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December 2004
December 7
US
review rekindles cold fusion debate
Energy panel split over whether experiments produced power.
Simple
wire picks up terahertz waves
'Coat-hanger' probes could boost airport security.
Physicists
Find Strong Evidence for New State of Superconductivity
Researchers have found the clearest evidence yet for a superconducting state
that differs from its mirror image. The team says the results, which come
after six years of effort, are "definitive proof" that strontium
ruthenate, or SRO, exhibits "odd-parity" superconductivity, sometimes
called spin-triplet superconductivity. But not everyone is convinced yet.
November 2004
November 21
33-Year Hunt
For Proof Of Spin Current Now Over- Spin Hall Effect Observed. Santa
Barbara CA (SPX) Nov 12, 2004
In a paper published online Thursday in Science, a group of researchers
led by David Awschalom, a professor of physics and electrical and computer
engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara, reports the
observation of the spin Hall effect.
Shedding Light
On A Microscopic World. Baton Rouge LA (SPX) Nov 19, 2004
An LSU scientist has achieved national recognition for her research on the
shortest pulses of light ever created - pulses that could reveal important
new information about some of nature's tiniest building blocks.
Experiment
Confirms Existence Of New Electronic State In Superconductors
The existence of a new electronic state in superconductors, materials that
can carry an electric current without resistance, has been confirmed experimentally
according to research.
Unusual
Material That Contracts When Heated Is Giving Up Its Secrets To Physicists
Most solids expand when heated, a familiar phenomenon with many practical
implications. Among the rare exceptions to this rule, the compound zirconium
tungstate stands out by virtue of the enormous temperature range over which
it exhibits so-called "negative thermal expansion," contracting
as it heats up and expanding as it cools, and because it does so uniformly
in all directions.
November 8
Scientists Zero
In On Why Time Flows In One Direction
Chicago IL (SPX) Nov 02, 2004 - The big bang could be a normal event in
the natural evolution of the universe that will happen repeatedly over incredibly
vast time scales as the universe expands, empties out and cools off, according
to two University of Chicago physicists.
Experiments
Claim to See Einstein's "Frame Dragging"
By precisely calculating odd shifts in the orbit of Mercury, Einstein gained
important support for his theory of general relativity, which posits that
gravity arises because mass bends spacetime. By studying the orbits of two
manmade satellites around Earth, scientists now say they have confirmed
a much smaller effect predicted by the theory: namely, that mass drags spacetime
with it as it rotates.
October 2004
October 24
Physicists Succeed
In Transferring Information Between Matter And Light Atlanta GA (SPX)
Oct 22, 2004
A team of physicists at the Georgia Institute of Technology has taken a
significant step toward the development of quantum communications systems
by successfully transferring quantum information from two different groups
of atoms onto a single photon.
As World Turns
It Drags Time And Space With It Baltimore MD (SPX) Oct 22, 2004
An international team of NASA and university researchers has found the first
direct evidence the Earth is dragging space and time around itself as it
rotates. The researchers believe they have measured the effect, first predicted
in 1918 by using Einstein's theory of general relativity, by precisely observing
shifts in the orbits of two Earth-orbiting laser-ranging satellites. See
also Relativity
tested on a shoestring budget.
Quantum
quirk may give objects mass
Entanglement - the quantum effect that allows two particles to
behave as one, even when separated - could responsible for the mass
of everyday objects.
Sandia
Refurbishes It's Fusion Z Machine Albuquerque NM (SPX) Oct 22, 2004
Sandia National Laboratories' Z machine, which last year emitted neutrons
to enter the race to provide the world virtually unlimited electricity from,
essentially, seawater, has received approval from the National Nuclear Security
Administration (NNSA) to proceed with a $61.7 million refurbishment.
A Liquid Universe
London (SPX) Oct 14, 2004
To look deep into the fundamental structure of matter is to look billions
of years back in time, to the moment when matter first blinked into being.
October 10
Researchers
Use Semiconductors To Set Speed Limit On Light. San Francisco CA (SPX)
Sep 28, 2004
In a nod to scientific paradox, researchers at the University of California,
Berkeley, have slowed light down in an effort to speed up network communication.
