Category Archives: Quantum Physics

Physicists have created the first-ever atomic vortex beam a swirling tornado ofatomsand molecules with mysterious properties that have yet to be understood.

By sending a straight beam of helium atoms through a grating with teeny slits, scientists were able to use the weird rules of quantum mechanics to transform the beam into a whirling vortex.

The extra gusto provided by the beam's rotation, called orbital angular momentum, gives it a new direction to move in, enabling it to act in ways that researchers have yet to predict.

For instance, they believe the atoms' rotation could add extra dimensions ofmagnetismto the beam, alongside other unpredictable effects, due to the electrons and the nuclei inside the spiraling vortex atoms spinning at different speeds.

Related:The 18 biggest unsolved mysteries in physics

"One possibility is that this could also change the magnetic moment of the atom," or the intrinsic magnetism of a particle that makes it act like a tiny bar magnet, study co-author Yair Segev, a physicist at the University of California, Berkeley, told Live Science.

In the simplified, classical picture of the atom, negatively-charged electrons orbit a positively-charged atomic nucleus. In this view, Segev said that as the atoms spin as a whole, the electrons inside the vortex would rotate at a faster speed than the nuclei, "creating different opposing [electrical] currents" as they twist.

This could, according to the famouslaw of magnetic inductionoutlined by Michael Faraday, produce all kinds of new magnetic effects, such as magnetic moments that point through the center of the beam and out of the atoms themselves, alongside more effects that they cannot predict.

The researchers created the beam by sendingheliumatoms through a grid of tiny slits each just 600 nanometers across.

In the realm ofquantum mechanics the set of rules which govern the world of the very small atoms can behave both like particles and tiny waves; as such, the beam of wave-like helium atoms diffracted through the grid, bending so much that they emerged as a vortex that corkscrewed its way through space.

The whirling atoms then arrived at a detector, which showed multiple beams diffracted to differing extents to have varying angular momentums as tiny little doughnut-like rings imprinted across it.

The scientists also spotted even smaller, brighter doughnut rings wedged inside the central three swirls. These are the telltale signs of helium excimers a molecule formed when one energetically excited helium atom sticks to another helium atom. (Normally, helium is a noble gas and doesn't bind with anything.)

The orbital angular momentum given to atoms inside the spiraling beam also changes the quantum mechanical "selection rules" that determine how the swirling atoms will interact with other particles, Segev said. Next, the researchers will smash their helium beams into photons, electrons, and atoms of elements besides helium to see how they might behave.

If their rotating beam does indeed act differently, it could become an ideal candidate for a new type of microscope that can peer into undiscovered details on the subatomic level. The beam could, according to Segev, give us more information on some surfaces by changing the image that is imprinted upon the beam atoms bounced off it.

"I think that as is often the case in science, it's not a leap of capability that leads to something new, but rather a change in perspective," Segev said.

The researchers published their findings September 3 in the journalScience.

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The 11 biggest unanswered questions about dark matter

8 ways you can see Einstein's theory of relativity in real life

18 times quantum particles blew our minds

This article was originally published by Live Science. Read the original article here.

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Physicists Create Swirling Tornado of Helium With First-Ever Atomic Vortex Beam - ScienceAlert

There are some inventions that do not have a major impact on our daily lives until much later. Like the invention that you could use to store information on a disc with pits and bumps and read it with a laser. Thats when the CD was born. Last month, Austrian scientists managed to make quantum matter (read the IO article here) that can be both a liquid and a solid. The practical application is still some time away. But it could have a major impact on the development of new materials.

The Innsbruck research team managed to form a crystal and a superfluid at the same time. Superfluids are liquids that flow without any resistance. The experiment was based on magnetic atoms and an ultracold quantum gas, called the Bose Einstein condensate. This is what is created when a gas is cooled to just above absolute zero (minus 273 degrees Celsius).

Also interesting: Relationship discovered between quantum physics and spacetime

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In everyday life, we can only observe three states of aggregation: gaseous, liquid and solid. Substances change their state of aggregation, for example, by changing temperature. Usually substances are solid at low temperatures and gaseous at high temperatures. But if you take a highly diluted gas and cool it down in an extreme way, it becomes neither liquid nor solid, but remains gaseous.

Despite this, the particles do lose more and more energy. Below a certain critical temperature, the quantum properties of these particles become so dominant that what is known as a Bose-Einstein condensate is formed. In this condensate, the individual atoms are completely delocalized. This means that the same atom is present at any point in the condensate at any given time. Consequently, Bose-Einstein condensates are also superfluids.

