01. Physicists develop new method to combine conventional internet with the quantum internet 02. Researchers develop general framework for designing quantum sensors 03. Physicists report new insights into exotic particles key to magnetism 04. Researchers identify useful emission lines in the sun’s outer atmosphere 05. Stacking molecules like plates improves organic solar device performance 06. Layered superconductor coaxed to show unusual properties with potential for quantum computing 07. New nanomaterials could boost hydrogen production for clean energy 08. Synergistic aerogel materials developed for heat and fire insulation 09. Modern aircraft emit less carbon than older aircraft, but their contrails may […]
China launches rocket carrying new constellation of satellites
Phys.org August 6, 2024 China says it launched a rocket Tuesday carrying a constellation of a reported 18 satellites as part of efforts to assert its presence in space. The satellites were carried aboard a Long March-6 carrier rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China’s Shanxi Province early on Tuesday afternoon. It has also launched the Beidou System of satellites for national security, communications and scientific purposes, seen as an alternative—or possible competitor—to the GPS system widely used for navigation that is mainly helmed by the United States… read more.
Hidden players in climate change: How microscopic proteins could shape our future
Phys.org August, 1, 2024 Extremes in the magnitude and frequency of temperature changes are increasing across the planet, raising questions as to how the biosphere will respond. An international team of researchers (USA – Duke University, University of North Carolina, Germany) examined mechanisms of adaptation to temperature in the fungus Ashbya gossypii. They found that control of the nuclear division cycle and polarized morphogenesis, both critical processes for fungal growth, were temperature sensitive and varied among the isolates. The phenotypes were associated with naturally varying sequences of an RNA-binding protein called Whi3 which regulated both nuclear division and polarized growth. […]
Lasers deliver powerful shocking punch in material experiments
Phys.org August 7, 2024 A team of international researchers (Stanford University, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Purdue University, Carnegie Mellon University, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Germany) used diffraction patterns from x-ray pulses to investigate the temperature evolution of laser-shocked Al–Zr metal film composites at time delays ranging from 5 to 75 ns driven by a short-pulse laser. They found significant heating of both Al and Zr after shock release. A conventional hydrodynamic model did not fully account for the measured temperature increase, which suggested that other strength-related mechanisms (such as fine-scale void growth) could play an important role in thermal responses under […]
Layered superconductor coaxed to show unusual properties with potential for quantum computing
Phys.org July 31, 2024 Chiral superconductors are a unique class of unconventional superconductors in which the complex superconducting order parameter winds clockwise or anticlockwise in the momentum space. It represents a topologically non-trivial system with intrinsic time-reversal symmetry breaking (TRSB) and direct implications for topological quantum computing. Chiral molecules with neither mirror nor inversion symmetry have been widely investigated. An international team of researchers (USA – UCLA, Czech Republic) explored unconventional superconductivity in chiral molecule intercalated TaS2 hybrid superlattices. The experimental signatures of unconventional superconductivity suggested that the intriguing interplay between crystalline atomic layers and the self-assembled chiral molecular layers […]
Machine learning and better radar solve the ‘cloud cover’ problem
Phys.org August 6, 2024 The continuous retrieval of clear-sky land surface temperature (LST) is important for monitoring vegetation temperature and assessing water stress conditions. However, the extensive cloud cover poses challenges in accurately forecasting LST in regions characterized by diverse vegetation types and complex terrains. Researchers in China proposed a synthetic aperture radar – and digital elevation model (DEM)-integrated LST reconstruction model (SDX-LST) to assess the practicality and robustness of the SDX-LST model. To test the model, they selected areas in America spanning a wide range of longitude and latitude and having obvious differences in topography, landforms, and vegetation. According […]
Modern aircraft emit less carbon than older aircraft, but their contrails may do more environmental harm
Phys.org August 7, 2024 Contrails contribute over half of the positive radiative forcing from aviation, but the size of this warming effect is highly uncertain. In-situ observations have demonstrated an impact of aircraft and fuel type on contrail properties close to the aircraft, but there are few observational constraints at these longer timescales, despite these having a strong impact in high-resolution and global models. An international team of researchers (UK, Germany, USA – NASA Langley Research Center (VA)) found a relationship between aircraft type and contrail formation after investigating over 64 000 cases, with more efficient aircraft forming longer-lived satellite-detectable […]
New nanomaterials could boost hydrogen production for clean energy
Phys.org August 5, 2024 Nanosizing confers unique functions in materials such as graphene and quantum dots. An international team of researchers (UK, China) described two nanoscale-covalent organic frameworks (nano-COFs) that exhibited exceptionally high activity for photocatalytic hydrogen production that resulted from their size and morphology. Compared to bulk analogues, the downsizing of COFs crystals using surfactants provided greatly improved water dispersibility and light-harvesting properties. The nano-COFs showed high hydrogen evolution rate. They observed a reverse concentration-dependent photocatalytic phenomenon where a higher photocatalytic activity was found at a lower catalyst concentration, and the materials showed a molecule-like excitonic nature, a function […]
Physicists develop new method to combine conventional internet with the quantum internet
Phys.org August 5, 2024 A promising and scalable route to enable quantum networking is encoding quantum information into the frequency of photons. While the cointegration of frequency-entangled photons with coherent information transmission is achieved via spectral multiplexing, more resource-efficient approaches are required. Researchers in Germany introduced and experimentally demonstrated a transceiver concept that enabled the transmission of coherent and frequency-entangled photons over a single-frequency channel. They leveraged the serrodyne technique via electro-optic phase modulation leading to very different dynamics for entangled and coherent photons. This enabled temporal multiplexing of the respective signals. They demonstrated the preservation of entanglement over the […]
Physicists report new insights into exotic particles key to magnetism
Phys.org August 1, 2024 An international team of researchers (USA – MIT, Arizona State University, Brookhaven National Laboratory, France, the Netherlands) studied the impact of charge transfer and magnetic order on the excitation spectrum of the nickel dihalides. They detected sharp excitations, analogous to the recently reported excitons and demonstrated that the excitons were dispersive using momentum-resolved resonant inelastic X-ray scattering. The data showed a ligand-mediated multiplet dispersion, which was tuned by the charge-transfer gap and independent of the presence of long-range magnetic order. According to the researchers this reveals the mechanisms governing nonlocal interactions of on-site intra-atomic transitions between […]