Table Top Particle
Accelerators One Step Closer. Washington DC (SPX) Sep 29, 2004
Scientists from the UK and the USA have successfully demonstrated a new
technique that could help to shrink the size and cost of future particle
accelerators for fundamental physics experiments and applications in materials
and biomedicine.
Nobel
Physics Winners Explain Tiny Matter
U.S. scientists David J Gross, H. David Politzer and Frank Wilczek on Tuesday
won the 2004 Nobel Physics Prize for developing a theory that explains quarks,
nature's tiniest building blocks, the Nobel jury said.
September 2004
September 13
Nanotechnology
Leads To Discovery Of Super Superconductors. LOS ALAMOS, N.M., Sept.
9, 2004
University of California scientists working at Los Alamos National Laboratory
with a researcher from the University of Cambridge have demonstrated a simple
and industrially scaleable method for improving the current densities of
superconducting coated conductors in magnetic field environments. The discovery
has the potential to increase the already impressive carrying capacity of
superconducting wires and tapes by as much as 200 to 500 percent in certain
uses, like motors and generators, where high magnetic fields diminish current
densities.
August 2004
August 31
Quark Study
Breaks Logjam Between Theory, Experiment Chicago IL (SPX) Aug 30, 2004
University of Chicago scientists have solved a 20-year-old puzzle in particle
physics using data from an experiment conducted for an entirely different
purpose.
Cornell Apparatus
Probes The Mystery Of A High-Temperature Superconductor Ithaca NY (SPX)
Aug 27, 2004
With equipment so sensitive that it can locate clusters of electrons, Cornell
University and University of Tokyo physicists have - sort of - explained
puzzling behavior in a much-studied high-temperature superconductor, perhaps
leading to a better understanding of how such superconductors work.
First
practical plastic magnets created
Researchers create the first plastic magnet that works well at room temperature
– computers may be the first to benefit.
The Role Of
Particle Physics In A New Universe Stanford, CA (SPX) Aug 26, 2004
A string of recent discoveries in astronomy has left scientists with an
unsettling realization: The stuff we know and understand makes up less than
5 percent of the universe. The rest has to be yet-unknown forms of "dark
matter" and "dark energy."
August 23
Fermilab Scientists
Present New Physics Results At ICHEP Beijing. Batavia IL (SPX) Aug 19,
2004
Scientists from the Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
are presenting new results from experiments performed at the world's highest-energy
particle accelerator during the 32nd International Conference on High Energy
Physics in Beijing, China, August 16-22.
August 17
Physicists To
Mark 20th Anniversary Of First String Theory Revolution. Chicago IL
(SPX) Aug 11, 2004
Twenty years have passed since the first superstring revolution started
in the Aspen Center for Physics in Colorado. Approximately 75 scientists
will meet for a symposium at the center Aug. 12 to celebrate the revolution,
including Jeffrey Harvey, the Enrico Fermi Distinguished Service Professor
in Physics at the University of Chicago.
August 8
Theory
links dark energy and neutrinos
Unlike other theories of dark energy, researchers say, this one relates
it to known particles that can be detected in experiments.
Matter-Antimatter:
New, Striking Difference Discovered. Rome, Italy (SPX) Aug 03, 2004
If we can look at stars, planets and all living beings in the Universe,
as well as ourselves, it's because, as theoretical physicists suggest, after
the primordial cosmic explosion, the "Big Bang", matter has prevailed
over antimatter originating Universe as we know it.
July 2004
July 25
Hawking
Flips on Black Hole Theory. July 16, 2004
It may be time to shift thinking on black holes, for decades believed to
be sucking maws in space from which even light cannot escape. Noted physicist
Stephen Hawking, who has long argued just that, now says he was wrong: black
holes may ultimately allow something to get free. His about face might solve
one of the longest-standing quandaries in quantum physics, called the black
hole information paradox. See also Hawking
raises new black holes theory and Hawking
changes his mind about black holes.
July 18
Scientists
Successfully Observe Elusive Neutrino Oscillation. Irvine CA (SPX) Jul
08, 2004
A new analysis of atmospheric neutrino data by a team of international scientists
has shown for the first time the distinctive pattern of neutrino oscillation
that has eluded researchers until now.
July 10
Speed
of light may have changed recently.