Francesca Ferlainos team used the Bose-Einstein condensate two years ago to create one-dimensional supersolids. The researchers got magnetic atoms to organize themselves into droplets in the ultracold quantum gas and rearrange themselves as crystals. However, all particles still delocalized across all of the droplets, so the gas remained superfluid. The combination of the crystal structure with simultaneous superfluidity is called suprasolid or supersolid. Now scientists have succeeded in extending this phenomenon to two dimensions. They have managed to create systems with two or more rows of droplets.

This breakthrough significantly broadens the perspectives for research. In a two-dimensional suprasolid system, for example, it is possible to study how vortices form in the gap between several adjacent droplets. These vortices have been defined in theory but had not yet been demonstrated in practice. Yet they are an important consequence of superfluidity.

So far, vortices have only been observed in uniform superfluids and in quantized forms. A quantized vortex is basically a hole in the system, and then the superfluid circulates around this hole with a certain amount of rotation, explains Matthew Norcia of the research team. But in supersolids, the vortices should not be quantified in this way. And they should be found in low-density regions. Thats between droplets, not within a droplet where the atomic density is high.

A quantized vortex is basically a hole in the system, and then the superfluid circulates around this hole with a certain amount of rotation, Matthew Norcia

When researchers talk about quantized vortices in superfluid systems, they are talking specifically about the momentum impulse per particle. This is a unique property of the superfluid that stems from a quantum mechanical treatment of the system. Norcia: We assume that these quantum conditions are relaxed in supersolids. And in such a way that the momentum impulse per particle associated with a vortex can vary, depending on how the density of the state is modulated. So, if we look at the momentum impulse of these quantized vortices, we may have a measure of just how superfluid different supersolids are.

However, observing the phenomena of supersolids in quantum gas promises even more insights for research. This is because some important properties of supersolids can only be studied in two dimensions. For example, the rotational properties of a suprafluid can differ drastically from those of a normal fluid or a different system. Similarly, quantities such as viscosity, for which superfluids are unique, only make sense in systems with more than one dimension.

Nevertheless, these findings also help researchers explore the effects of symmetries. Norcia: When crystalline structures and superfluidity occur simultaneously in supersolids, it relates to the combination of translational and phase symmetries that are each broken in a supersolid. A comprehensive understanding of symmetries is critical to physics in general and to materials systems in particular. In this sense, studying the effects of these symmetries can help us better understand other physics systems. Both in the laboratory and in terms of practical applications.

Back in 2017, several research groups undertook similar experiments with lasers and quantum gases made up of sodium or rubidium atoms. The atoms were coupled to periodic structures excited by laser light. That is, the crystalline structure of the atom state was determined by the laser light. The result was that the supersolid that was produced was extremely rigid. This is because laser light does not support the oscillations of the crystalline structure of solids. By contrast, in the case of the magnetic atoms that the Austrian scientists used, it is the direct magnetic interaction between the atoms that causes the density to modulate. This allows the supersolid to be compress and vibrate. It is also this interaction, in combination with the drop potential, that determines the crystalline fraction.

Also interesting: Physicists develop an interface for quantum computers

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Matter that is both solid and liquid helps classical physics advance - Innovation Origins

A multidisciplinary, multi-institutional program led by The Ohio State University is taking the next step in its aim to develop a diverse, effective and contemporary quantum-ready workforce by revolutionizing and creating more equitable pathways to quantum science education.

QuSTEAM: Convergence Undergraduate Education in Quantum Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics, was awarded a $5 million cooperative agreement over a two-year period from the National Science Foundations (NSF) Convergence Accelerator. Following QuSTEAMs initial assessment period, Phase I, the award will fund Phase IIs objective to build transformative, modular quantum science degree and certification programs.

I know from personal experience that collaboration is the key to scientific success. Working across disciplines especially when it comes to the highly complex and multidisciplinary world of quantum science research will help us more quickly harness the enormous power of this emerging field and deliver real-world results more quickly and efficiently, said Ohio State President Kristina M. Johnson. As an added bonus, this project enables Ohio State to further part of its core mission, which is to educate the next generation of researchers through educational opportunities that advance diversity and workforce development.

The rapidly evolving field of quantum information science will enable technological breakthroughs and have far-reaching economic and societal impacts what researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology refer to as the second quantum revolution. Ohio State is emerging as a key leader in pushing the field forward, recently joining the Chicago Quantum Exchange, a growing intellectual hub for the research and development of quantum technology, as its first regional partner.

