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Category: Physics

  • Researchers Design Compact High-Power Laser Using Plasma Optics

    Researchers Design Compact High-Power Laser Using Plasma Optics

    The L3 HAPLS at ELI Beamlines Research Center in the Czech Republic. Credit: ELI Beamlines

    Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers have developed a compact multi-petawatt laser that uses plasma transmission gratings to overcome the power restrictions of traditional solid-state optical gratings. The design might allow the construction of an ultrafast laser up to 1,000 times more potent than existing lasers of the same dimension.

    Petawatt (quadrillion-watt) lasers rely on diffraction gratings for chirped-pulse amplification (CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANT), a strategy for extending, amplifying, and then pressing a high-energy laser pulse to prevent damaging optical parts. CPA, that won a Nobel Prize in physics in 2018, is at the heart of the National Ignition Center’s Advanced Radiographic Capability and NIF’s precursor, the Nova Laser, the world’s first petawatt laser.


    The chirped-pulse amplification technique makes it possible for a petawatt laser’s high-power pulses to pass through laser optics without damaging them. Before amplification, low-energy laser pulses are passed through diffraction gratings to stretch their duration by as much as 25,000 times. Thus their peak power is reduced and optics that the pulses pass through remain intact. After amplification, the pulses are recompressed back to near their original duration. Credit: The Nobel Committee for Physics

    With a damage limit several orders of size larger than conventional reflection gratings, plasma gratings “enable us to deliver a lot more energy for the same size grating,” stated former LLNL postdoc Matthew Edwards, co-author of a Physical Review Applied paper describing the new style released online on August. 9. Edwards was joined on the paper by Laser-Plasma Interactions Team Leader Pierre Michel.

    “Glass focusing optics for powerful lasers must be huge to prevent damage,” Edwards said. “The laser power is spread out to keep local intensity low. Because the plasma resists optical damage better than one piece of glass, for instance, we can imagine developing a laser that produces hundreds or thousands of times as much power as a current system without making that system bigger.”

    LLNL, with 50 years of experience developing high-energy laser systems, has also been a longtime leader in the design and fabrication of the globe’s largest diffraction gratings, like the gold gratings used to generate 500-joule petawatt pulses on the Nova laser in the 1990s. Still bigger gratings, nonetheless, would be required for next-generation multi-petawatt and exawatt (1,000-petawatt) lasers to overcome the limits on optimum fluence (energy density) imposed by conventional strong optics (see “Holographic Plasma Lenses for Ultra-High-Power Lasers”).

    Edwards noticed that optics made of plasma, a mix of ions and free electrons, are “well suited to a relatively high-repetition-rate, high-average-energy laser.” The new design could, for instance, make it possible to field a laser system similar in dimension to the L3 HAPLS (High-Repetition-Rate Advanced Petawatt Laser System) at ELI Beamlines in the Czech Republic but with 100 times the peak energy.

    Designed and created by LLNL and delivered to ELI Beamlines in 2017, HAPLS was designed to produce 30 joules of power in a 30-femtosecond (quadrillionth of one second) pulse duration, that is equal to one petawatt and do so at ten Hertz (10 pulses per second).

    “If you imagine trying to construct HAPLS with 100 times the peak energy at the same repetition rate, that is the kind of system where this would be most suitable,” stated Edwards, presently an assistant Professor of mechanical engineering at Stanford College.

    “The grating can be reprised at a very huge repetition rate, so we think that ten Hertz operation is possible with this kind of design. Nevertheless, it would not be suitable for a high-average-energy continuous-wave laser.”

    Engineer JB McLeod inspects one of the high-efficiency diffraction gratings installed in NIF’s Advanced Radiographic Capability (ARC) compressor vessel. ARC’s one-meter-wide multilayer dielectric gratings were specially developed at LLNL to withstand the record levels of energy generated by NIF’s lasers. Simulations suggest that the meter-scale final grating for a 10-petawatt laser could be replaced by a 1.5-millimeter-diameter plasma grating, allowing compression to, for example, 22 femtoseconds with 90 percent efficiency and providing a path towards compact multi-petawatt laser systems.

