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Category: particle physics – Page 30

Astonishing ‘halo’ of high-energy particles around giant galaxy cluster is a glimpse into the early universe

The discovery, made with the LOFAR (LOw Frequency ARray) radio instrument in Europe, indicates that galaxy clusters, which are some of the largest structures in the known universe, spend most of their existence wrapped in envelopes of high-energy particles.

This insight gives scientists a better idea of how energy flows around galaxy clusters. And that in turn could improve our picture of cosmic evolution, study members said.

“It’s astonishing to find such a strong radio signal at this distance,” study co-leader Roland Timmerman, an astronomer at Durham University in England, said in a statement. “It means these energetic particles and the processes creating them have been shaping galaxy clusters for nearly the entire history of the universe.”

Quantum computer simulates spontaneous symmetry breaking at zero temperature

For the first time, an international team of scientists has experimentally simulated spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) at zero temperature using a superconducting quantum processor. This achievement, which was accomplished with over 80% fidelity, represents a milestone for quantum computing and condensed matter physics.

The results are published in the journal Nature Communications.

The system began in a classical antiferromagnetic state, in which particles have spins that alternate between one direction and the opposite direction. It then evolved into a ferromagnetic quantum state, in which all particles have spins that point in the same direction and establish quantum correlations.

Resonant frequencies reveal a map for optimizing single-atom catalysts

Using nuclear magnetic resonance, researchers at ETH Zurich have studied the atomic environments of single platinum atoms in solid supports as well as their spatial orientation. In the future, this method can be used to optimize the production of single-atom catalysts.

ALMA reveals hidden structures in the first galaxies of the universe

Astronomers have used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to peer into the early universe and uncover the building blocks of galaxies during their formative years. The CRISTAL survey—short for [CII] Resolved ISM in STar-forming galaxies with ALMA—reveals cold gas, dust, and clumpy star formation in galaxies observed as they appeared just 1 billion years after the Big Bang.

“Thanks to ALMA’s unique sensitivity and resolution, we can resolve the internal structure of these early in ways never possible before,” said Rodrigo Herrera-Camus, principal investigator of the CRISTAL survey, professor at Universidad de Concepción, and Director of the Millennium Nucleus for Galaxy Formation (MINGAL) in Chile. “CRISTAL is showing us how the first galactic disks formed, how stars emerged in giant clumps, and how gas shaped the galaxies we see today.”

CRISTAL, an ALMA Large Program, observed 39 typical star-forming galaxies selected to represent the main population of galaxies in the early universe. Using [CII] line emission, a specific type of light emitted by ionized in cold interstellar gas, as a tracer of and dust, and combining it with near-infrared images from the James Webb and Hubble Space Telescopes, researchers created a detailed map of the interstellar medium in each system.

First-ever collisions of oxygen at the Large Hadron Collider

“The current operating mode, in which a beam of protons collides with a beam of oxygen ions, is the most challenging,” points out Roderik Bruce, an LHC ion specialist. “This is because the inside the accelerator affects protons and oxygen ions differently, due to their different charge-to-mass ratios. In other words, without corrections the two beams would collide in different places at each turn.”

To overcome this problem, the engineers are carefully adjusting the frequency of revolution and the momentum of each beam, so that the collisions take place right at the heart of the LHC’s four main experiments: ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb.

But these four experiments are not the only ones to be involved in this special campaign. Last week, the LHCf experiment, which studies cosmic rays using the small-angle particles created during collisions, installed a detector along the LHC beamline, 140 meters from the ATLAS experiment’s point, which it will use for proton–oxygen run. This detector will later be removed and replaced by a calorimeter, which will provide additional data during the oxygen–oxygen and neon–neon collisions.

Physicists Unlock New Path to Weighing the Universe’s “Ghost Particle”

Silver-110’s decay reveals a promising path to measure antineutrino mass. New data could reshape future neutrino studies. Neutrinos and antineutrinos are fundamental particles that possess mass, although their exact value remains unknown. Recent high-precision atomic mass measurements carried out

Satyendra Nath Bose

Satyendra Nath Bose FRS, MP [ 1 ] (/ ˈ b oʊ s / ; [ 4 ] [ a ] 1 January 1894 – 4 February 1974) was an Indian theoretical physicist and mathematician. He is best known for his work on quantum mechanics in the early 1920s, in developing the foundation for Bose–Einstein statistics, and the theory of the Bose–Einstein condensate. A Fellow of the Royal Society, he was awarded India’s second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan, in 1954 by the Government of India. [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ]

The eponymous particles class described by Bose’s statistics, bosons, were named by Paul Dirac. [ 8 ] [ 9 ]

A polymath, he had a wide range of interests in varied fields, including physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, mineralogy, philosophy, arts, literature, and music. He served on many research and development committees in India, after independence. [ 10 ] .

New superheavy isotope reveals complex relationship between quantum effects and fission

In a study published in Physical Review Letters, scientists at GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung have discovered a new superheavy isotope, 257 Sg (seaborgium), whose properties are providing new insights into nuclear stability and fission in the heaviest elements.

Superheavy elements exist in a delicate balance between the attractive nuclear force that holds protons and neutrons together and the repulsive electromagnetic force that pushes positively charged protons apart.

Without quantum shell effects, analogous to electron shells in atoms, these massive nuclei would split apart in less than a trillionth of a second.

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