NSFs Convergence Accelerator is focused on accelerating solutions toward societal impact. Within three years, funded teams are to deliver high-impact results, which is fast for product development, said Douglas Maughan, head of the NSF Convergence Accelerator program. During Phase II, QuSTEAM and nine other 2020 cohort teams will participate in an Idea-to-Market curriculum to assist them in developing their solution further and to create a sustainability plan to ensure the effort provides a positive impact beyond NSF funding.

QuSTEAM is a great example of how universities and industry can work together to build the foundation for a strong, diverse workforce, said David Awschalom, the director of the Chicago Quantum Exchange andLiew Family Professor in Molecular Engineering and Physics at the University of Chicago. Innovations in this field require us to provide broadly accessible quantum education, and QuSTEAM represents an ambitious approach to training in quantum engineering.

Unlocking that potential, however, also requires a foundational shift in teaching and growing a quantum-literate workforce. QuSTEAM brings together scientists and educators from over 20 universities, national laboratories, community colleges, and historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to develop a research-based quantum education curriculum and prepare the next generation of quantum information scientists and engineers. The initiative also has over 14 industrial partners, including GE Research, Honda and JPMorgan Chase, and collaborates with leading national research centers to help provide a holistic portrait of future workforce needs.

We have leaders in quantum information and STEM education, and both of these groups independently do good work building undergraduate curriculum, but they actually work together surprisingly rarely, said QuSTEAM lead investigator Ezekiel Johnston-Halperin, professor in the Department of Physics at Ohio State. We are talking to people in industry and academia about what aspects of quantum information are most critical, what skills are needed, what workforce training looks like today and what they expect it to look like a couple years from now.

We feel strongly about the need for redesigning quantum science education, which is the objective of QuSTEAM, said Marco Pistoia, head of the Future Lab for Applied Research and Engineering (FLARE) at JPMorgan Chase. The complexity of the quantum computing stack is enabling the creation of many new job opportunities. It is crucial for quantum curricula nationwide to collectively support this multiplicity of needs, but for this to happen, quantum scientists and engineers must have the proper training. We are very excited to see the impact of QuSTEAMs work in the near and long term, considering finance is predicted to be the first industry sector to start realizing significant value from quantum computing.

QuSTEAM is headed by five Midwestern universities: lead institution Ohio State, the University of Chicago, the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, all of which have partnered with local community colleges and regional partners with established transfer pipelines to engage underrepresented student populations.

The group is also collaborating with the IBM-HBCU Quantum Center to recruit faculty from its network of over 20 partner colleges and universities, as well as Argonne National Laboratory. In all, the QuSTEAM team comprises 66 faculty who share expertise in quantum information science and engineering, creative arts and social sciences, and education research.

To best develop a quantum-ready workforce, QuSTEAM identified the establishment of a common template for an undergraduate minor and associate certificate programs as the near-term priority. The team will build curricula consisting of in-person, online and hybrid courses for these degree and certification programs including initial offerings of the critical classes and modules at the respective universities while continuing to assess evolving workforce needs.

QuSTEAM plans to begin offering classes in spring 2022, with a full slate of core classes for a minor during the 2022-2023 academic year. The modular QuSTEAM curriculum will provide educational opportunities for two- and four-year institutions, minority-serving institutions and industry, while confronting and dismantling longstanding biases in STEM education.

If we want to increase diversity in quantum science, we need to really engage meaningfully with community colleges, minority-serving institutions and other small colleges and universities, Johnston-Halperin said. The traditional STEM model builds a program at an elite, R1 university and then allows the content to diffuse out from there. But historically this means designing it for a specific subset of students, and everything else is going to be a retrofit. Thats just never as effective.

QuSTEAM leverages integrated university support from faculty and staff from the Drake Institute for Teaching and Learning, the Institute for Materials Research, the Department of Physics and the Ohio State Office of Research.

Johnston-Halperin is joined at Ohio State by QuSTEAM co-PI Andrew Heckler, professor of physics and physics education research specialist. Other Ohio State faculty included on QuSTEAM are Daniel Gauthier, professor in the Department of Physics; Christopher Porter, postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Physics; David Penneys, associate professor in the Department of Mathematics; Zahra Atiq, assistant professor of practice of computer science and engineering in the College of Engineering; David Delaine and Emily Dringenberg, assistant professors of engineering education in the College of Engineering; and Edward Fletcher, associate professor of educational studies in the College of Education and Human Ecology.

QuSTEAM is one of 10 teams selected for two-year, $5 million Phase II funding as part the NSF Convergence Accelerator 2020 Cohort, which supports efforts to fast-track transitions from basic research and discovery into practice, and seeks to address national-scale societal challenges. With this funding, QuSTEAM will address the challenge of developing a strong national quantum workforce by instituting high-quality, engaging courses and educational tracks that allow for students of all backgrounds and interests to choose multiple paths of scholarship.