    While plasma optics have been utilized successfully in plasma mirrors, the scientists said their utilization for pulse compression at high energy has been limited by the difficulty of creating a sufficiently consistent large plasma and also the complexity of nonlinear plasma wave dynamics.

    “It has proven hard to obtain plasmas to do what you desire them to do,” Edwards said. “It is difficult to make them sufficiently homogenous, to get the temperature and density variations to be small enough, and so on.”

    “We are aiming for a design where that kind of inhomogeneity is as small a problem as possible for the total system– the design should be very tolerant to imperfections in the plasma that you use.”

    Based on simulations using the particle-in-cell (PICTURE) code EPOCH, the researchers stated, “we expect that this approach is capable of offering a degree of security not available with other plasma-based compression mechanisms and may prove more feasible; to construct in practice.” The new design “requires only gas as the initial tool, is durable to variations in plasma conditions, and minimizes the plasma quantity to make sufficient uniformity practical.”

    “By utilizing achievable plasma parameters and avoiding solid-density plasma and solid-state optics, this approach provides a feasible path toward the next generation of high-energy laser.”

    Read the original article on lasers LLNL.

  • Japan’s Fugaku Supercomputer Powers Up Drug Discovery, Storm Forecasts

    Japan’s Fugaku Supercomputer Powers Up Drug Discovery, Storm Forecasts

    TOKYO– Discovering brand-new drugs and also predicting severe weather is one of the tasks the Japanese-built Fugaku, 1 of the world’s rapid supercomputer, has taken on as its applications broaden.

    Fugaku will certainly be at the center of a two-year experimental study research focused on a pharmaceutical development platform. The government-sponsored project, posted in July, was proposed by the Life Intelligence Consortium, an industry-academia collaboration.

    The study will include drugmakers, tech companies, and also the government’s Riken research institute. The goal is to offer a service that boosts the efficiency of pharmaceutical development.

    The government hopes Japanese drug companies and also startups make use of the service to compete against bigger overseas rivals with deep pockets.

    In an additional project, the Japan Meteorological Firm in June started making use of Fugaku to forecast “training” sensations or lines of storms that can bring downpour to specific areas.

    The computer calculates the odds of such storms emerging based on such data as water vapor levels, air temperature, and also atmospheric pressure. It is currently able to accurately predict about one in four, according to the agency.

    Challenges remain. Nevertheless, “the range of applications has started growing,” said the head of the computational science office at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Innovation.

    With more than 100 billion yen ($750 million) in public funds poured into Fugaku– along with lessons learned from its predecessor, the K supercomputer, it is imperative for Japan to make maximum use of the supercomputer.

    The machine was developed with practical usage in mind from the outset, with hardware and also applications designed in coordination with each other.

    Fugaku has led twice-yearly global rankings of supercomputers 4 times in a row since 2020, demonstrating its ability to handle artificial intelligence, simulations, and big data.

    While the K was used by around 200 companies over roughly seven years, Fugaku already had around 150 users since March, about a year after it began operations, in a wide range of industries from pharmaceuticals to materials.

    Supercomputers are used widely by tech companies overseas to power machine translation, search engines as well as even more. Many point out that Japan is wasting Fugaku’s potential by essentially limiting its usage to research.

    The ministry announced on July 26 the selection of a research group on computing in the post-Fugaku era. The team will undoubtedly be required to balance embracing quantum computing and various other next-generation technologies and protecting exclusive Japanese know-how.

    “We should not be bound by precedent and think strategically about what we need in a brand-new flagship system,” the head of the computational science office said. Diverse data collected through Fugaku’s operations will be critical to developing new supercomputers amid growing questions about the purpose of pursuing faster processing speeds.

    Read the original article on ASIA NIKKEI.

  • Scientist Says That Dark Matter May Be Information Itself

    Scientist Says That Dark Matter May Be Information Itself

    Info Dump

    There is no shortage of debate regarding the nature of the dark matter, a mysterious substance that many physicists believe makes up a large proportion of the total mass of the universe, despite never having observed it directly.