The speed of light, one of the most sacrosanct of the universal physical
constants, may have been lower as recently as two billion years ago - and
not in some far corner of the universe, but right here on Earth. A varying
speed of light contradicts Einstein's theory of relativity, and would undermine
much of traditional physics. But some physicists believe it would elegantly
explain puzzling cosmological phenomena such as the nearly uniform temperature
of the universe. It might also support string theories that predict extra
spatial dimensions.
Dark Matter
And Dark Energy May Be Different Aspects Of Single Force. Nashville
TN (SPX) Jul 02, 2004
In the last few decades, scientists have discovered that there is a lot
more to the universe than meets the eye: the cosmos appears to be filled
with not just one, but two invisible constituents - dark matter and dark
energy - whose existence has been proposed based solely on their gravitational
effects on ordinary matter and energy.
Standard Model
Upended With Discovery Of Neutrino Oscillation, Mass Boston MA (SPX)
Jul 09, 2004
A team of nearly 100 physicists from around the world have achieved results
verifying that the elementary particle known as the neutrino exhibits a
distinctive pattern of oscillation.
Fundamental
physics constants stay put
A new study casts doubt on an earlier claim that the fine-structure constant
varied as the Universe evolved.
June 2004
June 20
Test May Confirm
Strings As Basic Constituent Of Matter, Energy. Santa Barbara CA - Jun
14, 2004
According to string theory, all the different particles that constitute
physical reality are made of the same thing-tiny looped strings whose different
vibrations give rise to the different fundamental particles that make up
everything we know.
Top Quark Measurements
Give 'God Particle' New Lease On Life. Rochester NY (SPX) Jun 10, 2004
Researchers from the University of Rochester have helped measure the elusive
top quark with unparalleled precision, and the surprising results affect
everything from the Higgs boson, nicknamed the "God particle,"
to the makeup of the dark matter that comprises 90 percent of the universe.
Surprise:
Fermilab's SELEX Experiment Finds Puzzling New Particle. BATAVIA, Illinois
Scientists at the Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
will announce on Friday, June 18 the observation of an unexpected new member
of a family of subatomic particles called "heavy-light" mesons.
The new meson, a combination of a strange quark and a charm antiquark, is
the heaviest ever observed in this family, and it behaves in surprising
ways -- it apparently breaks the rules on decaying into other particles.
June 13
A Quantum Mechanical
Tune Up For Better Measurement. Washington (SPX) Jun 07, 2004
By exploiting the weird quantum behavior of atoms, physicists at the Commerce
Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have
demonstrated a new technique that someday could be used to save weeks of
measurements needed to operate ultraprecise atomic clocks. The technique
also could be used to improve the precision of other measurement processes
such as spectroscopy.
Ultra-Cold Neutron
Source Confirmed As World's Most Intense. Los Alamos NM (SPX) Jun 09,
2004
Some slow, cold visitors stopped by Los Alamos National Laboratory last
week, and their arrival could prove a godsend to physicists seeking a better
theory of everything.
Fermilab Results
Change Estimated Mass Of Postulated Higgs Boson. Batavia IL (SPX) Jun
10, 2004
Scientists at the Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
today (June 9) announced new results that change the best estimate of the
mass of the postulated Higgs boson from approximately 96 GeV/c2 to 117 GeV/c2.
May 2004
May 30
Into
the dark state
For centuries we have struggled to exploit the properties of light. Though
we have succeeded to some degree, it has always been slippery and elusive,
a fast-moving sprite. But not any more. Thanks to something called the dark
state, where the boundary between light and matter becomes blurred, we can
now slow and even stop photons of light. And this means we can use them
to carry and process information with unprecedented ease: thanks to the
mysterious dark state, we can at last put light on a leash.
May 23
When Bosons become
Fermions. Munich (SPX) May 20, 2004
There are two fundamentally distinct families of particles in nature: bosons
and fermions. Being a boson or a fermion has profound consequences on the
'social behaviour' of a particle when it meets other partners. Whereas bosons
tend to socialize and want to be as close to each other as possible, fermions
are very independent and like to be on their own.
May 16
OUR UNIVERSE HAS A TOPOLOGY SCALE OF AT LEAST 24 Gpc, or about 75 billion light years, according to a new analysis of data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP). What does this mean? Well, because of conceivable hall-of-mirrors effects of spacetime, the universe might be finite in size but give us mortals the illusion that it is infinite. For example, the cosmos might be tiled with some repeating shape, around which light rays might wrap themselves over and over.
