News by Subject Chemistry & Physics

Hailed as a pioneer by Photonics Media for his previous discoveries of supercontinuum and Cr tunable lasers, City College of New York Distinguished Professor of Science and Engineering Robert R. Alfano and his research team are claiming another breakthrough with a new super class of photons dubbed 'Majorana photons.' They could lead to enhanced information on quantum-level transition and imaging of the brain and its working.

Scientists at DESY have achieved a new world record for an experimental type of miniature particle accelerator: For the first time, a terahertz powered accelerator more than doubled the energy of the injected electrons. At the same time, the setup significantly improved the electron beam quality compared to earlier experiments with the technique, as Dongfang Zhang and his colleagues from the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL) at DESY report in the journal Optica.

In a global first, NUS scientists have demonstrated that heat energy can be manipulated by utilising the quantum mechanical principle of anti-parity-time symmetry. Using this method, they were able to control the flow of heat in a material.

The collision of two neutron stars (GW170817) flung out an extraordinary fireball of material and energy that is allowing a Princeton-led team of astrophysicists to calculate a more precise value for the Hubble constant, the speed of the universe's expansion. Previous estimates put the value between 66 and 90 km/s/Mpc, which this team refined to between 65.3 and 75.6 km/s/Mpc.

The Tibet ASgamma experiment, a China-Japan joint research project, has discovered the highest energy cosmic gamma rays ever observed from an astrophysical source - in this case, the 'Crab Nebula.' The experiment detected gamma rays ranging from > 100 Teraelectron volts (TeV) to an estimated 450 TeV.

There are two sound velocities in a Bose-Einstein condensate. In addition to the normal sound propagation there is second sound, which is a quantum phenomenon. Scientists around Ludwig Mathey from the University of Hamburg have put forth a new theory for this phenomenon.

Details of a UK-led solar science mission designed to to answer fundamental questions about the physics of solar storms will be presented at the RAS National Astronomy Meeting on Wednesday, July 3. The mission will also demonstrate the use of laser power transfer in space and laser communications in Low Earth Orbits (i.e. for both inter-satellite communications and satellite-to-Earth communications).