    Currently, a physicist from the UK called Melvin Vopson is raising a startling possibility: that dark matter might be information itself.

    “He also claims that information would be the elusive dark matter which makes up almost a 3rd of the universe,” reads a press release from the College of Portsmouth, where Vopson is a scientist researcher.

    “If we say that information is physical and also has mass and that elementary particles get a DNA of information about themselves, how could we prove it?” Vopson questioned in the release. “My latest paper is about putting these concepts to the test so they can be taken seriously by the scientific community.”

    Dark Shadows

    The paper, released in the journal AIP Advances, suggests an experiment that could test the hypothesis that information is a distinct state of matter– alongside solids, liquids, gases, and plasmas– by utilizing a particle-antiparticle collision too, in theory, “delete” information from the universe.

    “We know that whenever you collide a particle of matter with a particle of antimatter, they annihilate each other,” Vopson stated in the release. “And also the information from the particle has to go somewhere when it’s annihilated.”

    There are many concepts about dark matter– including, it’s worth pointing out, that it does not exist at all– so while Vopson’s idea is provocative, it’s best to withhold judgment until he actually manages to test his hypothesis.

    Nevertheless, for what it’s worth, he seems pretty compelled by the concept.

    “It does not contradict quantum mechanics, electrodynamics, thermodynamics, or classical mechanics,” he stated in the release. “All it does is complement physics with something brand-new and incredibly exciting.”

    Read the original article on Futurism.

  • Three Papers Highlight the Results Of Record 1.3 Megajoule Yield Experiment

    Three Papers Highlight the Results Of Record 1.3 Megajoule Yield Experiment

    On the one-year anniversary of achieving a yield of more than 1.3 megajoules at LLNL’s National Ignition Facility, the scientific results of this record experiment have been published in three peer-reviewed papers: one in Physical Review Letters and two in Physical Review E. This stylized image shows a cryogenic target used for these record-setting inertial fusion experiments. Credit: James Wickboldt/LLNL

    On the first anniversary of this historical achievement, the scientific results of this record experiment have been published in three peer-reviewed papers: 1 in Physical Review Letters and two in Physical Review E. More than 1,000 writers are included in one of the Physical Review Letters paper to recognize and acknowledge the many people who have functioned over many years to allow this significant improvement.

    “The record shot was a major scientific development in fusion research, which establishes that fusion ignition in the laboratory is possible at National Ignition Facility (NIF),” stated Omar Hurricane, chief scientist for Lawrence Livermore National Research lab’s (LLNL’s) inertial confinement fusion program. “Achieving the conditions required for ignition has been a long-standing aim for all inertial confinement fusion study and opens up access to a brand-new experimental regime where alpha-particle self-heating outstrips all the cooling mechanisms in the fusion plasma.”

    The papers describe, in detail, the outcomes from Aug. 8, 2021, and also the associated design, improvements, and also experimental measurements. LLNL physicist Alex Zylstra, lead experimentalist and the 1st author of the experimental Physical Review E paper, noticed that in 2020 and early 2021, the Laboratory conducted experiments in the “burning plasma” regime for the first time, that set the stage for the record shot.

    “From that design, we made several improvements to get to the Aug. 8, 2021, shot,” he said. “Improvements to the physics design and target quality all assisted lead to the success of the August shot, which is argued in the Physical Review E papers.”

    This experiment incorporated a few modifications, including an improved target design. “Reducing the coasting-time with more effective hohlraums contrasted to previous experiments was key in moving between the burning plasma and ignition regimes,” said LLNL physicist Annie Kritcher, lead developer and 1st author of the other Physical Review E paper. “The other main changes were developed capsule quality and also a smaller fuel fill tube.”