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Ohio State-led QuSTEAM initiative awarded $5 million from NSF - The Ohio State University News

Published by Google Researchers A study On the ArXiv server, they deny physics using the companys Sycamore quantum computer, claiming that they created time crystals or time crystals, but it is not clear how important this is. Discovery.

A crystal constant of time is also in constant flow, with fixed conditions repeated at predictable intervals without loss of energy. In other words, these crystals omit one of the most important laws of physics, the second law of thermodynamics, which states that the disturbance or entropy of an isolated system must always increase. Despite the constant flux state, they remain stable by resisting any irregular dissolution.

Well, these crystals do not have to be new, they were included in the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics winner Frank Wilzek.

It was a big surprise, said Kurt von Keiserling, a physicist at the University of Birmingham in the UK who did not participate in the study. If you asked someone 30, 20 or 10 years ago, they wouldnt expect it.

Basically, a crystal of time is like a pendulum that never stops swinging.

Even if you completely separate a pendulum from the universe, if there is no friction and no air resistance, it will eventually stop, because it is the second law of thermodynamics, said Achilles Lazarides, a physicist at the University of Loughborough in the UK, who was one of the first scientists to discover the theoretical possibility of a new phase in 2015.

The theoretical novelty of crystals is, in some respects, a double-edged sword, as physicists are currently struggling to find ways to use them, although von Keiserling suggested that they could be used as high-precision sensors. Other proposals include the use of crystals for better memory storage or for the development of quantum computers with even faster processing power.

But the greatest use for time crystals may already be here. These will allow scientists to explore the limits of quantum mechanics.

It not only allows you to learn what is happening in nature, but also to design and look at what is actually happening Quantum Mechanics It allows you to do what you do not do, Lazarides said.

If you can not find something in nature, it does not mean it does not exist, because we created one of these, he added.

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Google's latest discovery changes the laws of physics - SwordsToday.ie

Whenever we examine the universe in a scientific manner, there are a few assumptions that we take for granted as we go about our investigations. We assume that the measurements that register on our devices correspond to physical properties of the system that we are observing. We assume that the fundamental properties, laws, and constants associated with the material universe do not spontaneously change from moment to moment. And we also assume, for many compelling reasons, that although the environment may vary from location to location, the rules that govern the universe always remain the same.

But every assumption, no matter how well-grounded it may be or how justified we believe we are in making it, has to be subject to challenge and scrutiny. Assuming that atoms behave the same everywhere at all times and in all places is reasonable, but unless the universe supports that assumption with convincing, high-precision evidence, we are compelled to question any and all assumptions. If the fundamental constants are identical at all times and places, the universe should show us that atoms behave the same everywhere we look. But do they? Depending on how you ask the question, you might not like the answer. Here is the story behind the fine-structure constant, and why it might not be constant, after all.

When most people hear the idea of a fundamental constant, they think about the constants of nature that are inherent to our reality. Things like the speed of light, the gravitational constant, or Plancks constant (the fundamental constant of the quantum universe) are often the first things we think of, along with the masses of the various indivisible particles in the universe. In physics, however, these are what we call dimensionful constants, which means that they rely on our definitions of quantities like mass, length, or time.

An alternative way to conceive of these constants is to make them dimensionless instead: so that arbitrary definitions like kilogram, meter, or second make no difference to the constant. In this conception, each quantum interaction has a coupling strength associated with it, and the coupling of the electromagnetic interaction is known as the fine-structure constant and is denoted by the symbol alpha (). Fascinatingly enough, its effects were detected before quantum physics was even remotely understood, and remained wholly unexplained for nearly 30 years.

In 1887, arguably the greatest null result in the history of physics was obtained, via the Michelson-Morley experiment. The experiment was brilliant in conception, seeking to measure the speed of Earth through the rest frame of the universe by:

Michelson originally performed a version of this experiment by himself back in 1881, detecting no effect but recognizing the need to improve the experiments precision.

Six years later, the Michelson-Morley experiment represented an improvement by more than a factor of ten, making it the most precise electromagnetic measuring device at the time. While again, no shift was detected, demonstrating no need for the hypothesized aether, the apparatus they developed was also spectacular for measuring the spectrum of light emitted by various atoms. Puzzlingly, where a single emission line was expected to occur at a specific wavelength, sometimes there was just a single line, but at other times there were a series of narrowly-spaced emission lines, providing empirical evidence (but without a theoretical motivation) for a finer-than-expected structure to atoms.

