Physics and Matter News - September 2009 Archives

Pushing the cold frontier in an orderly fashion (9/30/2009)

Working toward ever lower temperatures is only part of the battle for physicists studying ultra-cold systems of atoms. A group of researchers has now found a way to deal with disorder as well, as they pump entropy away from an atomic gas. ...> Full Article

New project tackles nuclear fuel recycling science (9/29/2009)

A new research project at Idaho National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory will use an innovative approach to learn how to get more use from nuclear fuel. INL has won a competitive research grant that could help nuclear fuel be recycled or used for longer periods of time to produce more energy. The INL team in Idaho will collaborate with scientists at the Argonne Tandem Linac Accelerator System user facility in Illinois. ...> Full Article

Discovery brings new type of fast computers closer to reality (9/28/2009)

Physicists at UC San Diego have successfully created speedy integrated circuits with particles called "excitons" that operate at commercially cold temperatures, bringing the possibility of a new type of extremely fast computer based on excitons closer to reality. ...> Full Article

Superheavy element 114 confirmed by Berkeley Lab nuclear scientists (9/27/2009)

Scientists at the US Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have confirmed the production of the superheavy element 114, ten years after a group at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia, first claimed to have made it. The search for 114 has long been a key part of the quest for nuclear science's hoped-for Island of Stability. ...> Full Article

Prototype developed to detect dark matter (9/26/2009)

A team of researchers from the University of Zaragoza and the Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale has developed a "scintillating bolometer", a device that the scientists will use in efforts to detect the dark matter of the Universe, and which has been tested at the Canfranc Underground Laboratory in Huesca, Spain. ...> Full Article

Physicists make discovery in quantum mechanics (9/24/2009)

Physicists at UC Santa Barbara have made an important advance in quantum mechanics using a superconducting electrical circuit. The finding is reported in this week's issue of the journal Nature. ...> Full Article

Diamonds may be the ultimate MRI probe, say Quantum physicists (9/23/2009)

Diamonds, it has long been said, are a girl's best friend. But a research team including a physicist from NIST has recently found that the gems might turn out to be a patient's best friend as well. ...> Full Article

A tiny, tunable well of light, and a string theorist's toolbox (9/22/2009)

This week in Physics: Photonic devices promise advances in applications ranging from computing to high-speed communication; and a new toolkit of equations will help theorists determine whether a potential agreement between particle physics and string theory is fact or fancy. ...> Full Article

American-made SRF cavity makes the grade (9/21/2009)

The US Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility marked a step forward in the field of advanced particle accelerator technology with the successful test of the first US-built superconducting radiofrequency niobium cavity to meet the exacting specifications of the proposed International Linear Collider. ...> Full Article

Diamonds are a laser's best friend (9/19/2009)

Tomorrow's lasers may come with a bit of bling, thanks to a new technology that uses man-made diamonds to enhance the power and capabilities of lasers. Researchers in Australia have now demonstrated the first laser built with diamonds that has comparable efficiency to lasers built with other materials. ...> Full Article

Theoretical nuclear physics in China (9/18/2009)

In order to introduce the major achievements by Chinese scientists in the field of theoretical nuclear physics, Science in China Series G: Physics, Mechanics Astronomy editorial board has invited a number of the major players in the research of nuclear theory in China to contribute to this special issue. ...> Full Article

New magnetron may help defeat enemy electronics (9/17/2009)

Researchers funded by the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research at the University of Michigan invented a new type of magnetron that may be used to defeat enemy electronics. A magnetron is type of vacuum tube used as the frequency source in microwave ovens, radar systems and other high-power microwave circuits. ...> Full Article

Going with the flow: Using star power to better understand fusion (9/16/2009)

UC San Diego researchers are using "star" power to help ignite the field of fusion, which is being looked at as a future reliable green energy source. ...> Full Article

Molecules on a string, and why size isn't the only thing that matters for data storage (9/15/2009)

Physicists get a grip on slippery molecules, and learn how the shape of nanoscopic magnetic islands affect data storage. ...> Full Article

New physics theory prize names first recipient (9/14/2009)