    This three-part image shows the cut-away characteristic target geometry (a) that includes a gold-lined depleted uranium hohlraum surrounding an HDC capsule with some features labeled. The capsule, ~2 mm in diameter, at the center of the ~1 cm height hohlraum, occupies a small fraction of the volume. Laser beams enter the target at the top and bottom apertures, called laser entrance holes. In (b), total laser power (blue) vs. time and simulated hohlraum radiation temperature for the Aug. 8, 2021 experiment are shown with a few key elements labeled. All images are 100 square microns. Imaging data is used to reconstruct the hotspot plasma volume needed for inferring pressure and other plasma properties. Credit: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

    Since the experiment last August, the group has been executing a series of experiments to try to repeat the performance and also to understand the experimental sensitivities in this brand-new regime.

    “Many variables could impact each experiment,” Kritcher stated. “The 192 laser beams don´t perform exactly the same from shot to shot, the quality of targets differs, and the ice layer grows at differing roughness on each target. These experiments offered a chance to test and understand the inherent variability in this brand-new, sensitive experimental regime.”

    While the repeat attempts get not reached the same degree of fusion yield as the August 2021 experiment, all of them showed capsule gain greater than unity with yields in the 430– 700 kJ range, significantly higher than the before highest yield of 170 kJ from February 2021.

    The information gained from these and other experiments provides crucial clues as to what went right and what changes are needed to repeat that experiment and exceed its performance in the future. The team is also utilizing the experimental data to further understand the fundamental processes of fusion ignition and burn and to enhance simulation devices in support of stockpile stewardship.

    Looking ahead, the team is functioning to leverage the accumulated experimental data and simulations to move toward a more robust regime– further beyond the ignition cliff– where general trends found in this brand-new experimental regime could be better divided from variability in targets and laser performance.

    Efforts to enlarge fusion performance and robustness are underway through advancements to the laser, improvements to the targets, and changes to the design that further improve power delivery to the hotspot while keeping or even increasing the hot-spot pressure. This includes developing the compression of the fusion fuel and increasing the amount of gas and other avenues.

    “It is extremely exciting to get an ‘existence proof’ of ignition in the lab,” Hurricane said. “We are operating in a regime that no researchers have accessed since the end of nuclear testing, and it is an incredible opportunity to expand our knowledge as we continue to make progress.”

    More information:

    H. Abu-Shawareb et al, Lawson Criterion for Ignition Exceeded in an Inertial Fusion Experiment, Physical Review Letters (2022). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.129.075001

    A. B. Zylstra et al, Experimental achievement and signatures of ignition at the National Ignition Facility, Physical Review E (2022). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.106.025202

    Read the original article on PHYS.

  • A Particle New To Physics Could Solve the Dark Matter Mystery

    A Particle New To Physics Could Solve the Dark Matter Mystery

    Anomalies in nuclear physics experiments may show signs of a new force.

    A team of scientists in Hungary currently published a paper that hints at the presence of a previously unknown subatomic particle. The group first reported finding traces of the particle in 2016, and they now report more traces in a different experiment.

    If the outcomes are confirmed, the so-called X17 particle could help to explain the dark matter; the mysterious substance scientists think accounts for more than 80% of the mass in the universe. It might be the provider of a “fifth force” beyond the four accounted for in the typical model of physics (gravity, electromagnetism, the weak nuclear force, and the strong nuclear force).

    Smashing atoms

    Most scientists who hunt for new particles use enormous accelerators that smash subatomic particles together at high velocity and look at what comes out of the explosion. The biggest of these accelerators is the Huge Hadron Collider in Europe, where the Higgs boson– a particle scientists had been hunting for decades– was discovered in 2012.

    Attila J. Krasznahorkay and also his colleagues at ATOMKI (the Institute of Nuclear Research in Debrecen, Hungary) get taken a different approach, conducting smaller experiments which fire the subatomic particles called protons at the nuclei of different atoms.

    In 2016, they observed at pairs of electrons and also positrons (the antimatter version of electrons) created when beryllium-8 nuclei went from a high energy state to a reduced energy state.

