holes to die. If the KM3NeT neutrino is due to an exploding black hole, it has to be much smaller somewhere around 22,000 pounds (10,000 kilograms). That's about as heavy as two fully grown African elephants, compressed into a black hole smaller than an atom.

The only known potential way to produce such tiny black holes is in the chaotic events of the early Big Bang, which may have flooded the cosmos with "primordial" black holes. The smallest primordial black holes produced in the Big Bang would have exploded long ago, while larger ones might persist to the present day.

Unfortunately, a 22,000-pound black hole should not survive all the way from the Big Bang to the present day. But the authors pointed out that there might be an additional quantum mechanism known as "memory burden" that allows black holes to resist decay. This would allow a 22,000-pound black hole to survive for billions of years before it finally exploded, sending a high-energy neutrino toward Earth in the process.

Primordial black holes might be an explanation for dark matter the invisible substance that accounts for most of the matter in the universe but so far, searches for them have turned up empty. This new insight may provide an intriguing clue. The researchers found that if primordial black holes of this mass range are abundant enough to account for all the dark matter, they should be exploding somewhat regularly. They estimated that if this hypothesis is correct, the KM3NeT collaboration should see another showstopping neutrino in the next few years.

If that detection happens, then we may just have to radically rethink the way we approach dark matter, high-energy neutrinos and even the physics of the early universe.

Website: International Research Awards on High Energy Physics and Computational Science.

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

Scientists Just Solved a Cosmic Mystery: Why Galaxy Clusters Stay Hot

XRISM has uncovered how galaxy clusters evolve violent mergers create turbulence, preventing hot gas from cooling. This discovery solves a long-standing mystery and provides new insight into cosmic history.

XRISM’s Advanced X-ray Spectrometer – Using its superior capabilities, XRISM detected oscillating hot gas motion at the center of the Centaurus Cluster for the first time.
First Direct Evidence of Cluster Mergers – The observed gas movement confirms that galaxy clusters grow through collisions and mergers.
Solving a Long-Standing Mystery – By directly measuring the velocity of the gas, scientists can better understand the heating mechanism that has puzzled astronomers for decades.

Galaxy Clusters: Cosmic Giants Shaped by Gravity

The Universe is shaped by gravity, which pulls galaxies huge collections of stars and gas into even larger structures called galaxy clusters. These clusters are held together by dark matter’s gravitational pull, and within them, gas becomes superheated to tens of millions of degrees. At such extreme temperatures, the gas emits powerful X-rays. Astronomers have long suspected that galaxy clusters grow through repeated mergers and collisions, but direct evidence has been difficult to capture until now. In a groundbreaking study, XRISM has provided definitive proof of this process at the heart of a galaxy cluster.

The central regions of galaxy clusters are among the brightest X-ray sources in the Universe. In theory, as this intense radiation escapes, the surrounding gas should gradually cool a process known as radiative cooling. Yet observations show that the gas remains unexpectedly hot, defying expectations and leaving scientists searching for an explanation. One possibility is that gas motion plays a role in maintaining these high temperatures, but until now, instruments lacked the precision to confirm this idea.

Using XRISM, an international research team (the XRISM Collaboration) has precisely measured the movement of hot gas at the core of a galaxy cluster. Their findings reveal that the gas is in motion, “sloshing” back and forth in response to past collisions and mergers with other clusters. These oscillations keep the gas stirred, preventing it from cooling as expected and maintaining the cluster’s high temperatures.

This discovery represents a major breakthrough in our understanding of galaxy formation and cluster evolution. By capturing gas dynamics with unprecedented detail, XRISM has provided new insights into how the Universe’s largest structures continue to evolve.

Tracing the Universe’s Evolution Through Cosmic Collisions

How did the Universe evolve into its current structure after the Big Bang? This fundamental question has driven decades of astronomical research. The Universe is filled with vast cosmic structures. The Solar System is a collection of planets and small Solar System bodies orbiting the Sun, while a galaxy is a vast assembly of stars bound by gravity. However, these structures did not exist from the Universe’s beginning; they gradually formed and grew under the influence of gravity acting on matter. Violent cosmic events, such as collisions and mergers between celestial bodies, shaped our current universe.