The first Prange Prize, a new award for distinguished contributions to condensed-matter physics theory, will go to Nobel laureate Philip Anderson. Anderson will receive the prize and deliver a public lecture titled "Presenting Unpopular Theories" on October 20, 2009, at the University of Maryland at College Park. ...> Full Article

Superscanner helps scientists see into the unknown (9/13/2009)

Researchers at The University of Nottingham have a new weapon in their arsenal of tools to push back the boundaries of science, engineering, veterinary medicine and archeology. ...> Full Article

Light at the speed of a bicycle and much more (9/12/2009)

The Institute of Physics and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council are launching a new report today, Wednesday, Sept. 9, entitled "Optics and photonics: Physics enhancing our lives," to highlight the most recent advances in the field of optics and photonics and demonstrate the potentially lucrative ends a range of researchers have in sight. ...> Full Article

High in sodium: Highly charged tungsten ions may diagnose fusion energy reactors (9/11/2009)

Physicists at NIST are studying their own version of a sodium substitute -- sodium-like tungsten ions that could be useful in monitoring the ultra-hot plasma inside fusion energy devices. ...> Full Article

Researcher uses bacteria to make radioactive metals inert (9/10/2009)

Scientist is studying bacteria that could clean contaminated water bodies across the US ...> Full Article

Lasers generate underwater sound (9/9/2009)

Scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory are developing a new technology for use in underwater acoustics. The new technology uses flashes of laser light to remotely create underwater sound. The new acoustic source has the potential to expand and improve both Naval and commercial underwater acoustic applications, including undersea communications, navigation and acoustic imaging. ...> Full Article

Optical atomic clock becomes portable (9/8/2009)

Optical clocks might become more compact and even portable, maybe in the future even travel to space. Scientists of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt have shown how some fundamental difficulties, which a more simple set-up had previously hindered, could be avoided (see current edition of "Physical Review Letters"). In the next step they want to build such a clock. This clock could help to determine geographical heights more exactly than before. ...> Full Article

Researcher uses 100,000 degree heat to study plasma (9/7/2009)

University of Nevada, Reno researcher and faculty member Roberto Mancini is studying ultra-high temperature and non-equilibrium plasmas to mimic what happens to matter in accretion disks around black holes. The research will enable astrophysicists to better understand what happens around black holes and in active galactic nuclei. Scientists will also better understand the application of high-energy density plasmas to energy production, such as controlled nuclear fusion (produced in the laboratory), and production of X-ray sources for a variety of applications. ...> Full Article

Magnetic monopoles detected in a real magnet for the first time (9/6/2009)

Researchers from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie have, in cooperation with colleagues from Dresden, St. Andrews, La Plata and Oxford, for the first time observed magnetic monopoles and how they emerge in a real material. They publish this result in the journal Science within the Science Express web site on Sept. 3. ...> Full Article

Atoms don't dance the 'bose nova' (9/5/2009)

Hanns-Christoph Naegerl's research group has investigated how ultracold quantum gases behave in lower spatial dimensions. They successfully realized an exotic state, where, due to the laws of quantum mechanics, atoms align along a one-dimensional structure. A stable many-body phase with new quantum mechanical states is thereby produced even though the atoms are usually strongly attracted which would cause the system to collapse. The scientists report on their findings in the leading scientific journal Science. ...> Full Article

Scientists from Bonn cool gas by laser bombardment (9/4/2009)

Three decades ago, American and Finnish scientists came up with a very powerful method for cooling gases by "laser bombardment." Only now were physicists at the University of Bonn able to demonstrate that it actually works. The work of the Bonn scientists will appear in the forthcoming issue of the journal 'Nature'. Fast cooling by laser bombardment could, inter alia, possibly be used for the construction of new mini fridges. ...> Full Article

World's smallest semiconductor laser heralds new era in optical science (9/3/2009)

UC Berkeley researchers have reached a new milestone in laser physics by creating the world's smallest semiconductor laser, capable of generating visible light in a space smaller than a single protein molecule. ...> Full Article

Laser pulses control single electrons in complex molecules (9/2/2009)

A German-Dutch team with physicists from the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching, the Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics AMOLF in Amsterdam and chemists from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat in Munich achieved the control over single electrons in a multi-electron system with waveform shaped laser pulses. ...> Full Article