    They spotted a deviation from what they expected to observe when there was a big angle between the electrons and positrons. This anomaly could be best be explained if the nucleus emitted an unknown particle which later “split” into an electron and a positron.

    The new research is led by Attila Krasznahorkay (right). Credit: Attila Krasznahorkay

    This particle would have to be a boson, which is the sort of particle that carries force, and its mass would be around seventy million electron volts. That is about as heavy as thirty-four electrons, which is fairly lightweight for a particle like this. (The Higgs boson, for instance, is more than 10,000 times heavier.).

    Because of its mass, Krasznahorkay and his group called the hypothetical particle X17. Now they have observed some weird behavior in helium-4 nuclei which can also be explained by the presence of X17.

    This latest anomaly is statistically significant– a seven sigma confidence level, which means there is only a very small possibility the outcome occurred by chance. This is well beyond the usual 5-sigma standard for a new discovery, so the outcome would seem to suggest there is some brand-new physics here.

    Checking and double checking

    However, the brand-new announcement and the one in 2016 have been met with scepticism by the physics community– the sort of scepticism that did not exist when two groups simultaneously published the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012.

    So why is it so difficult for physicists to think a new lightweight boson like this could exist?

    First, experiments of this sort are hard, and so is the analysis of the data. Signals could appear and disappear. Back in 2004, for example, the team in Debrecen found evidence they interpreted as the possible existence of an even lighter boson. However, when they repeated the experiment, the signal was gone.

    Second, one requires to make sure the very presence of X17 is compatible with the outcomes from other experiments. In this case, both the 2016 outcome with beryllium and the new outcome with helium can be explained by the presence of X17. However, an independent check from an independent group is still necessary.

    Krasznahorkay and his team first reported weak proof (at a three-sigma level) for a brand-new boson in 2012 at a workshop in Italy.

    Since then, the group has repeated the experiment using upgraded equipment and successfully reproduced the beryllium-8 outcomes, which is reassuring, as are the new outcomes in helium-4. These new outcomes were presented at the HIAS 2019 symposium at the Australian National College in Canberra.

    What does this have to do with dark matter?

    Scientists think that most of the matter in the universe is invisible to us. So-called dark matter would just interact with normal matter very weakly. We could infer that it exists from its gravitational effects on distant stars and galaxies. However, it has never been detected in the laboratory.

    So, where does X17 come in?

    In 2003, in among us (Boehm) revealed that a particle like Xseventy could exist in work co-authored with Pierre Fayet and alone. It could carry force between dark matter particles in much the same way photons, or particles of light, do for ordinary matter.

    In one of the scenarios I recommended, lightweight dark matter particles could sometimes process pairs of electrons and positrons in a form that is similar to what Krasznahorkay’s team has seen.

    This situation has led to many searches in low-energy experiments, which have ruled out many possibilities. However, X17 has not yet been ruled out– in which case the Debrecen team may have indeed discovered how dark matter particles deal with our world.

    More evidence required

    While the results from Debrecen are fascinating, the physics community will not be convinced a brand-new particle has indeed been spotted until there is independent confirmation.

    So we can expect a lot of experiments around the world that are looking for a new lightweight boson to begin hunting for evidence of X17 and its interaction with pairs of electrons and positrons.

    If confirmation arrives, the subsequent discovery might be the dark matter particles themselves.

    Read the originala article on The Conversation.

  • Why Does Gravity Travel at the velocity of Light?

    Why Does Gravity Travel at the velocity of Light?

    Two neutron stars collide; the resulting gravitational wave spread at the speed of light. Credit: National Science Foundation/LIGO/Sonoma State University/A. Simonne.

    The dead cores of 2 stars collided 130 million yrs earlier in a galaxy somewhat far away.

    The crash was so extreme that it originated a wrinkle in space-time– a gravitational wave. That gravitational wave and also the light from the stellar explosion traveled together throughout the cosmos. They arrived at Earth at the same time, at 6:41 A.M. Eastern on August 17th.

