Quantum Physics News

RSS

Neutrinos Can Inflict Glancing Blows to the Nucleus

In what they call a "weird little corner" of the already weird world of neutrinos, physicists have found evidence that these tiny particles might be involved in a surprising reaction.

31 Dec 2014

JHU Professor Wins Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for Film Particle Fever

David E. Kaplan, a Johns Hopkins University professor, theoretical particle physicist and documentary producer, received the 2015 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award in Journalism for his contributions to the production of the film Particle Fever.

30 Dec 2014

Researchers Discover Half-Light, Half-Matter Particles in Atomically Thin Semiconductors

Prospects of developing computing and communication technologies based on quantum properties of light and matter may have taken a major step forward thanks to research by City College of New York physicists led by Dr. Vinod Menon.

30 Dec 2014

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