Physics
press releases.

Physics24 May 2024

Virginia Tech researcher creates new tool to move tiny bioparticles

Undergoing surgery is seldom a pleasant experience, and it can sometimes be highly invasive. Surgical procedures have evolved steadily over the centuries, growing with the knowledge of anatomy and biology. Innovative methods have also been bolstered with new tools, and a growth in the use of robotics since the 1980s has moved health care forward significantly. Assistant Professor Zhenhua Tian has pressed forward another step in the march of progress using robotics and noninvasive acoustics, and his team’s work has been published in Science Advances. Robot-assisted surgery Surgery using robots has been invasive since its invention because ...

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Physics24 May 2024

How a tiny device could lead to big physics discoveries and better lasers

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have fabricated a device no wider than a human hair that will help physicists investigate the fundamental nature of matter and light. Their findings, published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, could also support the development of more efficient lasers, which are used in fields ranging from medicine to manufacturing. The device is made of a special kind of material called a photonic topological insulator. A photonic topological insulator can guide photons, the wave-like particles that make up light, ...

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Physics23 May 2024

New discoveries about the nature of light could improve methods for heating fusion plasma

Both literally and figuratively, light pervades the world. It banishes darkness, conveys telecommunications signals between continents and makes visible the invisible, from faraway galaxies to the smallest bacterium. Light can also help heat the plasma within ring-shaped devices known as tokamaks as scientists worldwide strive to harness the fusion process to generate green electricity. Now, scientists have made discoveries about light particles known as photons that could aid the quest for fusion ...

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Physics20 May 2024

Enhancing superconductivity of graphene-calcium superconductors

Superconductors are materials that can conduct electricity with zero resistance when they are cooled below a certain critical temperature. They have applications in several fields, including magnetic resonance imaging, particle accelerators, electric power, and quantum computing. However, their widespread use is limited by the need for extremely low temperatures. Graphene-based materials are promising for superconductors due to their unique properties such as optical transparency, mechanical strength, and flexibility. Graphene is a single layer of carbon (C) atoms arranged in a two-dimensional honeycomb structure. Among these materials, ...

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Physics17 May 2024

Iso-propagation vortices: optical multiplexing for unprecedented information capacity

The future of optical communications just got brighter. In a groundbreaking development reported in Advanced Photonics, researchers from Nanjing University have introduced iso-propagation vortices (IPVs), a novel concept that offers a solution to a long-standing challenge faced by scientists and engineers: how to increase information processing capacity while overcoming the limitations of traditional vortex beams. Challenge: divergence and beam size Multiplexing of optical degrees of freedom, such as polarization and wavelength, has been a staple in enhancing communication capacity. ...

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Physics13 May 2024

Researchers unveil unique tidal disruption event with unprecedented early optical bump

A research team from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) presented a detailed analysis of a tidal disruption event (TDE) with unique characteristics, providing new insights into the behavior of TDEs and their multiwavelength emissions. The study was published online in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. When a star ventures too close to a supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy, it gets torn apart by the black hole's immense tidal forces, resulting ...

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Physics13 May 2024

Alarming rise of electronic vaping use in U.S. adolescents

Electronic vapor products (EVPs), also known as e-cigarettes or vaping devices, have an allure because of their marketed image as a safer alternative to traditional cigarette smoking and for their variety of appealing flavors. Yet, they contain many substances beyond nicotine, including propylene glycol, glycerin, flavorings and potentially harmful chemicals such as formaldehyde and metals, which could pose significant health risks such as respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Vaping also is strongly linked with a serious medical condition that damages the lungs due to the vitamin E acetate, an additive used ...

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Physics10 May 2024

Optical power evolution in fiber-optic networks: New framework for better modeling and control

With the emergence of internet services such as AI-generated content and virtual reality, the demand for global capacity has surged, significantly intensifying pressures on fiber-optic communication systems. To address this surge and reduce operational costs, efforts are underway to develop autonomous driving optical networks (ADONs) with highly-efficient network operations. One of the most important tasks for an ADON is to accurately model and control the optical power evolution (OPE) over fiber links, since it ...

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Physics10 May 2024

Strong-field photoelectron holography in the subcycle limit

Scientists Unveil Fundamental Electron-holograms for Ultrafast imaging of Atoms and Molecules A team of scientists led by Professor Dong Eon Kim at the Pohang University of Science and Technology and Professor X. Lai at the Innovation Academy for Precision Measurement Science and Technology achieved a breakthrough in ultrafast imaging by separately and clearly observing two distinct holographic patterns, spider-leg- and fishbone-like, for the first time. They utilized near-single-cycle laser pulses not only ...

