Quantum Physics News

RSS

PTOLEMY Prototype Lab at PPPL to Hunt for Big Bang Neutrinos

Billions upon billions of neutrinos speed harmlessly through everyone’s body every moment of the day, according to cosmologists. The bulk of these subatomic particles are believed to come straight from the Big Bang, rather than from the sun or other sources.

24 Dec 2014

Exotic Split of Electrons Takes Place in Two Dimensions

Electrons may be seen as small magnets that also carry a negative electrical charge. On a fundamental level, these two properties are indivisible. However, in certain materials where the electrons are constrained in a quasi one-dimensional world, they appear to split into a magnet and an electrical charge, which can move freely and independently of each other.

24 Dec 2014

Tiny, Isolated Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy Discovered 7 Million Light Years Away

The Milky Way, the galaxy we live in, is part of a cluster of more than 50 galaxies that make up the ‘Local Group’, a collection that includes the famous Andromeda galaxy and many other far smaller objects. Now a Russian-American team have added to the canon, finding a tiny and isolated dwarf galaxy almost 7 million light years away. Their results appear in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

23 Dec 2014

Researchers Establish Charge Order in Another Class of Cuprate Superconductors

The discovery of superconductivity in cuprates, a class of ceramic materials, in 1986 has boosted an impressive effort of research all around the world. These materials still hold the record for the temperature where lossless conduction of electricity can be obtained.

23 Dec 2014

Pseudogap Stands in Way of Getting Superconductors to Work at Higher Temperatures

Scientists have found the first direct evidence that a mysterious phase of matter known as the "pseudogap" competes with high-temperature superconductivity, robbing it of electrons that otherwise might pair up to carry current through a material with 100 percent efficiency.

22 Dec 2014

Researchers Explore Quantum Coherence Phenomenon to Develop More-Efficient Solar Cells

In a recent study from Lund University in Sweden, researchers have used new technology to study extremely fast processes in solar cells. The research results form a concrete step towards more efficient solar cells.

22 Dec 2014

Breakthrough Discovery Could Prompt Ideas for New Applications of Wave-Particle Duality

Here's a nice surprise: quantum physics is less complicated than we thought. An international team of researchers has proved that two peculiar features of the quantum world previously considered distinct are different manifestations of the same thing. The result is published 19 December in Nature Communications.

22 Dec 2014

ERC Starting Grant to Professor Joachim Kopp to Pursue Research on Theoretical Neutrino Physics

Professor Joachim Kopp receives a prestigious Starting Grant worth EUR 800,000 from the European Research Council (ERC) to help promote his work in the field of theoretical particle and astroparticle physics.

22 Dec 2014

Berkeley Lab Launches The Particle Adventure Mobile App to Learn Particle Physics

Next time you get the itch to check Facebook on your mobile phone, why not scroll through the latest unsolved physics mysteries instead? Now a free app for Android and Apple devices called The Particle Adventure makes checking out the world of quarks, dark matter, and particle accelerators as easy as tapping touchscreen icons.

22 Dec 2014

Siemens to Build Power Grid of the Future Using Superconductors

When fed into medium-voltage power grids, large loads of renewable or other decentralized energies – which are generated when winds are strong or the sun is very bright – can produce short circuits that endanger the power supply. Superconducting network technologies can ensure reliable grid operation even under these conditions.

19 Dec 2014