What is actually happening became clearer with the development of modern quantum mechanics. Electrons orbit around the atomic nucleus in fixed, quantized energy levels only, and it is known that they can occupy different orbitals, which correspond to different values of orbital angular momentum. These are required to balance by both relativity and quantum physics. First derived by Arnold Sommerfeld in 1916, it was recognized that these narrowly-spaced lines were an example of splitting due to the fine-structure of atoms, with hyperfine structure from electron/nucleon interactions discovered shortly thereafter.

Today, we understand the fine-structure constant in the context of quantum field theory, where it is the probability of an interacting particle having what we call a radiative correction: emitting or absorbing an electromagnetic quantum (that is, a photon) during an interaction. We typically measure the fine-structure constant, , at todays negligibly low energies, where it has a value that is equal to 1/137.0359991, with an uncertainty of ~1 in the final digit. It is defined as a dimensionless combination of dimensionful physical constants: the elementary charge squared divided by Plancks constant and the speed of light, and the value we measure today is consistent across all sufficiently precise experiments.

At high energies in particle physics experiments, however, we notice that the value of gets stronger at higher energies. As the energy of the interacting particle(s) increases, so does the strength of the electromagnetic interaction. When the universe was very, very hot such as at energies achieved just ~1 nanosecond after the Big Bang the value of was more like 1/128, as particles like the Z-boson, which can only exist virtually at todays low energies, can more easily be physically real at higher energies. The interaction strength is expected to scale with energy, an instance where our theoretical predictions and our experimental measurements match up remarkably well.

However, there is an entirely different way to measure the fine-structure constant at todays low energies: by measuring spectral lines, or emission and absorption features, from distant light sources throughout the cosmos. As background light from a source strikes the intervening matter, some portion of that light is absorbed at specific wavelengths. The exact wavelengths that are observed depend on a number of factors, such as the redshift of the source but also on the value of the fine-structure constant.

If there are any variations in , either over time or directionally in space, a careful examination of spectral features from a wide variety of astrophysical sources, particularly if they span many billions of years in time (or billions of light-years in distance), could reveal those variations. The most straightforward way to look for these variations is through quasar absorption spectroscopy: where the light quasars, the brightest individual sources in the universe, encounter every intervening cloud of matter that exists between the emitter (the quasar itself) and the observer (us, here on Earth).

There are very intricate, precise energy levels that exist for both normal hydrogen (with an electron bound to a proton) and its heavy isotope deuterium (with an electron bound to a deuteron, which contains both a proton and a neutron), and these energy levels are just slightly different from one another. If you can measure the spectra of these different quasars and look for these precise, very-slightly-different fine and hyperfine transitions, you would be able to measure at the location of the quasar.

If the laws of physics were the same everywhere throughout the universe, then based on the observed properties of these lines, which includes:

you would expect to be able to infer the same value of everywhere. The only difference you would anticipate would be redshift-dependent, where all the wavelengths for a specific absorber would be systematically shifted by the same redshift-dependent factor.

Yet, that is not what we see. Everywhere we look in the universe at every quasar and every example of fine or hyperfine structure in the intervening, absorptive gas clouds we see that there are tiny, minuscule, but non-negligible shifts in those transition ratios. At the level of a few parts-per-million, the value of the fine-structure constant, , appears to observationally vary. What is remarkable is that this variation was not expected or anticipated but has robustly shown up, over and over again, in quasar absorption studies going all the way back to 1999.

Beginning in 1999, a team of astronomers led by Australian astrophysicist John K. Webb started seeing evidence that was different from different astronomical measurements. Using the Keck telescopes and over 100 quasars, they found that was smaller in the past and had risen by approximately 6 parts-per-billion over the past ~10 billion years. Other groups were unable to verify this, however, with complementary observations from the Very Large Telescope showing the exact opposite effect: that the fine-structure constant, , was larger in the past, and has been slowly decreasing ever since.

Subsequently, Webbs team obtained more data with greater numbers of quasars, spanning larger fractions of the sky and cutting across cosmic time. A simple time-variation was no longer consistent with the data, as variations were inconsistent from place-to-place and did not scale directly with either redshift or direction. Overall, there were some places where appeared larger than average and others where it appeared smaller, but there was no overall pattern. Even with the latest 2021 data, the few-parts-in-a-million variations that are seen are inconclusive.

It is often said that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, but the uncertainties associated with each of these measurements were at least as large as the suspected signal itself: a few parts-per-million. In 2018, however, a remarkable study even though it was only of one system had the right confluence of properties to be able to measure , at a distance of 3.3 billion light-years away, to a precision of just ~1 part-per-million.

