The experiments were carried out on endofullerenes, molecules of C60 into which smaller molecules of Hydrogen (H2) had been inserted. The results, published in Physical Review Letters, represent the first known example of a quantum selection rule found in a molecule.
Observing the quantum behavior of light is a big part of Alan Migdall’s research at the Joint Quantum Institute. Many of his experiments depend on observing light in the form of photons---the particle complement of light waves---and sometimes only one photon at a time, using “smart” detectors that can count the number of individual photons in a pulse.
By focusing on large, star-forming galaxies in the universe, researchers at Johns Hopkins University were able to measure its radiation leaks in an effort to better understand how the universe evolved as the first stars were formed.
The American Physical Society has announced that it will present its 2015 Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize to David Awschalom, the Liew Family Professor in Spintronics and Quantum Information at the University of Chicago. The award is presented for outstanding contributions to physics by a single individual who also has exceptional skills in lecturing to diverse audiences.
The discovery of a new particle will "transform our understanding" of the fundamental force of nature that binds the nuclei of atoms, researchers argue.
Mazhar Ali, a fifth-year graduate student in the laboratory of Bob Cava, the Russell Wellman Moore Professor of Chemistry at Princeton University, has spent his academic career discovering new superconductors, materials coveted for their ability to let electrons flow without resistance. While testing his latest candidate, the semimetal tungsten ditelluride (WTe2), he noticed a peculiar result.
A new measurement of dark matter in the Milky Way has revealed there is half as much of the mysterious substance as previously thought.
A supernova is the cataclysmic death of a star, but it seems its remnants shine on. Astronomers have found a pulsating, dead star beaming with the energy of about 10 million suns.
A team of scientists using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has made the most detailed global map yet of the glow from a turbulent planet outside our solar system, revealing its secrets of air temperatures and water vapor.
In certain exotic situations, a collection of atoms can transition to a superfluid state, flouting the normal rules of liquid behavior. Unlike a normal, viscous fluid, the atoms in a superfluid flow unhindered by friction.
Albert Schliesser, a research assistant professor at Quantop at the Niels Bohr Institute has been awarded the research prize ‘Young Scientist Prize in Optics’ by the international physics organisation, the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics, IUPAP.
A professor in the College of Arts and Sciences has received a major grant to upgrade the cyberinfrastructure used by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) to search for gravitational waves.
Astronomers working with NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), led by Caltech's Fiona Harrison, have found a pulsating dead star beaming with the energy of about 10 million suns. The object, previously thought to be a black hole because it is so powerful, is in fact a pulsar—the incredibly dense rotating remains of a star.
By Kimm Fesenmaier
9 Oct 2014
Astronomers have discovered a black hole that is consuming gas from a nearby star 10 times faster than previously thought possible. The black hole—known as P13—lies on the outskirts of the galaxy NGC7793 about 12 million light years from Earth and is ingesting a weight equivalent to 100 billion billion hot dogs every minute.
Highly-detailed radio-telescope images have pinpointed the locations where a stellar explosion called a nova emitted gamma rays, the most energetic form of electromagnetic waves. The discovery revealed a probable mechanism for the gamma-ray emissions, which mystified astronomers when first observed in 2012.