    The occasion prompted worldwide headlines as the dawn of “multimessenger astronomy.” Astronomers got waited a generation for this moment. Nevertheless, it was also the first-ever direct confirmation that gravity travels at the speed of light.

    The Speed of Gravity

    We all know light obeys a speed limit– roughly 186,000 miles per second. Nothing travels faster. However, why should gravity travel at the same speed?

    That question needs a quick dive into Albert Einstein’s general relativity, or concept of gravity– the same concept that predicted gravitational waves a century back.

    Einstein overthrew Isaac Newton’s concept of “absolute time.” Newton believed time marched onward everywhere at an identical pace– regardless of how we people perceived it. It was unflinching. By that line of thinking, one 2nd on Earth is one second near a black hole (which he did not know existed).

    Newton also believed gravity acted instantaneously. Distance did not matter.

    It is All Relative

    However, then Einstein revealed that time is relative. It changes with velocity and in the existence of gravity. 1 of the ramifications of that is that you can not have simultaneous actions at a distance. So the information of any kind has a finite speed, whether it is a photon– the light-carrying particle– or a graviton that carries the force of gravity.

    “In relativity, there is a ‘speed of information’– the maximum speed that you can send information from one point to another,” says College of Wisconsin-Milwaukee physicist Jolien Creighton, an expert on general relativity and member of the LIGO group that first spotted gravitational waves.

    Creighton explains that in electromagnetism, when you shake an electron, it produces a change in the electrica rea that spreads out at the speed of light. Gravity functions similarly. Shake a mass, and the change in the gravitational field– the gravitational wave– propagates at that same veloicty

    “So, the fact that the veovcoty of gravitational waves is equal to the velocity of electromagnetic waves is mere because they both travel at the speed of information,” Creighton states.

    There is an easy way to picture this, too. Imagine the sun vanished right now. Earth would not just drift into space instantly. After 8 minutes, Earth would go dark and simultaneously push off in a straight line.

    Read the original article on discover magazine.

  • Physicists Confirm the Existence Of Two-Dimensional Particles Called ‘Anyons’

    Physicists Confirm the Existence Of Two-Dimensional Particles Called ‘Anyons’

    After decades of exploration in nature’s most minor domains, physicists have finally found proof that anyons exist. 1st predicted by theorists in the early 1980s, these particle-like objects arise in realms confined to two dimensions and then under certain circumstances– like at temperatures near absolute zero and in the existence of a solid magnetic field.

    Physicists are excited about anyons not just because their discovery confirms years of theoretical work but also for practical motives. For instance, Anyons are at the heart of an effort by Microsoft to construct a working quantum computer.

    This year brought 2 solid confirmations of the quasiparticles. The 1st arrived in April, in a paper featured on the cover of Science, from a team of researchers at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. Using an approach proposed four years back, physicists sent an electron gas through a teeny-tiny particle collider to tease out weird behaviors– especially fractional electric charges– that only arise if anyons are around.

    The 2nd confirmation came in July when a team at Purdue College in Indiana utilized an experimental configuration on an etched chip that screened out interactions that could obscure the anyon behavior.

    MIT physicist Frank Wilczek, who predicted and also named anyons in the early 1980s, credits the 1st paper as the discovery but says the second lets the quasiparticles shine. “It is gorgeous work that makes the field blossom,” he states. Anyons are not like ordinary elementary particles; scientists will never be able to isolate one from the system where it forms.

    They are quasiparticles, which means they have measurable properties like a particle– such as a location, maybe even a mass–. However, they are only observable due to the collective behavior of other conventional particles. (Think of the intricate geometric forms made by group behavior in nature, such as groups of birds flying in creation or schools of fish swimming as one).

    The known universe contains just 2 varieties of elementary particles. One is the family of fermions, which involves electrons, as well as protons, neutrons, and the quarks that develop them. Fermions keep to themselves: No two can simultaneously exist in the same quantum state. If these particles really did not have this property, all matter could simply collapse to a single point. It is because of fermions that strong matter exists.