The Role of Dark Matter and Superheated Gas

The largest known structures formed through this cosmic evolution are galaxy clusters. These immense conglomerations of galaxies are held together by the powerful gravitational pull of dark matter, an invisible and mysterious substance that makes up most of the Universe’s mass. However, the dark matter and galaxies alone are not the dominant components of these clusters significant mass exists in the form of gas, composed of hydrogen and helium gas left over from the Big Bang.

As this primordial gas falls into a galaxy cluster, the immense gravitational energy converts it into superheated gas at temperatures of tens of millions of degrees. At such extreme temperatures, the gas emits X-rays, making X-ray observations essential for studying the evolution and dynamics of galaxy clusters. The mass of this hot gas is significantly greater than that of the galaxies themselves, meaning that understanding galaxy clusters requires understanding this high-energy component.

The Puzzle of Persistently Hot Gas

One of the great astrophysical puzzles has been why the hot gas in the center of a galaxy cluster does not cool over time. Theoretically, the gas should gradually lose energy through X-ray emission, cooling down in a process known as radiative cooling. However, previous observations have shown that, contrary to expectations, the gas remains persistently hot. This discrepancy suggests an unknown heating mechanism is at work, preventing the hot gas from cooling as expected. Unraveling this mystery is crucial for understanding the formation and evolution of the Universe’s largest structures.

From December 2023 to January 2024, the research team used XRISM to observe the nearby galaxy cluster, the Centaurus Cluster, located approximately 100 million light-years from Earth. The goal was to investigate the motion of the hot gas in the core of the galaxy cluster.

Website: International Research Awards on High Energy Physics and Computational Science.

Monday, March 10, 2025

Scientists Just Found a Mind-Bending Way to Control Electrons

Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a new technique to better understand how electrons interact within materials. By using a moiré material created by twisting ultra-thin atomic layers they generated an artificial crystal lattice in a nearby semiconductor, allowing for more precise studies of electron behavior.

Scientists have devised a method to create artificial crystal lattices with a large lattice constant in semiconductor materials.

The increased lattice constant reduces the electrons’ motional energy, making their interactions more prominent.
This technique will help researchers study electron interactions across different materials.
A better understanding of these interactions could explain how certain insulators transition into superconductors when extra electrons are introduced.

Unveiling Electron Interactions

Physicists have long devised creative methods to study how electrons interact within materials. These interactions are crucial because they drive important phenomena like superconductivity. However, in most materials, electron interactions are extremely weak, making them difficult to observe. One common approach to amplifying these interactions involves reducing the electrons’ motional energy. Scientists achieve this by artificially creating a crystal lattice with a large lattice constant meaning the distance between lattice sites is increased. While the interaction energy remains small, it becomes relatively more significant, making interaction effects easier to detect.

Traditionally, researchers have used moiré materials for this purpose. These materials, created by stacking and slightly twisting two atom-thin layers, form a superlattice that influences electron behavior. However, moiré materials also alter other physical properties, complicating studies of electron interactions.

A research team led by Ataç Imamoğlu at the Institute for Quantum Electronics at ETH Zurich has now developed a novel method to overcome this challenge. Instead of directly studying electrons within moiré materials, they use these materials to generate a spatially periodic electric field at a distance, affecting only the electrons in a separate semiconductor layer.

This new technique, recently published in Physical Review X, allows scientists to isolate and study electron interactions with greater precision, opening new possibilities for research in different materials.

Twisted Crystal Lattices

Moiré materials are produced by individually removing two layers of a material, each only one atom thick, twisting them slightly with respect to each other and then putting them back together. Since the crystal lattices of the two layers are no longer exactly on top of each other, a kind of beating effect occurs: just as two sound waves with slightly different frequencies lead to a slow periodic increase and decrease in the sound volume, in the twisted crystal lattices a “superlattice” with a much larger lattice constant arises, in which the electrons can move.

“In our new method we also produce a moiré material, but we use it in a completely different way,” says Natasha Kiper, a PhD student in Imamoğlu’s group. Kiper and her colleagues use two layers of hexagonal boron nitride (an artificially synthesized solid that is almost as hard as diamond) that are twisted by less than 2 degrees with respect to each other.