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Physics9 May 2024

Researchers harness blurred light to 3D print high quality optical components

WASHINGTON — Canadian researchers have developed a new 3D printing method called blurred tomography that can rapidly produce microlenses with commercial-level optical quality. The new method may make it easier and faster to design and fabricate a variety of optical devices. “We purposely added optical blurring to the beams of light used for this 3D printing method to manufacture precision optical components,” said Daniel Webber from the National Research Council of Canada. “This enables production of optically smooth surfaces.” In Optica, Optica Publishing Group’s journal for high-impact research, these researchers demonstrate the new method by using ...

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Physics8 May 2024

The interference of many atoms, and a new approach to boson sampling

In daily life, when two objects are “indistinguishable,” it’s due to an imperfect state of knowledge. As a street magician scrambles the cups and balls, you could, in principle, keep track of which ball is which as they are passed between the cups. However, at the smallest scales in nature, even the magician cannot tell one ball from another. True indistinguishability of this type can fundamentally alter how the balls behave. For example, in a classic experiment by Hong, Ou and Mandel, two identical photons (balls) striking opposite sides of a half-reflective mirror are always ...

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Physics8 May 2024

A new, low-cost, high-efficiency photonic integrated circuit

The rapid advancement in photonic integrated circuits (PICs), whichcombine multiple optical devices and functionalities on a single chip, has revolutionized optical communications and computing systems. For decades, silicon-based PICs have dominated the field due to their cost-effectiveness and through their integration with existing semiconductor manufacturing technologies, despite their limitations with regard to their electro-optical modulation bandwidth. Nevertheless, silicon-on-insulator optical transceiver chips were successfully commercialized, driving information traffic through millions of glass fibers in modern datacenters. Recently, the lithium niobate-on-insulator ...

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Physics7 May 2024

Hidden citations in physics

In the scientific literature, a citation acts as a mechanism to signal prior knowledge, enhance credibility, and protect against plagiarism. But it also gives credit to the individual or team who established or discovered the knowledge in question, and citations have thus emerged as a metric to measure the impact of a work or researcher. However, when a discovery or technique becomes common knowledge, scientists often stop bothering to cite it. Thus, the most impactful work is often undercited. Albert-László Barabási ...

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Physics6 May 2024

Study sheds light on 11th century Arab-Muslim optical scientist whose work laid ground for modern-day physics

Scientists from the University of Sharjah and the Warburg Institute are poring over the writings of an 11th century Arab-Muslim polymath to demonstrate their impact on the development of optical sciences and how they have fundamentally transformed the history of physics from the Middle Ages up to modern times in Europe. Their research focuses on the legacy of al-Ḥasan Ibn al-Haytham known in Latin as “Alhazen” and particularly his most influential work titled Book of Optics, reputed in Arabic as Kitab al-Manazir and first circulated in Europe via its Latin translation dubbed ‘Perspectiva’. Ibn ...

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Physics3 May 2024

Physics confirms that the enemy of your enemy is, indeed, your friend

Most people have heard the famous phrase “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Now, Northwestern University researchers have used statistical physics to confirm the theory that underlies this famous axiom. The study will be published on May 3 in the journal Science Advances. In the 1940s, Austrian psychologist Fritz Heider introduced social balance theory, which explains how humans innately strive to find harmony in their social circles. According to the theory, four rules — an enemy of an enemy is a friend, a friend of a ...

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Physics3 May 2024

Study: ChatGPT displays lower concern for child development “warning signs” than physicians

Artificial intelligence (AI) tool ChatGPT displayed lower concern than physicians in 36% of potential developmental delays, according to a new study. The research will be presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) 2024 Meeting, held May 3-6 in Toronto. Researchers found ChatGPT made different conclusions about the abnormality of a potential delay than pediatricians 41% of the time. The study investigated how ChatGPT responded to parents’ concerns whether their child’s development was normal or abnormal, including ...

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Physics2 May 2024

Nanotubes, nanoparticles, and antibodies detect tiny amounts of fentanyl

A research team at Pitt led by Alexander Star, a chemistry professor in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, has developed a fentanyl sensor that is six orders of magnitude more sensitive than any electrochemical sensor for the drug reported in the past five years. The portable sensor can also tell the difference between fentanyl and other opioids. Their work was published in the journal Small. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid and one of the main drivers in overdose deaths in the United States, Star said. It’s often mixed with other drugs, but because ...