Instead of looking at hydrogen and deuterium, isotopes of the same element with the same nuclear charges but different nuclear masses, researchers using the Arecibo telescope in one of its last major discoveries found two absorption lines of a hydroxyl (OH-) ion: at 1720 and 1612 megahertz in frequency around a rare and peculiar blazar. These absorption lines have different dependencies on the fine-structure constant, , as well as the proton-to-electron mass ratio, and yet these measurements combine to show a null result: consistent with no variation over the past ~3 billion years. These are, to date, the most stringent constraints on tiny changes in the fine-structure constants value from astronomy, consistent with no effect at all.

The observational techniques that have been pioneered in quasar absorption spectroscopy have allowed us to measure these atomic profiles to unprecedented precision, creating a puzzle that remains unsolved to this day: why do quasars appear to show small but significant differences in the inferred value of the fine-structure constant between them? We know there has been no significant variation over the past ~3 billion years, from not only astronomy but from the Oklo natural nuclear reactor as well. In addition, the value is not changing today to 17 decimal places, as constrained by atomic clocks.

It remains possible that the fundamental constants did actually vary a long time ago, or that they varied differently in different locations in space. To untangle whether that is the case or not, however, we first have to understand what is causing the observed variations in quasar absorption lines, and that remains an unsolved puzzle that could just as easily be due to an unidentified error as it is to a physical cause. Until there is a confluence of evidence, where many disparate observations all come together to point to the same consistent conclusion, the default assumption must remain that the fundamental constants really are constant.

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Could fundamental physical constants not be constant across space and time? - Big Think

Physicists have created the first-ever atomic vortex beam a swirling tornado of atoms and molecules with mysterious properties that have yet to be understood.

By sending a straight beam of helium atoms through a grating with teeny slits, scientists were able to use the weird rules of quantum mechanics to transform the beam into a whirling vortex.

The extra gusto provided by the beam's rotation, called orbital angular momentum, gives it a new direction to move in, enabling it to act in ways that researchers have yet to predict. For instance, they believe the atoms' rotation could add extra dimensions of magnetism to the beam, alongside other unpredictable effects, due to the electrons and the nuclei inside the spiraling vortex atoms spinning at different speeds.

Related: The 18 biggest unsolved mysteries in physics

"One possibility is that this could also change the magnetic moment of the atom," or the intrinsic magnetism of a particle that makes it act like a tiny bar magnet, study co-author Yair Segev, a physicist at the University of California, Berkeley, told Live Science.

In the simplified, classical picture of the atom, negatively-charged electrons orbit a positively-charged atomic nucleus. In this view, Segev said that as the atoms spin as a whole, the electrons inside the vortex would rotate at a faster speed than the nuclei, "creating different opposing [electrical] currents" as they twist. This could, according to the famous law of magnetic induction outlined by Michael Faraday, produce all kinds of new magnetic effects, such as magnetic moments that point through the center of the beam and out of the atoms themselves, alongside more effects that they cannot predict.

The researchers created the beam by sending helium atoms through a grid of tiny slits each just 600 nanometers across. In the realm of quantum mechanics the set of rules which govern the world of the very small atoms can behave both like particles and tiny waves; as such, the beam of wave-like helium atoms diffracted through the grid, bending so much that they emerged as a vortex that corkscrewed its way through space.

The whirling atoms then arrived at a detector, which showed multiple beams diffracted to differing extents to have varying angular momentums as tiny little doughnut-like rings imprinted across it. The scientists also spotted even smaller, brighter doughnut rings wedged inside the central three swirls. These are the telltale signs of helium excimers a molecule formed when one energetically excited helium atom sticks to another helium atom. (Normally, helium is a noble gas and doesn't bind with anything.)

The orbital angular momentum given to atoms inside the spiraling beam also changes the quantum mechanical "selection rules" that determine how the swirling atoms will interact with other particles, Segev said. Next, the researchers will smash their helium beams into photons, electrons and atoms of elements besides helium to see how they might behave.

If their rotating beam does indeed act differently, it could become an ideal candidate for a new type of microscope that can peer into undiscovered details on the subatomic level. The beam could, according to Segev, give us more information on some surfaces by changing the image that is imprinted upon the beam atoms bounced off it.

"I think that as is often the case in science, it's not a leap of capability that leads to something new, but rather a change in perspective," Segev said.

The researchers published their findings Sept. 3 in the journal Science.

Originally published on Live Science.

Link:

1st 'atom tornado' created from swirling vortex of helium atoms - Livescience.com

While watching the BBCs report on bees in 2019, Judith Davis recalled the existence of a letter Einstein sent to her late husband, Glenn. In the 1940s, the latter was interested in the research of behaviorist Carl von Frisch on the ability of bees to direct thanks to the polarization of light from the sky.

