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Microscopic chinks in material just several atoms thick have the potential to advance a multitude of quantum technologies, new research shows – getting us closer to the widespread use of quantum networks and sensors.

Right now, storing quantum data in the spin properties of electrons, known as spin coherence, requires a very particular and delicate laboratory setup. It’s not something you can do without a carefully controlled environment.

Here, an international team of researchers managed to demonstrate observable spin coherence at room temperature, using the tiny defects in a layered 2D material called Hexagonal Boron Nitride (hBN).

Group theory and first-principles calculations combine to predict which antiferromagnets have potentially useful net surface magnetization.

Antiferromagnetism was discovered in the 1930s by Louis Néel but had long been considered of scientific, not practical, interest. Antiferromagnets (AFM) are internally magnetic, but the magnetic moments of their atoms and molecules are antiparallel to each other, canceling out and resulting in no net magnetization. This cancellation renders bulk antiferromagnets effectively invisible to external magnetic fields, so that their magnetic properties are difficult to harness in applications. Recently, however, a new paradigm has appeared—antiferromagnetism-based spintronics—which seeks to apply antiferromagnets’ unique properties (such as fast spin dynamics, the absence of strong stray fields, and the stability of these materials) to the processing and storage of information [1].

In a surprise discovery, Flinders University nanotechnology researchers have produced a range of different types of gold nanoparticles by adjusting water flow in the novel vortex fluidic device—without the need for toxic chemicals. The article, “Nanogold Foundry Involving High-Shear-Mediated Photocontact Electrification in Water,” has been published in Small Science.

Ask anyone working in quantum computing and they may tell you they have been dealing with the frustratingly contrarian and intricately delicate state of entanglement since the beginning of time. However, a new study suggests this might be impossible. In fact, entanglement may have been absent in the earliest moments of the universe, researchers are reporting — a hypothesis that would — if validated — challenge our understanding of quantum mechanics and the nature of time itself.

The research, detailed in a paper by Jim Al-Khalili, of the University of Surrey and Eddy Keming Chen, University of California, San Diego and published on the pre-print server ArXiv, explores the so-called entanglement past hypothesis. In the study, the researchers explore why time only flows in one direction, a fundamental concept in both quantum physics and thermodynamics.

According to the researchers the concept of quantum entanglement, where two particles become so deeply linked that their properties seem to remain interconnected regardless of the distance between them, is central to modern quantum mechanics. It’s also a key ingredient for the potential of quantum computers to tackle massively complex calculations. It’s also why quantum computing is so vexing, because entanglement can be disrupted by external influences, leading to a process known as decoherence.

This laser can simply control the weather to induce rain restoring regions back to their original states. It could also prevent weather aswell too. This could be used in cities to control the weather.

The adage “Everyone complains about the weather but nobody does anything about it,” may one day be obsolete if researchers at the University of Central Florida’s College of Optics & Photonics and the University of Arizona further develop a new technique to aim a high-energy laser beam into clouds to make it rain or trigger lightning.

The solution? Surround the beam with a second beam to act as an energy reservoir, sustaining the central beam to greater distances than previously possible. The secondary “dress” beam refuels and helps prevent the dissipation of the high-intensity primary beam, which on its own would break down quickly. A report on the project, “Externally refueled optical filaments,” was recently published in Nature Photonics.

Continue reading “‘Dressed’ Laser Aimed at Clouds May be Key to Inducing Rain, Lightning” »

Predicted way back in the 1960s, the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012 completed the Standard Model. Here’s why it remains fascinating.

System charts the evolution of complex quantum states.

Astronomers have discovered black holes ranging from a few times the sun’s mass to tens of billions. Now a group of scientists has predicted that NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope could find a class of “featherweight” black holes that has so far eluded detection.

Today, black holes form either when a massive star collapses or when heavy objects merge. However, scientists suspect that smaller “primordial” black holes, including some with masses similar to Earth’s, could have formed in the first chaotic moments of the early universe.

“Detecting a population of Earth-mass primordial black holes would be an incredible step for both astronomy and particle physics because these objects can’t be formed by any known physical process,” said William DeRocco, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California Santa Cruz who led a study about how Roman could reveal them.

A recent study published in Nature reveals that an international team of scientists has challenged the conventional division of magnetism into two types: ferromagnetism, known for thousands of years, and antiferromagnetism, identified roughly a century ago. The researchers have now successfully demonstrated, through direct experiments, a third type of magnetism—altermagnetism—which had been theoretically predicted by scientists from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague several years earlier.

Limitations of the previously known magnetic branches for information technologies

We usually think of a magnet as a ferromagnet, which has a strong magnetic field that keeps a shopping list on the door of a refrigerator or enables the function of an electric motor in an electric car. The magnetic field of a ferromagnet is created when the magnetic field of millions of its atoms is aligned in the same direction. This magnetic field can also be used to modulate the electric current in information technology (IT) components.