Quantum Physics News

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Novel Device Detects Elusive Gravity Waves from Other End of the Cosmos

A new window into the nature of the universe may be possible with a device proposed by scientists at the University of Nevada, Reno and Stanford University that would detect elusive gravity waves from the other end of the cosmos. Their paper describing the device and process was published in the prestigious physics journal Physical Review Letters.

18 May 2013

Core Source Flaring of Circinus X-1 Neutron Star System Observed with Karoo Array Telescope

An international team of astronomers have reported the first scientific results from the Karoo Array Telescope (KAT-7) in South Africa, the pathfinder radio telescope for the $3 billion global Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project.

17 May 2013

Researchers Observe Rare Quantum Effect That Produces Repeating Butterfly-Shaped Energy Spectrum

A team of researchers from Columbia University, City University of New York, the University of Central Florida (UCF), and Tohoku University and the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan, have directly observed a rare quantum effect that produces a repeating butterfly-shaped energy spectrum, confirming the longstanding prediction of this quantum fractal energy structure called Hofstadter’s butterfly.

17 May 2013

Smallest Drops of Liquid May Have Been Created at the Large Hadron Collider

Physicists may have created the smallest drops of liquid ever made in the lab. That possibility has been raised by the results of a recent experiment conducted by Vanderbilt physicist Julia Velkovska and her colleagues at the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest and most powerful particle collider located at the European Laboratory for Nuclear and Particle Physics (CERN) in Switzerland. Evidence of the minuscule droplets was extracted from the results of colliding protons with lead ions at velocities approaching the speed of light.

17 May 2013

Massive IceCube Telescope Detects 28 Extremely High-Energy Neutrinos

A massive telescope in the Antarctic ice reports the detection of 28 extremely high-energy neutrinos that might have their origin in cosmic sources. Two of these reached energies greater than 1 petaelectronvolt (PeV), an energy level thousands of times higher than the highest energy neutrino yet produced in a manmade accelerator.

17 May 2013

Oklahoma Professor to Explore Physics and Applications of Quantum Vacuum

A University of Oklahoma physics professor is the recipient of a grant from the Simons Foundation Fellows Program in Theoretical Physics for research.

16 May 2013

Immense Power may be Generated by Tapping Intense Gravity of Supermassive Black Holes

This composite image of a galaxy illustrates how the intense gravity of a supermassive black hole can be tapped to generate immense power. The image contains X-ray data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue), optical light obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope (gold) and radio waves from the NSF's Very Large Array (pink).

16 May 2013

Innsbruck Physicists Measure Superfluid Fraction in Quantum Gas

Below a critical temperature, certain fluids become superfluid and lose internal friction. In addition, fluids in this state conduct heat extremely efficiently, with energy transport occurring in a distinct temperature wave. Because of the similarities to a sound wave, this temperature wave is also called second sound.

16 May 2013

Cold Interstellar Dust Revealed as a Fiery Ribbon in Orion Constellation

Clouds of gas and interstellar dust are the raw materials from which stars are made. But these tiny dust grains block our view of what lies within and behind the clouds — at least at visible wavelengths — making it difficult to observe the processes of star formation.

16 May 2013

Researchers Tackle the Question of Why Nature Picked Quantum Physics as a Sensible Way to Behave

Like small children, scientists are always asking the question 'why?'. One question they've yet to answer is why nature picked quantum physics, in all its weird glory, as a sensible way to behave. Researchers Corsin Pfister and Stephanie Wehner at the Centre for Quantum Technologies at the National University of Singapore tackle this perennial question in a paper published 14 May in Nature Communications.

15 May 2013