https://phys.org/physics-news/physics en-us The latest news on physics, materials, nanotech, science and technology. Since the launch of the Large Hadron Collider, there has been ongoing research there into Higgs bosons and a search for traces of physics beyond the existing model of elementary particles. Scientists working at the ATLAS detector have combined both goals: with the latest analysis it has been possible to expand our knowledge of the interactions of Higgs bosons with each other, and stronger constraints on the phenomena of "new physics" have been found. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-unknown-physics-interactions-higgs-bosons.html General Physics Thu, 07 Nov 2024 13:01:03 EST news650206859 The theory of special relativity is rife with counterintuitive and surprising effects, the most famous of which are length contraction and time dilation. If an object travels at a relative speed, which is a non-negligible fraction of the speed of light, with respect to an observer, the length of the object in the travel direction will appear shorter to the observer than it actually is in the object's rest frame. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-fluids-thicken-theory-einstein-real.html General Physics Soft Matter Thu, 07 Nov 2024 12:42:30 EST news650205743 The next head of Europe's CERN physics laboratory said Thursday that he favored moving forward with plans for a giant particle collider far more powerful than the collider that discovered the famous "God particle". https://phys.org/news/2024-11-giant-particle-collider-option-science.html General Physics Thu, 07 Nov 2024 09:36:43 EST news650194598 Nuclear physics theorists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have demonstrated that complex calculations run on supercomputers can accurately predict the distribution of electric charges in mesons, particles made of a quark and an antiquark. Scientists are keen to learn more about mesons—and the whole class of particles made of quarks, collectively known as hadrons—in high-energy experiments at the future Electron-Ion Collider (EIC), a particle collider being built at Brookhaven Lab. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-scientists-meson.html General Physics Wed, 06 Nov 2024 16:38:04 EST news650133482 A trio of physicists, two with Coventry University, in the U.K., and the third with Laboratoire National des Champs Magnétiques Intenses, in France, has demonstrated how Earth's magnetic field may be influencing internal flow, using what they describe as a Little Earth Experiment. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-reveals-earth-magnetic-field-planet.html General Physics Soft Matter Wed, 06 Nov 2024 14:55:26 EST news650127320 Scientists have demonstrated a new way to use high-energy particle smashups at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC)—a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility for nuclear physics research at DOE's Brookhaven National Laboratory—to reveal subtle details about the shapes of atomic nuclei. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-scientists-high-energy-heavy-ion.html General Physics Wed, 06 Nov 2024 11:00:01 EST news650108873 Physicists at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPI-DS) have investigated to which extent a piece of music can evoke expectations about its progression. They were able to determine differences in how far compositions of different composers can be anticipated. In total, the scientists quantitatively analyzed more than 550 pieces from classical and jazz music. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-bach-mozart-jazz-scientists-quantitative.html General Physics Tue, 05 Nov 2024 16:57:03 EST news650048221 In a paper published in Chaos, researchers from Sergio Arboleda University in Bogotá, Colombia, and the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta used an electrophysiological computer model of the heart's electrical circuits to examine the effect of the applied voltage field in multiple fibrillation-defibrillation scenarios. They discovered far less energy is needed than is currently used in state-of-the-art defibrillation techniques. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-defibrillation-devices-electricity-optimized.html General Physics Tue, 05 Nov 2024 11:00:01 EST news650010334 Science can be difficult to explain to the public. In fact, any subfield of science can be difficult to explain to another scientist who studies in a different area. Explaining a theoretical science concept to high school students requires a new way of thinking altogether. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-human-topological-insulator-choreographed-quantum.html General Physics Quantum Physics Tue, 05 Nov 2024 08:56:37 EST news650019389 The unique properties of baseball's famed "magic" mud have never been scientifically quantified—until now. In a paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science (Penn Engineering) and School of Arts & Sciences (SAS) reveal what makes the magic mud so special. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-secrets-baseball-magic-mud-quantifies.html General Physics Soft Matter Mon, 04 Nov 2024 15:00:02 EST news649949272 Fine tuning an experimental setup improved a detector's sensitivity to neutrinos and perhaps eventually dark matter—two difficult-to-measure forms of matter which hold great importance for understanding particle physics and experimental cosmology. The University-of-Michigan-led study is published in Physical Review D. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-detector-sensitivity-neutrinos-dark-latest.html General Physics Mon, 04 Nov 2024 12:00:03 EST news649944001 Using simple circuitry, polarizing film, and LEGO toy bricks, an undergraduate physics student from the Ateneo de Manila University built an improvised polarimeter that can optically assess the purity of Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) and other chiral substances. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-student-chemical-purity-tester-lego.html General Physics Optics & Photonics Mon, 04 Nov 2024 11:05:03 EST news649940701 In the social media age, there is little doubt about who is the star of the animal kingdom. Cats rule the screens just as their cousins, the lions, rule the savanna. Thanks to Erwin Schrödinger, this feline also has a place of honor in the history of physics. And it was Eme the cat that inspired Anxo Biasi, researcher at the Instituto Galego de Física de Altas Enerxías (IGFAE), to publish an article in the American Journal of Physics. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-physicist-cat-reveal-equation-motion.html General Physics Mon, 04 Nov 2024 08:30:01 EST news649585539 Why are there atomic clocks but no nuclear clocks? After all, an atom's nucleus is typically surrounded by many electrons, so in principle it should be less susceptible to outside noise (in the form of light). A nucleus, for high-atomic number atoms, contains more particles than does the element's electrons. It holds nearly the entire mass of the atom while taking up only about 1/100,000th of the atom's space. While the first atomic clock was invented in 1949, no nuclear clock has yet been feasible. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-state-thorium-possibility-nuclear-clock.html General Physics Thu, 31 Oct 2024 12:30:01 EDT news649591431 To effectively adapt to change, living organisms rely on their ability to rapidly detect and process sensory information in their surroundings. The sensory information available at a given time continuously changes, which means that it can typically only be observed partially and for a limited amount of time. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-theoretical-framework-biological.html General Physics Thu, 31 Oct 2024 11:03:43 EDT news649591406 Recent experiments at CERN have shed new light on the nuclear properties of atomic nuclei (i.e., the central regions of atoms accounting for most of their mass). A key objective of recent research into atomic nuclei has been to better understand the properties of Tin-100 (100Sn), a rare isotope with 50 protons and 50 neutrons. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-strong-evidence-doubly-magic-nature.html General Physics Thu, 31 Oct 2024 09:00:01 EDT news649511820 Claudio Pellegrini, a professor of thermal and fluid sciences at the Federal University of São João del-Rei in Brazil, has calculated the optimal shape for a beer glass to keep the beer cold for as long as possible. He has written a paper describing his analysis of beer glass shapes and posted it on the arXiv preprint server. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-professor-optimal-glass-chill-beer.html General Physics Wed, 30 Oct 2024 12:40:01 EDT news649507280 Two systems exist in thermal equilibrium if no heat passes between them. Computers, which consume energy and give off heat as they process information, operate far from thermal equilibrium. Were they to stop consuming energy—say you let your laptop discharge completely—they would stop functioning. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-stochastic-thermodynamics-key-energy.html General Physics Condensed Matter Wed, 30 Oct 2024 09:41:56 EDT news649500113 In a recent paper in Nature Physics, an international research collaboration used world-class instrumentation at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) to study the exotic nuclide, or rare isotope, chromium-62. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-chromium-islands-inversion.html General Physics Condensed Matter Tue, 29 Oct 2024 15:28:04 EDT news649434482 A team of scientists have invented a technique to determine the dynamics of microscopic interacting particles by using image recognition to count the number of particles in an imaginary box. By changing the size of the observation box, such counting enables the study of the dynamics of the collective system, even for a dense group of particles suspended in a fluid. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-image-recognition-technique-particles-diffusion.html General Physics Soft Matter Tue, 29 Oct 2024 11:20:01 EDT news649415299 While many smoking rooms in U.S. airports have closed in recent years, they are still common in other airports around the world. These lounges can be ventilated, but how much does it actually help the dispersion of smoke? https://phys.org/news/2024-10-optimal-positions-airport-lounges.html General Physics Soft Matter Tue, 29 Oct 2024 11:00:01 EDT news649413260 A team of engineers and physicists affiliated with a host of institutions across Japan, working at the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex, has demonstrated acceleration of positive muons from thermal energy to 100 keV—the first time muons have been accelerated in a stable way. The group has published a paper describing their work on the arXiv preprint server. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-team-positive-muons-kev.html General Physics Mon, 28 Oct 2024 15:46:43 EDT news649349184 Antimatter might sound like something out of science fiction, but at the CERN Antiproton Decelerator (AD), scientists produce and trap antiprotons every day. The BASE experiment can even contain them for more than a year—an impressive feat considering that antimatter and matter annihilate upon contact. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-big-portable-antimatter.html General Physics Mon, 28 Oct 2024 15:13:04 EDT news649347181 What is the heaviest element in the universe? Are there infinitely many elements? Where and how could superheavy elements be created naturally? https://phys.org/news/2024-10-scientists-superheavy-elements.html General Physics Sun, 27 Oct 2024 09:00:01 EDT news649068771 The search for new elements comes from the dream of finding a variant that is sufficiently stable to be long-lived and not prone to immediate decay. There is a theory in nuclear physics about an island of stability of superheavy elements. This is a potential zone in the upper part of the periodic table of as-yet-undiscovered elements that could remain stable for longer than just a few seconds. The aim is to explore the limits of stability of atomic nuclei. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-successful-paves-discovery-element.html General Physics Thu, 24 Oct 2024 11:23:13 EDT news648987787 Nuclear fission—when the nucleus of an atom splits in two, releasing energy—may seem like a process that is fully understood. First discovered in 1939 and thoroughly studied ever since, fission is a constant factor in modern life, used in everything from nuclear medicine to power-generating nuclear reactors. However, it is a force of nature that still contains mysteries yet to be solved. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-tracking-nuclear-fission-elusive-scission.html General Physics Wed, 23 Oct 2024 16:33:04 EDT news648919982 Disc golf is a sport growing in popularity, but there hasn't been much research into the best techniques—until now. Researcher Zachary Lindsey and his team studied professional and amateur disc golf players in Georgia to analyze the effect of thumb grip on disc-throwing. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-thumb-position-disc.html General Physics Tue, 22 Oct 2024 11:00:02 EDT news648807296 We've all been there—caught outside without an umbrella as the sky opens up. Whether it's a light drizzle or a heavy downpour, instinct tells us that running will minimize how wet we get. But is that really true? Let's take a scientific look at this common dilemma. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-physics-based-approached-staying-dry.html General Physics Mon, 21 Oct 2024 13:27:02 EDT news648736016 A recent study in Physical Review Letters explores the effects of ultralight dark matter in extreme-mass-ratio inspirals (EMRIs), which could be detected by future space-based gravitational wave detectors like LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna). https://phys.org/news/2024-10-impact-ultralight-dark-gravitational.html General Physics Sun, 20 Oct 2024 09:00:01 EDT news648444967 Far beneath the lush landscape of southern China, a sprawling subterranean laboratory aims to be the world's first to crack a deep scientific enigma. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-china-underground-lab-deep-scientific.html General Physics Thu, 17 Oct 2024 04:16:15 EDT news648357365