Galaxies in a cluster roughly 300 million light years from Earth could contain as much as 100 times more dark matter than visible matter, according to an Australian study.
On November 25, 1915, Albert Einstein submitted his final version of the general theory of relativity to the Prussian Royal Academy. Einstein's revolutionary explanation of how gravity works had far-reaching consequences. Not only does the theory accurately explain the motion of the planets; it also describes the history and expansion of the universe, the physics of black holes, and the bending of light from distant stars and galaxies. Over the years, the radical ideas that a 35-year-old Einstein proposed 100 years ago have been confirmed by many observations and experiments.
Herbert C. Freyhardt, research professor at the Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston (TcSUH), has received the International Cryogenic Materials Conference Lifetime Achievement Award.
A UC physicist is among a prestigious group to discover a new class of subatomic particles. Known as pentaquarks, they may shed new light on the fundamental principles of how ordinary matter, protons and neutrons from which we are all made, is comprised.
Scientists at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have created a new type of room-temperature tunnel device structure in which the tunnel barrier and transport channel are made of the same material, graphene. Such functionalized homoepitaxial structures provide an elegant approach for realization of graphene-based spintronic, or spin electronic, devices. The research results are reported in a paper published in the journal ACS Nano (DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.5b02795).
The Gaia satellite has discovered a unique binary system where one star is ‘eating’ the other, but neither star has any hydrogen, the most common element in the Universe. The system could be an important tool for understanding how binary stars might explode at the end of their lives.
An ambitious European mission is being planned to answer fundamental questions about how planetary systems form and evolve. ARIEL will investigate the atmospheres of several hundred planets orbiting distant stars. It is one of three candidate missions selected last month by the European Space Agency (ESA) for its next medium class science mission, due for launch in 2026.
Closed flux surfaces verified / requirements for stellerator operation confirmed
Testing of the magnetic field in the Wendelstein 7-X fusion device was completed sooner than planned. The measurements, which were much anticipated at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Greifswald, show: The superconducting magnetic coils, whose technical tests were completed only last week are producing the required magnetic field. The magnetic cage for the fusion plasma, which has a temperature of many million degrees, has a configuration which is in line with the calculations of the physicists. This is an essential milestone in the operational preparations that are currently under way. Later this year, Wendelstein 7-X should produce its first plasma.
Physicists in the College of Arts and Sciences have been awarded a $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support their involvement with the construction of an upgrade to the Large Hadron Collider beauty (LHCb) experiment at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland.
An international team led by Princeton University scientists has discovered an elusive massless particle theorized 85 years ago. The particle could give rise to faster and more efficient electronics because of its unusual ability to behave as matter and antimatter inside a crystal, according to new research.
To capitalize on the growing interest in cadmium-free quantum dot (CFQD) technology within the lighting industry, Nanoco Group plc today announced the formation of a new division dedicated to furthering CFQD® Quantum Dot technology in the lighting industry.
The W. M. Keck Foundation has awarded scientists at The University of Texas at Austin two grants totaling $1.5 million to develop a powerful, alternative method for cooling atoms and involve more undergraduate students in using new advanced technologies for research.
Collision physics can be like a game of billiards. Yet in the microscopic world, the outcome of the game is hard to predict. Fire a particle at a group of other particles, and they may scatter, combine or break apart, according to probability distributions governed by quantum mechanics. These processes can tell us about fundamental properties of matter and, if antimatter projectiles are used, also about matter-antimatter interactions.
The fundamental constants that govern the laws of nature are being determined with increasing accuracy, according to a review paper published this week in Journal of Physical and Chemical Reference Data, from AIP Publishing.
Dark matter may find it tougher to hide in our universe.
An international team of researchers has developed a new map of the distribution of dark matter in the universe using data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES).
By Sarah Schlieder
15 Jul 2015