This twisting leads to a periodic electric field that also acts at a distance beyond the material. Below the twisted boron nitride the researchers place an atomic layer of the semiconductor molybdenum diselenide. The electric field acts on the electrons inside the molybdenum diselenide and thus creates an artificial crystal lattice.

Detection Using Excitons

“The big advantage here is that the electric field only acts on the electrons in the molybdenum diselenide but not on the neutral excitons,” says Kiper. The researchers need those excitons to study the electrons. Excitons are created when an electron in a material is excited by light of a specific frequency. As a consequence, the electron climbs to a higher energy level and leaves behind a defect, also called a hole, in the lower energy level. The negatively charged electron and the positively charged hole then attract each other and pair up to become an electrically neutral exciton.

From the light frequency at which excitons are excited, the researchers were able to draw conclusions about the behavior of the electrons. By applying an electric voltage they varied the number of electrons in the semiconductor. From the exciton excitation frequency they could then, for instance, prove that when one third or two thirds of the lattice sites were filled with electrons, they arranged themselves in a regular pattern.

When the number of electrons was increased further, such that more than one electron occupied a lattice site, the interactions between the electrons led to a clearly visible change in the states of the electrons. Such insights into the effects of strong interactions help physicists to understand, for instance, how certain electrical insulators can become superconductors by adding excess electrons to them.

Expanding to New Materials and Phenomena

“Our new method is exciting also because it is highly controllable and can, in principle, be applied to many other materials,” says Imamoğlu. By adding additional layers of material the strength of the electric field can be varied. Moreover, in the future it will be possible to study processes in which the electrons move between two layers.

In addition to their spin, which indicates in which direction the “compass needle” of an electron is oriented, the electron would also acquire a pseudo-spin pointing up or down depending on the layer in which it finds itself.

“We could use this to study exotic physical processes such as so-called chiral spin liquids, which up to now have never been observed experimentally,” says Imamoğlu.

Website: International Conference on High Energy Physics and Computational Science.

Saturday, March 8, 2025

Researchers turned light into supersolid, for the first time

A groundbreaking achievement that advances our understanding of condensed matter physics.

Imagine a type of matter where particles are arranged in a neat crystal pattern but can flow without friction. This peculiar state is called a supersolid, requiring particles to share a common phase and self-organize to minimize their energy.

Although the concept of a supersolid has existed for over 50 years, experiments have only recently provided solid proof. Researchers mainly used ultracold atomic Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) combined with electromagnetic fields to achieve this.

Scientists have turned light into a supersolid for the first time in a groundbreaking new study. This milestone is a significant leap forward in condensed matter physics.

Dimitrios Trypogeorgos from Italy’s National Research Council (CNR) expressed excitement, saying it’s incredible that they made light solid.

The idea came from earlier work by CNR scientist Danielle Sanvitto, who showed over a decade ago that light could act like a fluid. This idea was later expanded to create a quantum supersolid.

In their experiment, researchers used the semiconductor aluminum gallium arsenide and a laser instead of ultracold atoms. They shone the laser onto a small piece of the semiconductor with narrow ridges. Complex interactions between the light and the material created hybrid particles called polaritons. The ridge pattern controlled how these “quasiparticles” moved and their energies, forming a supersolid.

The researchers carefully measured the trapped and transformed light to prove it was both a solid and a fluid with no viscosity. This was challenging since no one had ever created and tested a supersolid made from light before.

They measured the density changes in the polaritonic state, showing a precise breaking of symmetry. They also had direct access to the wavefunction phase, which allowed them to measure the supersolid’s local coherence with high accuracy.

Authors noted, “We demonstrated evidence of an out-of-equilibrium supersolid state of matter emerging in a driven-dissipative polaritonic system that is a new and flexible platform for investigating the physics of supersolidity in condensed-matter systems.”

“We emphasize that this is a new mechanism for the creation of a supersolid, particularly of the driven-dissipative context of non-equilibrium polariton systems, and not simply a photonic analog of mechanisms demonstrated in atomic platforms.”