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Physics And Chemistry

All articles tagged with #physics and chemistry

physics-and-chemistry6 days ago•17 min saved

Whale Calls Debunk a Physics Paradox: It’s All About Wave Interference

An oceanographer noticed humpback calls near Massachusetts appeared to exceed the speed of sound, but the effect isn’t physics breaking — it comes from interference between the direct sound and its surface-reflected echo reaching the hydrophone, making the strongest signal peak appear to arrive faster. This observer-relative illusion aligns with special relativity concepts, and the researchers propose experiments to verify this underwater SR-like phenomenon, with potential applications to light-based tests.

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#acoustics #interference #oceanography

physics-and-chemistry7 days ago•15 min saved

Physicists Propose Stable Bose-Fermi Droplets as a New Quantum State

Monash University researchers propose a new quantum state—stable Bose-Fermi droplets formed by a mixture of bosons and fermions balanced by attractive forces and fermionic pressure. The work provides a theoretical ansatz and an experimental roadmap to realize these droplets in ultracold systems, with potential implications for ultra-precise sensors and future quantum technologies.

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#bose-fermi-droplets #bosons #fermions

physics-and-chemistry15 days ago•15 min saved

Ten Thousand Colloids Temporarily Break Newton’s Third Law in an Electric Field

Japanese researchers suspended thousands of colloidal particles in water between microfabricated electrodes and applied an alternating electric field, which caused mixed-size particles to form self-propelled pairs and chase one another, effectively breaking action–reaction symmetry for about an hour. When all particles were the same size, interactions remained reciprocal and the system crystallized; with mixed sizes, particles clustered and then split repeatedly. The finding could inform programmable materials and microrobotics.

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#colloids #fluid-dynamics #non-equilibrium

physics-and-chemistry28 days ago•16 min saved

Silicon-Rich Multicomponent Alloy Found in Hiroshima Blast Debris

A Science Advances study reports the discovery of a previously unknown, silicon-rich multicomponent alloy formed inside microscopic grains called ‘hiroshimaites’ created by the Hiroshima atomic blast. The highly ordered tiny crystal demonstrates that extreme, rapid quenching from nuclear detonations can forge new crystalline materials, potentially encoding diagnostic information about the device, environment, and detonation conditions, with implications for nuclear forensics and materials science.

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#hiroshima #hiroshimaites #multicomponent-alloy

physics-and-chemistry1 month ago•17 min saved

The Quantum Split: A Theorized Truncated Photon Reveals an Infinite Photon State

A University of Oslo team theorizes that by using a fast optical shutter to create a left/right superposition, a photon can be effectively “cut” into a highly nonclassical state that, in principle, contains photons with numbers extending to infinity. The result isn’t two photons or a photon plus vacuum; instead, removing the shutter pulls photons from the vacuum, forming a sharp edge with a transition region. Local measurements on either side would resemble a single-photon state and vacuum respectively, even though the underlying state is much more complex. The study is purely theoretical but highlights surprising aspects of quantum field theory and wave–particle duality, and could in principle be tested experimentally.

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#photon #physics-and-chemistry #quantum

physics-and-chemistry1 month ago•16 min saved

AI-Fueled Breakthrough Clears Decades-Old Jamming Mystery

Physicists Parisi and Zamponi credit Claude, an AI model, with sparking a simple idea that, despite initial errors, guided a clean proof that two parameters in the jamming (granular) model sum to one. The researchers refined Claude’s premise and published their result in the Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment, illustrating AI’s potential to surface patterns and literature while underscoring that human verification remains essential.

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#artificial-intelligence #claude #jamming

physics-and-chemistry2 months ago•16 min saved

Lugworm Poop Maps Gravity-Driven Elastic Coiling, Science Confirms Emoji Shape

Physicists show lugworms defy gravity with upward-defecating poop whose shape follows elastic rope-coiling physics, explaining why the poop emoji’s cone form emerges from gravity and suggesting biology leverages basic physical laws rather than requiring special biological design.

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#elastic-coiling #gravity #lugworm

physics-and-chemistry2 months ago•16 min saved

Physicists Unveil a New Family of Schrödinger's Cat States in a Single Ion

Physicists developed a method to create and control quantum superpositions in the motion of a trapped strontium ion, turning the ion's internal spin into a tool to sculpt cat-like quantum states with distinctive interference patterns, expanding the Schrödinger cat family and offering new capabilities for quantum computing, simulations, and sensing.

