Physics and Matter News - March 2008 Archives

Quantum Channel Between Earth And Space? Firing Photons Makes Advance In Space Communication (3/31/2008)

For the first time, physicists have been able to identify individual returning photons after firing and reflecting them off of a space satellite in orbit almost 1,500 kilometres above the earth. The experiment has proven the possibility of constructing a quantum channel between Space and Earth. ...> Full Article

Why matter matters in the universe (3/30/2008)

A new physics discovery explores why there is more matter than antimatter in the universe ...> Full Article

Researchers test unique approach to fusion power (3/29/2008)

Mimicking Earth's magnetic field in a giant thermos bottle ...> Full Article

Silicon chips for optical quantum technologies (3/28/2008)

A team of physicists and engineers has demonstrated exquisite control of single particles of light - photons - on a silicon chip to make a major advance towards the long sought after goal of a super-powerful quantum computer. ...> Full Article

'Superdense' coding gets denser (3/26/2008)

The record for the most amount of information sent by a single photon has been broken by researchers at the University of Illinois. Using the direction of "wiggling" and "twisting" of a pair of hyper-entangled photons, they have beaten a fundamental limit on the channel capacity for dense coding with linear optics. ...> Full Article

Physicists Team Up To Learn How Quantum Mechanical States Break Down (3/22/2008)

Collaborative Effort Moves Quantum Computers One Step Closer to Reality ...> Full Article

Researchers Find 'Metafilms' Can Shrink Radio, Radar Devices (3/21/2008)

Recent research at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has demonstrated that thin films made of "metamaterials"-manmade composites engineered to offer strange combinations of electromagnetic properties-can reduce the size of resonating circuits that generate microwaves. The work is a step forward in the worldwide quest to further shrink electronic devices such as cell phones, radios, and radar equipment. ...> Full Article

Fake Diamonds Help Jet Engines Take The Heat (3/19/2008)

Engineers are developing a technology to coat jet engine turbine blades with zirconium dioxide -- commonly called zirconia, the stuff of synthetic diamonds -- to combat high-temperature corrosion. ...> Full Article

Stunt doubles: Ultracold atoms could replicate the electron 'jitterbug' (3/18/2008)

Ultracold atoms moving through a carefully designed arrangement of laser beams will jiggle slightly as they go, two NIST scientists have predicted.* If observed, this never-before-seen "jitterbug" motion would shed light on a little-known oddity of quantum mechanics arising from Paul Dirac's 80-year-old theory of the electron. ...> Full Article

Single-crystal semiconductor wire built into an optical fiber (3/17/2008)

An international science team from Penn State and the University of Southampton, United Kingdom, has developed a process for growing a single-crystal semiconductor inside the tunnel of a hollow optical fiber. The device adds new electronic capabilities to optical fibers, whose performance in electronic devices such as computers typically is degraded by the interface between the fiber and the device. ...> Full Article

Wendelstein 7-X reaches first milestone (3/16/2008)

The world's largest fusion experiment of the stellarator type taking shape at IPP's Greifswald branch institute ...> Full Article

A Sub-femtosecond Stop Watch for 'Photon Finish' Races (3/16/2008)

Using a system that can compare the travel times of two photons with sub-femtosecond precision, scientists at the Joint Quantum Institute (a partnership of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland) and Georgetown University have found a remarkably large difference in the time it takes photons to pass through nearly identical stacks of materials with different arrangements of refractive layers. The technique, described at the annual March Meeting of the American Physical Society,* ultimately could provide an empirical answer to a long-standing puzzle over how fast light crosses narrow gaps that do not permit the passage of conventional electromagnetic waves. ...> Full Article

New detector can 'see' single neutrons over broad range (3/15/2008)

Researchers have developed a new optical method that can detect individual neutrons and record them over a range of intensities at least a hundred times greater than existing detectors. The new detector promises to improve existing neutron measurements and enable tests of new phenomena beyond the Standard Model, the basic framework of particle physics. ...> Full Article

Ultra-fast, ultra-intense laser has clean-cut advantage (3/15/2008)

Laser lab will enable researchers to change the face of medicine ...> Full Article

Compound removes radioactive material from power plant waste (3/14/2008)

Layered sulfides bond to strontium 90, other radioactive ions ...> Full Article

Physicists discover how fundamental particles lose track of quantum mechanical properties (3/14/2008)