    The rest of the particles in the universe are bosons, a team that includes particles like photons (the carriers of light and radiation) and gluons (which “glue” quarks together). Unlike fermions, two or more bosons can simultaneously exist in the same state.

    They tend to clump together. Because of this clumping, we have lasers, which are streams of photons all occupying the same quantum state.

    Anyons do not fit into either team. What makes anyons especially exciting for physicists is that they exhibit something analogous to particle memory. If a fermion orbits each other fermion, its quantum state stays unchanged. The same goes for a boson.

    Anyons are different. If one moves around another, their collective quantum state changes. It could require three or even five or more revolutions before the anyons return to their original state. This slight change in the wave acts like a type of trip memory. This property makes them appealing items for quantum computers, which depend on quantum states that are notoriously fragile and prone to mistakes. Anyons suggest a more robust form to store information.

    Wilczek points out that anyons represent a whole “kingdom” containing many varieties with exotic behaviors that could be explored and harnessed in the future. He began thinking about them about forty years ago in graduate school when he became frustrated with evidence that only established the existence of 2 kinds of particles.

    He envisioned something else and also, when asked about their other properties or where to find these weird in-betweeners, half-jokingly said, “anything goes,”-– giving rise to the name.

    Currently, he says, the new studies are just the beginning. Looking forward, he sees anyons as a device for finding exotic states of matter that, for now, remain wild ideas in physicists’ theories.

    Read the original article on Astronomy.

  • Did the scientists at CERN discover proof of completely novel physics?

    Did the scientists at CERN discover proof of completely novel physics?

    The detector at the Large Hadron Collider’s CMS experiment, pictured during the machine’s shutdown. 
    The detector at the Large Hadron Collider’s CMS experiment, pictured during the machine’s shutdown. Credit: Samuel Joseph Hertzog, Julien Marius Ordan/CERN

    After running for a decade, there were high expectations that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the colossal accelerator at CERN, would uncover new particles that could aid in the understanding of the most profound mysteries in physics. Possibilities such as dark matter, miniature black holes, and concealed dimensions were considered. Despite the discovery of the Higgs boson, the project has not revealed any indications of what may exist beyond the standard model of particle physics, which is presently the best-known representation of the subatomic world. The recent paper from LHCb, which is one of the four enormous experiments at LHC, is expected to excite physicists. The paper suggests the possibility of detecting something entirely new after examining trillions of collisions that occurred during the last ten years. This could be the messenger of a new fundamental force in nature. However, the excitement is tempered by extreme caution. The standard model of particle physics has endured all scientific tests since its creation in the 1970s. Therefore, any assertion that it is unable to clarify a new phenomenon necessitates significant evidence to support it.

    Strange anomaly

    The current understanding of nature on a small scale is explained by the typical model, which consists of fundamental particles called leptons (such as electrons) and quarks (which can combine to form heavier particles like protons and neutrons) and the forces they interact with. One type of quark, called “beauty” quarks, exhibited unexpected decay patterns in 2014 by decaying less frequently into muons (a type of lepton) compared to electrons. This deviation suggests the involvement of new particles never seen before that could tip the balance in favor of electrons. Several other similar anomalies have been observed in related processes, but each one has been too subtle to draw confident conclusions about new physics. The question was whether these anomalies would become stronger with more data or disappear. In 2019, the LHCb experiment repeated the measurement of beauty quark decay with additional data from 2015 and 2016, but it did not provide much clarity.

    New results

    The latest findings have doubled the previous data set as it includes the samples from 2017 and 2018. To prevent any unintentional biases, the results were analyzed blindly, meaning that the researchers could not see the outcome until all the procedures used in the measurement had been tested and reviewed. Mitesh Patel, one of the leaders of the study and a particle physicist at Imperial University London, expressed his excitement and stated that this was the most exciting thing he had done in his two decades of working in particle physics. When the outcome was revealed, the anomaly persisted, with around 85 muon decays for every 100 electron decay, but with a smaller degree of uncertainty than before. What will excite a lot of physicists is that the uncertainty of the outcome is now over “three sigmas,” scientists The chance that the result is a random occurrence in the data is one in a thousand. In the field of particle physics, anything over three sigmas is considered “evidence,” but it is not yet considered a confirmed “discovery” or “observation,” which would require five sigmas. Theorists have proposed possible explanations for the anomaly, including the existence of new particles that affect quark decay, such as a “Z prime” that provides a new force of nature or a “leptoquark” that can decay to both quarks and leptons and may be part of a larger explanation for the particles observed in nature.