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Physics2 May 2024

Twisting and binding matter waves with photons in a cavity

Precisely measuring the energy states of individual atoms has been a historical challenge for physicists due to atomic recoil. When an atom interacts with a photon, the atom “recoils” in the opposite direction, making it difficult to measure the position and momentum of the atom precisely. This recoil can have big implications for quantum sensing, which detects minute changes in parameters, for example, using changes in gravitational waves to determine the shape of the Earth or even detect dark matter. In a new paper published in the Science, JILA and NIST Fellows Ana Maria Rey and James Thompson, ...

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Physics2 May 2024

Physicists arrange atoms in extremely close proximity

Proximity is key for many quantum phenomena, as interactions between atoms are stronger when the particles are close. In many quantum simulators, scientists arrange atoms as close together as possible to explore exotic states of matter and build new quantum materials. They typically do this by cooling the atoms to a stand-still, then using laser light to position the particles as close as 500 nanometers apart — a limit that is set by the wavelength of light. Now, MIT physicists have developed a technique that allows them to arrange atoms in much closer proximity, down to a mere 50 nanometers. For context, a red blood cell ...

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Physics1 May 2024

Liquid crystal-integrated metasurfaces for an active photonic platform

A new publication from Opto-Electronic Advances; DOI 10.29026/oea.2024.230216 , discusses liquid crystal-integrated metasurfaces for an active photonic platform. In the field of optical science, the exploration of metasurfaces has garnered significant attention over the last few decades. Metasurfaces represent a sophisticated evolution of traditional optical components, comprising nanostructures meticulously arranged to enable precise control over light manipulation. These nanostructures function as building blocks, allowing for the creation of lenses with unique ...

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Physics30 Apr 2024

Activity in a room stirs up nanoparticles left over from consumer sprays

Common household products containing nanoparticles – grains of engineered material so miniscule they are invisible to the eye – could be contributing to a new form of indoor air pollution, according to a Rutgers study. In a study published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, a team of Rutgers researchers found people walking through a space, where a consumer product containing nanoparticles was recently sprayed, stirred residual specks off carpet fibers and floor surfaces, projecting them some three ...

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Physics30 Apr 2024

Listening to mindfulness audios during radiation improves physical, emotional side effects

It’s a ‘twofer’: Helping men manage side effects, receive cancer treatment at same time Men with cancer rarely participate in oncology supportive care: ‘You build it, and they don’t come’ First study to deliver mindfulness during radiation therapy while patients were ‘a captive audience’ CHICAGO --- Men with prostate cancer who are treated with radiation therapy experience significant side effects such as fatigue, sleep problems, anxiety and depressive symptoms. But listening to mindfulness audio recordings significantly eased those symptoms, a new Northwestern ...

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Physics30 Apr 2024

Great strides in the development of high refractive index polymers for optoelectronics

Optoelectronic devices have found their way into many aspects of our daily lives, from OLED displays to photodetectors, security systems, and environmental monitoring. In all the applications, these devices utilize high refractive index polymers (HRIPs) to control light. In general, the optical properties of transparent HRIPs enable efficient light transmission and manipulation, allowing optoelectronics devices to guide and control the flow of light to improve their performance. However, there are no low-cost options for HRIPs that can guarantee good optical performance while being transparent and environmentally ...

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Physics30 Apr 2024

Cars as particles

What do the flow of cars on a highway and the movement of bacteria towards a food source have in common? In both cases, annoying traffic jams can form. Especially for cars, we might want to understand how to avoid them, but perhaps we've never thought of turning to statistical physics, as Alexandre Solon, a physicist from Sorbonne Université, and Eric Bertin, from the University of Grenoble, both working for the Centre national de la recherche scientifique CNRS, have done. Their research, recently published in the Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment (JSTAT), has developed a one-dimensional mathematical model ...

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Physics29 Apr 2024

Laser imaging could offer early detection for at-risk artwork

DURHAM, N.C. -- Look closely at Impressionist paintings in museums compared with photos of them taken 50 years ago, and you might notice something odd: some are losing their bright yellow hues. Take the dramatic sunset in Edward Munch’s famous painting “The Scream.” Portions of the sky that were once a vivid orangish yellow have faded to off-white. Likewise, some of the sunny yellow that Henri Matisse brushed between the reclining nudes in his painting “The Joy of Life” is now more of a drab beige. Several other paintings from this period are facing ...

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