Physicists 'Entangle'
Light, Pave Way To Atomic-Scale Measurements. Toronto (SPX) May 13,
2004
U of T physicists have developed a way to entangle photons which could ultimately
lead to an extremely precise new measurement system. Their study appears
in the May 13 issue of the journal Nature.
Yale
Scientist Says Clues To String Theory May Be Visible In Big Bang Aftermath.
Scientists say that the fundamental forces of the Universe – gravity
(defined by general relativity), electromagnetism, “weak” radioactive
forces and “strong” nuclear forces (all defined by quantum theory)
– were united in the high-energy flash of the Big Bang, when all matter
and energy was confined within a sub-atomic scale. Although the Big Bang
occurred nearly 14 billion years ago, its afterglow, the CMB, still blankets
the entire universe and contains a fossilized record of the first moments
of time. The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) studies the CMB
and detects subtle temperature differences, within this largely uniform
radiation, glowing at only 2.73 degrees Celsius above absolute zero. The
uniformity is evidence of “inflation,” a period when the expansion
of the Universe accelerated rapidly, around 10-33 seconds after the Big
Bang. During inflation, the Universe grew from an atomic scale to a cosmic
scale, increasing its size a hundred trillion trillion times over. The energy
field that drove inflation, like all quantum fields, contained fluctuations.
These fluctuations, locked into the cosmic microwave background like waves
on a frozen pond, may contain evidence for string theory.
May 2
Proof Of The
Matter Is In The Jelly. Durham - Apr 28, 2004
In the community of very tiny particles that make up all matter in the universe,
there are two main citizens: bosons and fermions. Bosons are socially oriented
and tend to stick together, while fermions are solitary entities, preferring
to go it alone.
Gravity Probe
B Powered Up And OK. Huntsville - Apr 26, 2004
Gravity Probe B — a NASA mission to test two predictions of Albert
Einstein's Theory of General Relativity — is orbiting 400 miles above
Earth, and all spacecraft systems are performing well. Its solar arrays
are generating power, and all electrical systems are powered on.
Scientists Post A Lower Speed Limit For Magnetic Switching.
April 2004
April 25
Seeking
the Densest Matter
Physicists investigating heavy-particle collisions believe they are on the
track of a universal form of matter, one common to very high energy particles
ranging from protons to heavy nuclei such as uranium. Some think that this
matter, called a color glass condensate, may explain new nuclear properties
and the process of particle formation during collisions. Experimentalists
have recently reported intriguing data that suggest a color glass condensate
has actually formed in past work.
In Search of
Gravitomagnetism. Huntsville - Apr 21, 2004
NASA's Gravity Probe B spacecraft left Earth Tuesday in search of a force
of nature, long suspected but never proven: gravitomagnetism.
April 11
World's Most
Precise Gyroscopes Ready To Test Einstein Theory Vandenberg AFB - Apr
05, 2004
NASA's Gravity Probe B mission, also known as GP-B, will use four ultra-precise
gyroscopes, orbiting the Earth in a unique satellite, to experimentally
test two extraordinary predictions of Einstein's 1916 theory that space
and time are distorted by the presence of massive objects.
April 4
Evicting Einstein.
Huntsville - Mar 29, 2004
Sooner or later, the reign of Einstein, like the reign of Newton before
him, will come to an end. An upheaval in the world of physics that will
overthrow our notions of basic reality is inevitable, most scientists believe,
and currently a horse race is underway between a handful of theories competing
to be the successor to the throne.
The
weirdest link
Entanglement - the defining trait of quantum theory - is no longer just
a curiosity of the quantum world. Physicists are now finding that entanglement
between particles exists everywhere all the time, and have recently found
evidence that its effects can even be measured from the everyday world we
inhabit. It is a discovery that might have far-reaching consequences - it
could even be the key to understanding what gives rise to the phenomenon
of life.
Bright Light
Yields Unusual Vibes. Montreal - Mar 29, 2004
By bombarding very thin slices of several copper/oxygen compounds, called
cuprates, with very bright, short-lived pulses of light, Ivan Bozovic, a
physicist at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory,
and his collaborators have discovered an unusual property of the materials:
After absorbing the light energy, they emit it as long-lived sound waves,
as opposed to heat energy.