Einstein tells in this short letter that he was familiar with the work of Carl von Frisch. Above all, he says he believes that analyzing the perceptions of animals can allow an understanding of physical processes that are not yet known. He cites an examination of the behavior of migratory birds as a promising example.

A hunch that has been proven after 70 years! It was in 2004 that a study He proved for the first time that castles navigate thanks to some form of magnetic compass. One theory to explain this phenomenon It comes from quantum biology Which, as its name suggests, is concerned with the links between quantum mechanics and biology.

It shows us how extraordinary Einstein was, said Adrian Dyer, the scientist who saw Judith Davis in the BBC report. He must have thought about this problem, these birds that orient themselves precisely at incredible distances. He anticipated the degree to which this feat would be difficult and felt that his study might push the boundaries of our understanding of physics. Professor Dyer and colleagues recounted the whole thing. in an article The Journal of Comparative Physiology A Posted last May.

Expectation is not supernatural for Annie Angers, a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Montreal. All scientists know that nature has a lot to teach us, so it doesnt surprise me that Einstein might have thought about this.

Instead, it was Professor Dyers investigative work that impressed her. In fact, Adrian Dyer and his team must have researched the Davys family memories and archives of the time to clarify the subject of the initial letter from Glyn Davys (now untraceable) and understand why he had contact with Einstein. in the first place. I found Mr. Dyers words very compelling, says Annie Ingres. But when we finally read this famous letter from Einstein, we realized that it was only 10 lines long. Falls a little flat! What reinforces this great spirits reputation as a man of few words.

Subtly charming problem solver. Extreme tv enthusiast. Web scholar. Evil beer expert. Music nerd. Food junkie.

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The migration of birds fascinated Einstein - Vaughan Today

Physicists at the University of Bremen, Germany produced the coldest temperature ever recorded, an incredibly precisely measured 38 trillionths of a degree above absolute zero. They did so as part of an experiment involving dropping a quantum gas and slowing its motion with magnets, a report from New Atlas explains.

Absolute zero is measured as -459.67 F (-273.15C) and it is the coldest possible temperature on the thermodynamics scale. For an object to reach that temperature, there would have to be zero atomic motion or kinetic energy in its atoms, meaning it is impossible for scientists to ever truly reach absolute zero. However, experiments such as those conducted aboard theInternational Space Station's Cold Atom Lab have been as cold as 100 nanoKelvin, or 100 millionths of a degree above absolute zero.

The team from the University of Bremen have smashed previous records, however, by recording a temperature of38 picoKelvin, or 38 trillionths of a degree above absolute zero, during their experiments. In a press release, the team explained that "while researching the wave properties of atoms, one of the "coldest places in the universe" [was] created for a few seconds at the Center for Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM) at the University of Bremen."

For their experiments, the team trapped a gas cloud composed of 100,000 rubidium atoms in a magnetic field in a vacuum chamber. This was then cooled down to turn it into a quantum gas calleda Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC). As quantum gasesact uniformly, as if they were one big atom, scientists use them in experiments to observe unusual quantum effects on the macro scale, with a view to expanding their knowledge of quantum mechanics.

In order to reach the required temperature, the researchers dropped the BEC at the Bremen Drop Tower research facility. While they dropped the gas 393.7 feet (120 meters) down the tower, they also switched the magnetic field containing the gas on and off several times. When the magnetic field is turned off the gas starts to expand and when it is turned back on its contracts. The switching slows the expansion of the gas to an almost complete standstill, greatly lowering its temperature due to the reduced molecular speed.

The researchers were only able to sustain the record-breaking temperature for 2 seconds, though they carried out simulations suggesting it could be maintained for approximately 17 seconds in a weightless environment such as the International Space Station. In space, scientists can confine atoms using much weaker forces, as they don't have to be supported against the effects of gravity. This means that further investigation may eventually take place in the ISS's Cold Atom Lab (CAL), where astronomers last year reported the creation of a "fifth state of matter" during BEC experiments. The CAL was transported to space by a SpaceX rocket in 2018 and it has since been used to observe quantum phenomena that would be undetectable on Earth.

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Quantum Gas Experiment Creates the Coldest Temperature Ever - Interesting Engineering

Ridgefield's Greg Herzog Paints 911 Memorial, Using His Trademarked COLOR-CODING DNA Technique To Commemorate the 20th Anniversary.

COLOR CODING DNA is a Quantum Reaction Algorithm that uses a geometric mathematical equation, where X number of points represents the makeup of a subject and each degree of expression within the context of each point is color-coded and weighted accordingly.

