Physicists | Common News Update

May182020 by adminNo Comments

Physicists observe quantum entanglement of 15 trillion atoms

Science

May 15 (UPI) -- Scientists have observed an unexpectedly large quantum system featuring 15 trillion entangled atoms, according to a new study. Quantum entanglement describes the connection between separate particles. The phenomenon is key to the promise of quantum computing, quantum encryption and other quantum technologies. Usually, quantum entanglement features a pair of coupled atoms or electrons. Entangled states are quite delicate. To ensure entangled particles remain undisturbed, many quantum systems must be isolated and kept at temperatures approaching absolute zero, limiting their practical viability. For the new study, published Friday in Nature Communications, researchers heated a cloud of gas atoms to temperatures upwards of 450 Kelvin. The atoms were far from isolated. Every ...

Oct182019 by adminNo Comments

Physicists discover new stable form of plutonium

Science

Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Using the European Synchrotron, a team of physicists have identified a new stable form of plutonium. The newly discovered compound exists in a solid state and features an unexpected, pentavalent oxidation state. The discovery, detailed this week in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition, was an accident. Researchers originally set out to develop improved methods for preventing nuclear meltdowns and accidents, as well as the scope of the ensuing fallout. To replicate the release and spread of radioactive nuclides into and throughout the environment -- and thus, develop preventative and control strategies -- scientists at the Helmholtz Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf synthesized and observed the behavior of actinides, a group of metallic elements that are heavy, ra...

Aug162019 by adminNo Comments

Physicists say they’ve discovered a new state of matter

Science

Aug. 15 (UPI) -- Physicists at New York University claim they have uncovered a new state of matter that could boost the storage capacity of electronic devices and pave the way for the first generation of quantum computers. "Our research has succeeded in revealing experimental evidence for a new state of matter -- topological superconductivity," Javad Shabani, an assistant professor of physics at New York University, said in a news release. "This new topological state can be manipulated in ways that could both speed calculation in quantum computing and boost storage." Traditional computers process bits, which can only assume the value of a zero or a one. Quantum computers use quantum bits or qubits, which can assume the value of one, zero or both -- and an infinite number of values in bet...

Mar42019 by adminNo Comments

Physicists build random anti-laser

Science

March 4 (UPI) -- Scientists in Austria have built the inverse of a laser, an anti-laser. Lasers turns energy into a specific light frequency. The device developed by researchers at the Vienna University of Technology does the opposite, absorbing a specific color of light and scattering nearly all of the energy. The anti-laser technology -- described this week in the journal Nature -- may offer applications in a variety of electronic and optical fields. "Every day we are dealing with waves that are scattered in a complicated way -- think about a mobile phone signal that is reflected several times before it reaches your cell phone," Stefan Rotter, a professor at TU Vienna's Institute for Theoretical Physics, said in a news release. "The so-called random lasers make use of this multiple scat...

Jan162019 by adminNo Comments

Physicists replicate earliest days of the universe in super-chilled helium

Science

Jan. 16 (UPI) -- Scientists have for the first time triggered quantum structures long-predicted by cosmologists. Researchers at Aalto University in Denmark observed "walls bound by strings" in superfluid helium-3. The breakthrough could allows scientists to better understand what the universe looked like in its earliest days, as it quickly cooled in the wake of the Big Bang. Helium is unique in it's ability to remain a fluid even at cryogenic temperatures. When supercooled, helium becomes a superfluid, which means it boasts zero viscosity. Superfluids can flow forever without losing energy. When trapped inside a nanostructure, superfluid phases of the isotope helium-3 can help scientists study unusual quantum structures called half-quantum vortices. The movement of helium inside these vor...