Physics news

Quantum gas microscope offers glimpse of quirky ultracold atoms

Physics / Quantum Physics

Nov 04, 2009 | 4.6 / 5 (15) | 4

(PhysOrg.com) -- Physicists at Harvard University have created a quantum gas microscope that can be used to observe single atoms at temperatures so low the particles follow the rules of quantum mechanics, ...

Tiny Music Player Made from Wire Bridge (w/ Video)

Physics / General Physics

Nov 04, 2009 | 4.3 / 5 (13) | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- In 2008, scientists built a loudspeaker made of carbon nanotubes that produced sound and music based on the thermoacoustic effect. Now, a different team of scientists has built a loudspeaker ...

Materials scientists find better model for glass creation

Physics / Condensed Matter

Nov 04, 2009 | 3.5 / 5 (6) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Harvard materials scientists have come up with what they believe is a new way to model the formation of glasses, a type of amorphous solid that includes common window glass.

Solving Teapot Effect

Physics / General Physics

Nov 02, 2009 | 5 / 5 (9) | 10

(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of scientists from France have worked out why teapots dribble at low flow rates, and how to stop them. The effect is called the "teapot effect", and solving it could finally put an ...

Researchers use trident laser to accelerate protons to record energies

Physics / General Physics

Nov 02, 2009 | 4.3 / 5 (3) | 10

An international team of physicists at Los Alamos National Laboratory has succeeded in using intense laser light to accelerate protons to energies never before achieved. Using this technique, scientists can ...

Creating a six-qubit cluster state

Physics / Quantum Physics

Nov 02, 2009 | 4.6 / 5 (10) | 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- Many scientists believe that quantum entanglement is required in order for effective quantum computing. Entanglement takes place when there is a connection that exists between two objects - even when they ...

Science Begins at the World's Most Powerful X-ray Laser (w/ Video)

Physics / General Physics

Nov 02, 2009 | 4.4 / 5 (8) | 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- The first experiments are now underway using the world's most powerful X-ray laser, the Linac Coherent Light Source, located at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. ...

Flipping a photonic shock wave

Physics / Optics & Photonics

Nov 02, 2009 | 4.7 / 5 (3) | 2

A team of physicists has directly observed a reverse shock wave of light in a specially tailored structure known as a left-handed metamaterial. Although it was first predicted over forty years ago, this is ...

Research sheds new light on neutron stars (w/ Video)

Physics / General Physics

Nov 02, 2009 | 4 / 5 (7) | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Research by Michigan State University scientists has shed new light on the properties of neutron stars, galactic oddities that are formed when a large star runs out of fuel and collapses.

Laser-plasma accelerators ride on Einstein's shoulders

Physics / Plasma Physics

Nov 02, 2009 | 5 / 5 (18) | 0

Using Einstein's theory of special relativity to speedup computer simulations, scientists have designed laser-plasma accelerators with energies of 10 billion electron volts (GeV) and beyond. These systems, ...

Powerful laser sheds light on fast ignition and high energy density physics

Physics / General Physics

Nov 02, 2009 | 4.3 / 5 (3) | 0

A new generation of high-energy (>kJ) petawatt (HEPW) lasers is being constructed worldwide to study high intensity laser matter interactions, including fast ignition. Fast ignition is a laser-based technique ...

Hunting for new zeolites

Physics / Condensed Matter

Nov 02, 2009 | 5 / 5 (2) | 0

In all the world, there are about 200 types of zeolite, a compound of silicon, aluminum and oxygen that gives civilization such things as laundry detergent, kitty litter and gasoline. But thanks to computations ...

Bacteria mix it up at the microscopic level

Physics / Condensed Matter

Nov 02, 2009 | 3.5 / 5 (4) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Many hands -- or many flagella -- make light work. In studies of the motion of tiny swimming bacteria, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory found that ...

Upping the power triggers an ordered helical plasma

Physics / Plasma Physics

Nov 02, 2009 | 5 / 5 (4) | 0

If you keep twisting a straight elastic string, at some moment it starts kinking in a wild way. Something similar occurs when one increases the electrical current flowing in a magnetized plasma doughnut: it ...

Electron self-injection into an evolving plasma bubble

Physics / Plasma Physics

Nov 02, 2009 | 4.7 / 5 (3) | 1

Particle accelerators are among the largest and most expensive scientific instruments. Thirty years ago, theorists John Dawson and Toshiki Tajima proposed an idea for making them thousands of times smaller: ...

Superstring theory useful for experimental physics

Physics / General Physics

Oct 30, 2009 | 3.8 / 5 (24) | 9

Superstring theory aims to explain the laws of physics from extremely small strings in various states. Theoretical superstring theory is therefore normally not considered to be particularly relevant for practical ...

Pinning Down Superconductivity to a Single Layer

Physics / Superconductivity

Oct 29, 2009 | 4.9 / 5 (16) | 14

(PhysOrg.com) -- Using precision techniques for making superconducting thin films layer-by-layer, physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have identified a single layer ...

Scientists Build First 'Frequency Comb' To Display Visible 'Teeth'

Physics / General Physics

Oct 29, 2009 | 4.9 / 5 (15) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Finally, an optical frequency comb that visibly lives up to its name. Scientists at the University of Konstanz in Germany and the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the U.S. ...