"We know what people or things look like in human form, on MRI's and brain scans, but what would they look like if they were represented by color?" questions Herzog.

Herzog arrived at his equation in his own personal quest to understand himself, by researching every possible scientific pathway of human development, Newton, Galileo, Jung and Max Planck.

If a subject was represented by a color or series of colors what would it look like?

Similar to Physicists and Economists or the Myers Briggs model, Greg has written an algorithm that uses a branch of physics that utilizes a Quantum theory to describe and predict the properties of a physical system.

Herzog analyzes the Quantum data of the individual or subject, and then he follows a mathematical model to identify and quantify relationships in the data to best understand the true nature of the individual or subject based on the relationships.

For more information, you can contact Greg at 203-240-4020. Proceeds go to The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) to support victims, families, rescue workers and heroes.

The COLOR CODING DNA painting process is strikingly similar to the way patterns in Nature evolve. Since its discovery in the 1960's, chaos theory has experienced spectacular success in explaining many of Nature's processes. A mathematical system can be designed to generate COLOR CODING DNA trajectories, where the degree of chaos can be tuned. Many natural chaotic systems form fractals in the patterns that record the process.

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Ridgefield Artist and Conditioning Specialist Paints 9/11 Memorial in Honor of 20th Anniversary - HamletHub

For decades, scientistshave been fascinated by superfluids materials under extreme conditions where the typical laws of matter break down and friction disappears entirely.

University of Pittsburgh Professor of Physics and Astronomy Vincent Liu and an international team of collaborators report the creation of a stable material that achieves long-sought-after and strange quantum properties. This topological superfluid could find use in a variety of futuristic technologies and in the meantime will provide plenty of new questions for physicists to chew on.

Its a fundamental concept that might have a very huge impact to society in its application, Liu said.

In his field of artificial materials, theres a close interplay between two kinds of physicists: Those like Liu who specialize in theory use math and physics to imagine yet-undiscovered phenomena that could be useful for futuristic technologies, and otherswhodesign experiments that use contained, simplified systems of particles to try to create materials that act in the ways theorists predicted. Its the feedback between these two groups that pushes the field forward.

Liu and his collaborators, a team composed of both theorists and experimentalists, have been pursuing a material that holds the useful properties of a superfluid regardless of shape and is also stable in the lab, a combination that has eluded researchers for years. The solution they arrived at was shining lasers in a honeycomb pattern on atoms. The way those lasers combine and cancel each other out in repeating patterns can coerce the atoms into interacting with one another in strange ways. The team published their results in Nature on Aug. 11.

To say that the experiment sits on a technical knife edge would be an understatement. It requires that atoms be kept at a temperature of around one ten-millionth of a degree above absolute zero. Its among the coolest systems on Earth, Liu said. All the while, the heat delivered by lasers makes it even more challenging to keep it cool.

Even the act of cooling the material creates its own wrinkles. The teams main trick was to use evaporation, meaning the warmest atoms fly off, but achieving a material with the right density means there also needs to be plenty of atoms remaining after evaporation. Combining just the right set of conditions is a stunning technical feat, pioneered in the lab of Lius collaborator and former postdoc Zhi-Fang Xu, a physicist at the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, China. Another collaborator, quantum optics expert Andreas Hemmerich at the University of Hamburg in Germany, helped design the lattice of lasers that holds the atoms in place.

For the international team of physicists, that balancing act is worth it. The resulting material, the teams calculations show, is the much-sought-after topological superfluid needed to create next-generation quantum computers. But because Lius team used atoms to produce these quantum effects rather than using lighter particles like electrons orphotons, any quantum computer made from the material would be impractically slow. Instead, Liu said, it will likely be most useful for studying the finer points of how that technology might work.

Its like youre watching an NBA player in slow motion. Youre going to see all of the motion, all of the subtle physics, in a very clear way, he explained.

That more fine-tuned understanding could help researchers design quantum computers that could handle fast calculations. And the materials stability compared to other quantum materials could lend itself to other uses, like hyper-precise timekeeping and information storage.

As exciting as the discovery is, it represents only one line of Lius work as a theorist, he works with physicists across the globe to push the boundaries of different kinds of quantum materials. Besides the thrill of discovery and the mathematical beauty of the physics, Liu says its those collaborations that keep him excited about the field.

You could say the community moves as a whole, he said. If I just walked by myself, I probably wouldnt move very far.

Patrick Monahan

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Where the Laws of Matter Break Down, a Quantum Discovery Crops Up - UPJ Athletics