Researchers have discovered that graphene.
Graphene is an allotrope of carbon in the form of a single layer of atoms in a two-dimensional hexagonal lattice in which one atom forms each vertex. It is the basic structural element of other allotropes of carbon, including graphite, charcoal, carbon nanotubes, and fullerenes. In proportion to its thickness, it is about 100 times stronger than the strongest steel.
The discovery overturns more than a century of physics orthodoxy by identifying a new form of energy that can be extracted from ambient heat using graphene.
Graphene is an allotrope of carbon in the form of a single layer of atoms in a two-dimensional hexagonal lattice in which one atom forms each vertex. It is the basic structural element of other allotropes of carbon, including graphite, charcoal, carbon nanotubes, and fullerenes. In proportion to its thickness, it is about 100 times stronger than the strongest steel.
Neutrinos are tiny and neutrally charged particles accounted for by the Standard Model of particle physics. While they are estimated to be some of the most abundant particles in the universe, observing them has so far proved to be highly challenging, as the probability that they will interact with other matter is low.
To detect these particles, physicists have been using detectors and advanced equipment to examine known sources of neutrinos. Their efforts ultimately led to the observation of neutrinos originating from the sun, cosmic rays, supernovae and other cosmic objects, as well as particle accelerators and nuclear reactors.
A long-standing goal in this field of study was to observe neutrinos inside colliders, particle accelerators in which two beams of particles collide with each other. Two large research collaborations, namely FASER (Forward Search Experiment) and SND (Scattering and Neutrino Detector)@LHC, have observed these collider neutrinos for the very first time, using detectors located at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland. The results of their two studies were recently published in Physical Review Letters.
The association between this mass concentration and the idea that atoms are empty stems from a flawed view that mass is the property of matter that fills a space. However, this concept does not hold up to close inspection, not even in our human-scale world. When we pile objects on top of each other, what keeps them separated is not their masses but the electric repulsion between the outmost electrons at their touching molecules. (The electrons cannot collapse under pressure due to the Heisenberg uncertainty and Pauli exclusion principles.) Therefore, the electron’s electric charge ultimately fills the space.
Anyone taking Chemistry 101 is likely to be faced with diagrams of electrons orbiting in shells.
In atoms and molecules, electrons are everywhere! Look how the yellow cloud permeates the entire molecular volume in Figure 1. Thus, when we see that atoms and molecules are packed with electrons, the only reasonable conclusion is that they are filled with matter, not the opposite.
A potential new way to protect sensitive electronics from the extreme heat generated by flying at high speed could give the United States an edge in the race to deploy hypersonic missiles and new spacecraft.
A July research paper in the American Chemical Society’s journal ACS Nano describes one potential solution that uses focused plasma, the photons and highly charged particles that make up the so-called fourth state of matter. If the method bears out in further research, it could usher in hypersonic weapons with much more advanced electronic guidance and could even enable on-the-ground weapons to evade heat sensors.
The breakthrough grew out of efforts to use a laser to measure the temperature of electronics in plasma-facing environments, work the Air Force is supporting through a grant at the University of Virginia, said professor Patrick Hopkins, one of the researchers on the paper.
In their 1982 paper, Fredkin and Toffoli had begun developing their work on reversible computation in a rather different direction. It started with a seemingly frivolous analogy: a billiard table. They showed how mathematical computations could be represented by fully reversible billiard-ball interactions, assuming a frictionless table and balls interacting without friction.
This physical manifestation of the reversible concept grew from Toffoli’s idea that computational concepts could be a better way to encapsulate physics than the differential equations conventionally used to describe motion and change. Fredkin took things even further, concluding that the whole Universe could actually be seen as a kind of computer. In his view, it was a ‘cellular automaton’: a collection of computational bits, or cells, that can flip states according to a defined set of rules determined by the states of the cells around them. Over time, these simple rules can give rise to all the complexities of the cosmos — even life.
He wasn’t the first to play with such ideas. Konrad Zuse — a German civil engineer who, before the Second World War, had developed one of the first programmable computers — suggested in his 1969 book Calculating Space that the Universe could be viewed as a classical digital cellular automaton. Fredkin and his associates developed the concept with intense focus, spending years searching for examples of how simple computational rules could generate all the phenomena associated with subatomic particles and forces3.
Part of the Large Hadron Collider’s Compact Muon Solenoid detector. (CERN) A mysterious particle thought to have existed briefly just after the Big Bang has now been detected for the first time in the ‘primordial soup’.
This study has successfully developed a high-efficiency neutron detector array with an exceptionally low background to measure the cross-section of the 13C(α, n)16O reaction at the China Jinping Underground Laboratory (CJPL). Comprising 24 3He proportional counters embedded in a polyethylene moderator, and shielded with 7% borated polyethylene layer, the neutron background at CJPL was as low as 4.5 counts/h, whereby 1.94 counts/h was attributed to the internal α radioactivity. Remarkably, the angular distribution of the 13C(α, n)16O reaction was proven to be a primary variable affecting the detection efficiency. The detection efficiency of the array for neutrons in the range of 0.1MeV to 4.5 MeV was determined using the 51V(p, n)51Cr reaction carried out with the 3 MV tandem accelerator at Sichuan University and Monte Carlo simulations. Future studies can be planned to focus on further improvement of the efficiency accuracy by measuring the angular distribution of 13C(α, n)16O reaction.
Gamow window is the range of energies which defines the optimal energy for reactions at a given temperature in stars. The nuclear cross-section of a nucleus is used to describe the probability that a nuclear reaction will occur. The 13C(α, n)16O reaction is the main neutron source for the slow neutron capture process (s-process) in asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars, in which the 13C(α, n)16O reaction occurs at the Gamow window spanning from 150 to 230 keV. Hence, it is necessary to precisely measure the cross-section of 13C(α, n)16O reaction in this energy range. A low-background and high detection efficiency neutron detector is the essential equipment to carry out such measurements. This study developed a low-background neutron detector array that exhibited high detection efficiency to address the demands. With such development, advanced studies, including direct cross-section measurements of the key neutron source reactions in stars, can be conducted in the near future.
Low-background neutron detectors play a crucial role in facilitating research related to nuclear astrophysics, neutrino physics, and dark matter. By improving the efficiency and upgrading the technological capability of low background neutron detectors, this study indirectly contributes to the enhancement of scientific research. Additionally, fields involving material science and nuclear reactor technology would also benefit from the perfection of neutron detector technology. Taking into consideration the potential application and expansion of these findings, such innovative attempt aligns well with UNSDG9: Industry, Innovation & Infrastructure.
By probing the Universe on atomic scales and smaller, we can reveal the entirety of the Standard Model, and with it, the quantum Universe.
Fermionic atoms adhere to the Pauli exclusion principle, preventing more than one from simultaneously being in the same quantum state. As a result, they are perfect for modeling systems like molecules, superconductors, and quark-gluon plasmas where fermionic statistics are critical.
Using fermionic atoms, scientists from Austria and the USA have designed a new quantum computer to simulate complex physical systems. The processor uses programmable neutral atom arrays and has hardware-efficient fermionic gates for modeling fermionic models.
The group, under the direction of Peter Zoller, showed how the new quantum processor can simulate fermionic models from quantum chemistry and particle physics with great accuracy.