Science Daily June 26, 2023 Qubits in cavity quantum electrodynamic (QED) architectures are often operated in the dispersive regime, in which the operating frequency of the cavity depends on the energy state of the qubit, and vice versa. The ability to tune these dispersive shifts provides additional options for performing either quantum measurements or logical manipulations. A team of researchers in the US (NIST- Boulder,CO, UMass Amherst, UMass Lowell, Raytheon, MA) coupled two transmon qubits to a lumped-element cavity through a shared superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID). The design balanced the mutual capacitive and inductive circuit components so that both […]
Tongan Eruption’s 11 Hours of Lightning Fury Shattered Records
Science Alert June 22, 2023 Using a combination of satellite- and ground-based sensors a team of researchers in the US (USGS (Vancouver), industry, Los Alamos National Laboratory, NASA (Huntsville, AL), NASA, VA) investigated the rate of volcanic lightning (>2,600 flashes min−1) and what it revealed about the dynamics of the submarine eruption. In map view, lightning locations form radially expanding rings. They showed that the initial lightning ring was co-located with an internal gravity wave traveling >80 m s−1 in the stratospheric umbrella cloud. Buoyant oscillations of the plume’s overshooting top generated the gravity waves, which enhanced turbulent particle interactions […]
Towards efficient lithium–air batteries with solution plasma-based synthesis of perovskite hydroxide catalysts
Science Daily June 26, 2023 CoSn(OH)6 (CSO) is a perovskite-type hydroxide that is a promising catalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). An international team of researchers (Japan, China, Thailand) synthesized and characterized CSO using a solution plasma process. Tests revealed that highly crystalline CSO could be synthesized by adjusting the pH of the precursor solution to more than 10 to 12. The synthesized CSO had a cubic shape, and its size was approximately 100 to 300 nm. The valences of Co and Sn in CSO were divalent and tetravalent, respectively. The catalytic properties were evaluated using an electrochemical method. […]
Top 10 Science and Technology Inventions for the Week of 23, June 2023
01. Navigating underground with cosmic-ray muons 02. Exploring gravity’s effect on quantum spins 03. International team reports powerful tool for studying, tuning atomically thin materials 04. MIT engineers develop a soft, printable, metal-free electrode 05. New approach for understanding temperature effects on photovoltaic device performance 06. New cooling technology developed for quantum computing circuits 07. New research on self-locking light sources presents opportunities for quantum technologies 08. This salty gel could harvest water from desert air 09. Treatment creates steel alloys with superior strength and plasticity 10. With trapped waves, researchers resolve a longstanding debate And others Earth Could Feasibly […]
Earth Could Feasibly Descend Into Chaos, Physicists Warn
Science Alert June 19, 2023 Researchers in Portugal have shown that the impact of human activity on the Earth system could result in unpredictable chaos from which there is no return, physicists have calculated. Their arguments are based on the assumption that the ES can be described by a Landau-Ginzburg model, which on its own allows for predicting that the ES evolves, through regular trajectories in the phase space, towards a Hothouse Earth scenario for a finite amount of human-driven impact. They found that the equilibrium point for temperature fluctuations can exhibit bifurcations and a chaotic pattern if the human […]
Exploring gravity’s effect on quantum spins
Phys.org June 16, 2023 Among the four fundamental forces, only gravity does not couple to particle spins according to the general theory of relativity. Researchers in China tested this principle by searching for an anomalous scalar coupling between the neutron spin and the Earth’s gravity on the ground. They developed an atomic gas comagnetometer to measure the ratio of nuclear spin-precession frequencies between 129Xe and 131Xe, and searched for a change of this ratio to the precision of 10−9 as the sensor is flipped in Earth’s gravitational field. The null results of this search set an upper limit on the […]
International team reports powerful tool for studying, tuning atomically thin materials
Phys.org June 15, 2023 Moiré superlattices of two-dimensional heterostructures arose as a new platform to investigate emergent behaviour in quantum solids with unprecedented tunability. To glean insights into the physics of these systems, it is paramount to discover new probes of the moiré potential and moiré minibands, as well as their dependence on external tuning parameters. Hydrostatic pressure is a powerful control parameter since it allows to continuously and reversibly enhance the moiré potential. An international team of researchers (USA – MIT, Mexico) used high pressure to tune the minibands in a rotationally aligned MoS2/WSe2 moiré heterostructure and showed that […]
MIT engineers develop a soft, printable, metal-free electrode
MIT News June 15, 2023 Conducting polymer hydrogels have emerged as a promising candidate for bioelectronic interfacing with biological systems. Despite the recent advances, the development of hydrogels with both excellent electrical and mechanical properties in physiological environments is still challenging. An international team of researchers led by MIT has developed a bi-continuous conducting polymer hydrogel that simultaneously achieves high electrical conductivity, stretchability, and fracture toughness in physiological environments. It is readily applicable to advanced fabrication methods including 3D printing. Enabled by these properties, they demonstrated multi-material 3D printing of monolithic all-hydrogel bioelectronic interfaces for long-term electrophysiological recording and stimulation […]
Navigating underground with cosmic-ray muons
Science Daily June 15, 2023 Navigation in indoor and underground environments has been extensively studied to realize automation of home, hospital, office, factory and mining services, and various techniques have been proposed for its implementation. An international team of researchers (Japan, UK, Italy) developed a completely new wireless navigation technique called wireless muometric navigation system (MuWNS) utilizing the relativistic and penetrative nature of cosmic-ray muons. They demonstrated MuWNS by using the system on the basement floor inside a building to navigate (a person) in an area where global navigation satellite system (GNSS)/ global positioning system (GPS) signals could not reach. […]
New approach for understanding temperature effects on photovoltaic device performance
Phys.org June 14, 2023 Little is known about the operational temperature which is critical in a solar cell’s ability to convert sunlight to free energy. Researchers in Israel analyzed the photovoltaic effect while assuming a fixed ambient temperature and a varying system temperature rather than using the standard fixed system temperature–based approaches. They studied the potential-dependent current and temperature of solar cells and thermoradiative power generators and showed that the optimal band gap of a solar cell depends on its heat-transfer coefficient and that its efficiency may rise or fall as solar concentration increases, depending on its ability to dissipate […]