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#physics-and-chemistry #quantum-computing #quantum-physics

physics-and-chemistry3 months ago•17 min saved

Gold’s Surface Hexagon: The Atomic Trick Behind Its Lasting Shine

Researchers used computer simulations to show gold’s surface atoms rearrange into hexagonal patterns that dramatically suppress oxidation (by about a billion to a trillion), explaining its long-lasting shine and suggesting new ways to optimize gold-catalyzed reactions.

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#catalysis #gold #materials-science

physics-and-chemistry3 months ago•17 min saved

One of Physics’ Biggest Surveys Finds Almost No Consensus

APS’s large survey of about 1,660 participants—ranging from researchers to science enthusiasts—reveals widespread disagreement on core physics questions, from the Big Bang to quantum gravity. The Big Bang is widely seen as a hot, dense state (68%), not necessarily the absolute beginning (25%). Quantum interpretations are not universally accepted: Copenhagen leads at around 36%, with many opting for other theories or 'no opinion.' About half agree on cosmic inflation, while dark energy and ΛCDM show no clear majority, with evolving dark energy edging ahead slightly. Only a minority subscribe to specific quantum gravity views, with string theory leading among them. The results underscore that physics frontiers remain active and data and theory must advance to resolve these debates.

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#big-bang #cosmic-inflation #dark-energy

physics-and-chemistry3 months ago•17 min saved

New Silicon-Calcium-Iron Clathrate Discovered in Trinity Test Glass

Physicists analyzing red trinitite from the Trinity test have identified a previously unknown silicon-calcium-iron clathrate, a nanoscale crystal structure formed by vaporized tower metals; confirmed with single-crystal X-ray diffraction and nanoscale imaging, this new phase could advance understanding of clathrates used in batteries, solar cells, and quantum devices, and provides a rare extreme-condition crystal for modeling.

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#clathrates #manhattan-project #material-science

physics-and-chemistry3 months ago•17 min saved

Ultra-Cold Device Creates Predictable Phonons for Quantum Communications

A cryogenic device generates tunable, predictable phonons (quantized sound) by driving electrons through a 2D crystal, offering a new route for quantum communications—particularly where light struggles, like the deep ocean—though it requires ultracold temperatures to work.

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#communication #phonons #physics-and-chemistry

physics-and-chemistry3 months ago•17 min saved

Texas A&M Opens World's Largest Lab for Controlled Explosions

Texas A&M has launched the Detonation Research Test Facility (DRTF), the world’s largest lab devoted to controlled explosions, featuring a 150-meter methane–air detonation tube with advanced sensors and lasers to study high-speed reactive flows, ignition, and transitions from deflagration to detonation and quenching; the research aims to advance safety, propulsion, and fundamental science across engineering and astrophysics, with Mach-5 detonations achievable in under five seconds and the project rooted in concerns from the mining community about natural gas explosions after a 2021 approval and commissioning.

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#detonation #explosions #high-speed-flows

physics-and-chemistry4 months ago•16 min saved

Gravity-Bent Light Sparks Portable Gravity-Mapping Sensor

A University of Wollongong physicist has built a compact fiber-optic laser system that leverages gravity’s bending of light to enable a mobile, high-precision sensing device. The ~1-meter instrument uses two long coils to compare tiny picosecond delays between light beams, a method dubbed gravity mapping that could support aerial underground surveys, submarine navigation, and geological monitoring. Described as an early proof-of-concept, the tech shows promise but researchers caution more work is needed to understand fluctuations and how gravity might influence light beyond Einstein’s postulate of a constant light speed.

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#emerging-technologies #gravitational-lenses #gravity

physics-and-chemistry4 months ago•16 min saved

Tiny nanodiamonds bend, not break, due to a hidden elastic layer

A custom electron microscope shows nanodiamonds deform elastically under pressure because a relatively weak bond between their surface layer and core, amplified by a large surface-to-core ratio, concentrates strain in an interfacial zone that absorbs the shock. Smaller diamonds (around 4 nm) are about 30% more stretchy than larger ones (around 13 nm), illustrating size-dependent elasticity and offering practical knobs for nanoscale devices like nanomechanical resonators and quantum sensors.

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#elasticity #interfacial-bonds #materials-science