In today's Science Express, the advance online publication of the journal Science, researchers report a series of experiments that mark an important step toward understanding a longstanding fundamental physics problem of quantum mechanics. The scientists presented their findings at the annual meeting of the American Physical Society here this week. ...> Full Article

Team achieves nuclear fuel performance milestone (3/13/2008)

Researchers reached a major domestic milestone relating to nuclear fuel performance. ...> Full Article

Scientists closer to understanding dark matter (3/12/2008)

Researchers inherit one of the world's most exciting research projects when it comes to understanding dark matter and the nature of the universe. ...> Full Article

After 30 years of study, rare particle confirms prediction (3/12/2008)

High-energy physicists devoted to recreating the conditions at the beginning of the universe have for the first time observed a new way to produce those basic particles of atoms, protons and neutrons. ...> Full Article

Physicists and engineers search for new dimension (3/11/2008)

The universe as we currently know it is made up of three dimensions of space and one of time, but researchers are exploring the possibility of an extra dimension. ...> Full Article

$17 million grant supports predictive science and supernovae research (3/11/2008)

By simulating and studying supernovae, a new center at the University of Michigan aims to advance predictive science. ...> Full Article

Future 'quantum computers' will offer increased efficiency ... and risks (3/10/2008)

Professor makes unique discovery, may revolutionize encryption technology ...> Full Article

'Quantum logic clock' rivals mercury ion as world's most accurate clock (3/9/2008)

Comparison yields best results yet in tests for change in 'constants' of nature ...> Full Article

Single particles of light have a market (3/8/2008)

The world's first commercial product delivering individual photons of light has been developed ...> Full Article

Controlling most atoms now possible (3/8/2008)

Scientists open up new avenues of research using atomic coilguns and lasers ...> Full Article

Supercomputer Confirms Standard Model Theory Of The Universe, Deepens Puzzle (3/7/2008)

Scientists have used a supercomputer to shed new light on one of the most important theories of physics, the Standard Model, which encapsulates understanding of all the material that makes up the universe. This 30-year-old theory explains all the known elementary particles and three of the four forces acting upon them - however, it excludes the force of gravity, which is its shortcoming. ...> Full Article

Physics breakthrough much ado about 'nothing' (3/7/2008)

Team enhances understanding of the universe by capturing unique form of void ...> Full Article

New material can find a needle in a nuclear waste haystack (3/6/2008)

Nuclear power has advantages, but, if this method of making power is to be viable long term, discovering new solutions to radioactive waste disposal and other problems are critical. Otherwise nuclear power is unlikely to become mainstream. ...> Full Article

Latest Supercomputer Calculations Support the Six-Quark Theory (3/5/2008)

A new calculation, reported in the January 25, 2008 issue of Physical Review Letters, confirms the six-quark theory of particle-anti-particle asymmetry. This is the first complete calculation of this phenomenon to employ a highly accurate description of the quarks that adds a fifth dimension beyond those of space and time. ...> Full Article

Last large piece of ATLAS detector lowered underground (3/3/2008)

Today, researchers in the U.S. ATLAS collaboration joined colleagues around the world to celebrate a pivotal landmark in the construction of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) - the lowering of the final piece of the ATLAS particle detector into the underground collision hall at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. Experiments conducted at this revolutionary LHC facility, poised to become the world's most powerful particle accelerator, may help scientists unravel some of the deepest mysteries in particle physics. The U.S. branch of the collaboration (U.S. ATLAS), which is based at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and includes scientists and technicians from Argonne National Laboratory, built and delivered several key elements of the ATLAS detector. ...> Full Article

New Method for Creating Tough Metallic Glass Composites (3/2/2008)

Scientists at the California Institute of Technology have developed a new strategy for creating "liquid metal" that makes it able to bend significantly without breaking, while retaining a strength twice that of titanium. It is among the toughest, or least brittle, known materials, and could be used anywhere that strong metal alloys are traditionally found, but may prove most useful in the aerospace industry, where lower density means fuel savings. ...> Full Article

New 'snapshots' aid quest for fusion energy (3/1/2008)

Physicists at MIT and the University of Rochester have devised a new way to take "snapshots" of the high-energy, high-temperature reactions seen as key to achieving the long-held dream of controlled nuclear fusion. ...> Full Article