New method to generate Laughlin states with atomic systems
In 1998, the Nobel Prize in Physics was conferred to the discovery of a new type of quantum fluid with fractional charge excitations, known as Laughlin state. The production of this quantum state,...
View ArticleCatalogs of distant, faint sources dark fields [rejected]
Over the past decade, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and other modern, giant telescopes have opened a new era in observational cosmology. By staring for long times at so-called "dark fields"—regions...
View ArticleWriting the history of the 'Cosmic Dark Ages'
For millions of years after the Big Bang, there were no stars, or even galaxies to contain stars. During these "Cosmic Dark Ages," neutral hydrogen gas dominated the universe. When clouds of primordial...
View ArticleSimulation sets atoms shivering
(Phys.org) —In "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" (JK Rowling, 1997), Harry, Ron, and Hermione encounter a massive stone chessboard, one of many obstacles in their path. To advance, they must...
View ArticleSpinning atoms in light crystals
(Phys.org) —After more than 40 years of intense research, experimental physicists still seek to explore the rich behaviour of electrons confined to a two-dimensional crystalline structure exposed to...
View ArticleRiver of hydrogen flowing through space seen with Green Bank Telescope
(Phys.org) —Using the National Science Foundation's Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT), astronomer D.J. Pisano from West Virginia University has discovered what could be a never-before-seen...
View ArticleQuantum chaos in ultracold gas discovered
A team of University of Innsbruck researchers discovered that even simple systems, such as neutral atoms, can possess chaotic behavior, which can be revealed using the tools of quantum mechanics. The...
View ArticleUltra-cold atom transport made simple
Techniques for controlling ultra-cold atoms travelling in ring traps currently represent an important research area in physics. A new study gives a proof of principle, confirmed by numerical...
View ArticleNASA-funded X-ray instrument settles interstellar debate
New findings from a NASA-funded instrument have resolved a decades-old puzzle about a fog of low-energy X-rays observed over the entire sky. Thanks to refurbished detectors first flown on a NASA...
View ArticleResearch team creates a superfluid in a record-high magnetic field
MIT physicists have created a superfluid gas, the so-called Bose-Einstein condensate, for the first time in an extremely high magnetic field. The magnetic field is a synthetic magnetic field, generated...
View ArticleQuantum computing advance locates neutral atoms
For any computer, being able to manipulate information is essential, but for quantum computing, singling out one data location without influencing any of the surrounding locations is difficult. Now, a...
View ArticleAstronomers detect the farthest galaxy yet with Keck telescope
A team of Caltech researchers that has spent years searching for the earliest objects in the universe now reports the detection of what may be the most distant galaxy ever found. In an article...
View ArticleEntering the strange world of ultra-cold chemistry
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have received a $900,000 grant from the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) to study the unusual chemical and physical properties of...
View ArticleNASA plans twin sounding rocket launches over Norway this winter
This winter, two sounding rockets will launch through the aurora borealis over Norway to study how particles move in a region near the North Pole where Earth's magnetic field is directly connected to...
View ArticleScientists launch NASA rocket into auroral "speed bumps" above Norway
A team of scientists led by Marc Lessard of the University of New Hampshire Space Science Center launched an instrument-laden, four-stage sounding rocket from Norway's Andøya Space Center about 280...
View ArticleMeasuring the magnetization of wandering spins
The swirling field of a magnet—rendered visible by a sprinkling of iron filings—emerges from the microscopic behavior of atoms and their electrons. In permanent magnets, neighboring atoms align and...
View ArticleChandra observations of comets C/2012 S1 (ISON) and C/2011 L4 (PanSTARRS)
For millennia, people on Earth have watched comets in the sky. Many ancient cultures saw comets as the harbingers of doom, but today scientists know that comets are really frozen balls of dust, gas,...
View ArticleGiant hydrogen cloud spotted around the Triangulum Galaxy
(Phys.org)—While peering into the nearby Triangulum Galaxy known as M33, astronomers have detected what appears to be a giant cloud of hydrogen around it. According to research published online on May...
View ArticleScientists set traps for atoms with single-particle precision
Atoms, photons, and other quantum particles are often capricious and finicky by nature; very rarely at a standstill, they often collide with others of their kind. But if such particles can be...
View ArticleDiagnostics for super-hot plasmas in fusion reactors
In the sun and other fusion plasmas, atoms of hydrogen and its isotopes are the fuel. Plasmas are gases that are so hot that electrons are knocked free of the atom, making the atoms electrically...
View Article