March 2004
March 7
Physics News Update is a digest of physics news items arising from physics meetings, physics journals, newspapers and magazines, and other news sources. Subscriptions are free as a way of broadly disseminating information about physics and physicists.
The accelerating expansion of the universe, the notion that the big bang enlargement of spacetime is not slowing down but actually gathering speed, has received new experimental support in the form of supernova observations made by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST).
Evidence
Bubbles Over To Support Tabletop Nuclear Fusion Device. West Lafayette
- Mar 04, 2004
Researchers are reporting new evidence supporting their earlier discovery
of an inexpensive "tabletop" device that uses sound waves to produce
nuclear fusion reactions.
Particle Physicists
Look to the Future. London - Mar 04, 2004The Particle Physics and Astronomy
Research Council has thi
s week approved a 21 million programme of Accelerator Research and Development
for future facilities in particle physics, including a Linear Collider and
a possible Neutrino Factory.
Information
Paradox Solved? If So, Black Holes Are "Fuzzballs" Columbus
- Mar 04, 2004
Stephen Hawking and Kip Thorne may owe John Preskill a set of encyclopedias.
In 1997, the three cosmologists made a famous bet as to whether information
that enters a black hole ceases to exist -- that is, whether the interior
of a black hole is changed at all by the characteristics of particles that
enter it.
Researchers
Create Terahertz Magnetism From Non-magnetic Materials
A team of engineers and physicists at UCLA, UC San Diego and Imperial College
in London has successfully created a "metamaterial" that displays
strong, tunable magnetic activity at terahertz frequencies.
February 2004
February 22
Research On Tiniest
Particles Could Have Far-Reaching Effects. Seattle - Feb 16, 2004
Neutrinos are about the tiniest things in existence, but developing a greater
understanding of what they are and how they function is likely to have a
huge impact in the next few years. The subatomic particles, created in the
nuclear furnaces of the sun and other stars, have no electrical charge and
only recently has it been found that they have any mass at all, yet billions
pour through each human body every second with no discernable effect or
interaction.
February 8
Researchers
Unveil New Form of Matter
Scientists have manufactured a new form of matter--a so-called fermionic
condensate, which is comprised of pairs of atoms in a gas at temperatures
close to absolute zero. Its creators hope it will inform the design of room-temperature
superconductors in the future.
Modern alchemists
make two new elements
Heavy elements approach fabled 'island of stability'. 3 February 2004
Particle
experiment produces abundant hypernuclei
Scientists will use them to learn more about the weak force, as well as
the first moments of the Universe's existence.
January 2004
January 25
Glimpse of a new
type of matter
Frozen helium has been turned into a solid that behaves like a superfluid.
15 January 2004.
January 18
Mystery Particle
May Hold Clues To Universe. Melbourne - Jan 12, 2004
Physicists from the University of Melbourne in Australia have helped discover
a new state of matter that may shed light on the fabric of the universe.
The University team of 14 is part of a group of 300 physicists from 13 countries
known as the 'Belle collaboration'. They have discovered a sub-atomic particle
that they are having difficulty explaining and difficulty fitting with any
current theory that attempts to describe matter.
Probable
Discovery Of A New, Supersolid, Phase Of Matter
In the 15 January 2004 issue of the journal Nature, two physicists from
Penn State University will announce their discovery of a new phase of matter,
a "supersolid" form of helium-4 with the extraordinary frictionless-flow
properties of a superfluid. "We discovered that solid helium-4 appears
to behave like a superfluid when it is so cold that the laws of quantum
mechanics govern its behavior," says Moses H. W. Chan, Evan Pugh Professor
of Physics at Penn State. "We apparently have observed, for the first
time, a solid material with the characteristics of a superfluid."
January 4
Topsy Turvy: In
neutrons and protons, quarks take wrong turns.
Revved-up particles, namely quarks, spinning inside neutrons in the opposite
direction to that of the neutrons themselves, challenge the prevailing model
of how quarks behave.
Nucleons
Go Two-by-Two.
Just as people behave differently as couples than as individuals, protons
and neutrons (also known as nucleons) inside the nucleus of the atom behave
differently in pairs.