    Interpreting the findings

    Did the scientists at CERN discover proof of completely novel physics? Well, maybe, perhaps not. Given the large number of measurements carried out at the LHC, it is not surprising to see some results that deviate significantly from the standard model. Moreover, we can never absolutely discount the possibility that there is some bias in our experiment that we have not properly accounted for, even though this outcome has been thoroughly checked. The picture will become clearer with more dataLHCb is upgrading to increase its collision recording rate, and even if the anomaly persists, it will only be fully accepted once an independent experiment confirms it. There is a possibility that the new particles responsible for the anomaly can be directly discovered in the LHC collisions. The Belle II experiment in Japan is also capable of making precise measurements. This could have significant implications for the future of fundamental physics.

    If what we see is the harbinger of some new essential particles, then it will finally be the breakthrough physicists have been yearning for decades. Observing a part of the bigger picture beyond the standard model could help solve established mysteries such as the nature of dark matter or the Higgs boson. Additionally, it could aid in unifying fundamental particles and forces or even lead to the discovery of something completely unforeseen. So, should we be excited? Indeed, it is rare to come across an outcome like this, and it has sparked a hunt to uncover the underlying cause of the anomaly. However, we should be cautious and humble, too; extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Determining if we have caught a glimpse of what lies beyond our current comprehension of particle physics will require time and dedicated effort.

    This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

  • A novel form of matter known as “superionic” ice that is extremely hot has been discovered.

    A novel form of matter known as “superionic” ice that is extremely hot has been discovered.

    Researchers at Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics used the same setup at a recent study to create superionic ice, shown here in this artistic rendering. In that instance, the ice was not stable. 
    Researchers at Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics used the same setup at a recent study to create superionic ice, shown here in this artistic rendering. In that instance, the ice was not stable. Credit: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory illustration / Millot, Coppari, Hamel, Krauss.

    By subjecting a droplet of water to extreme temperatures similar to those found in stars, using a powerful laser, and squeezing it between two diamonds, was found water on another stage named, superionic. The “weird black” water abides under equal pressures and temperature levels as those at the center of Earth. This discovery could potentially aid researchers in uncovering the enigmatic properties of the cores of other celestial bodies. Scientists used shock waves to produce the unusual ice, lasting only for a period of 20 nanoseconds before breaking down. However, in this latest experiment, researchers have succeeded in generating stable superionic ice that can be thoroughly investigated. 

    “It was a surprise– everyone thought this phase would not appear until you are at much greater pressure than where we first find it,” stated Vitali Prakapenka, a geophysicist.

    We have water in three states (liquid, gaseous and solid). Its molecules can form different arrangements that represent alternative phases. Scientists found more than 19 stages of frozen water. Hydrogen and oxygen atoms can link at different temperatures and pressures.

    Was reported that ice VI and VII follow the form of rectangular prisms and cubes. As their molecules organize themselves in a specific manner. Ice XI, changes direction when placed in an electric field, while ice XIX has a brittle structure, with only its hydrogen atoms forming a consistent pattern.

    Superionic ice, which is subjected to high pressure and temperatures, is the 18th variant identified as the most unusual form. That is because its oxygen atoms secure into place as they could in a solid. Its hydrogen atoms, giving up their electrons, turn ions-atomic nuclei removed of their electrons and, as a result, positively charged- that is free to flow by the ice as if they were fluid.

    “Imagine a cube, a lattice with oxygen atoms at the corners connected by hydrogen,” Prakapenka stated. “When it transforms into this brand-new superionic stage, the lattice expands, enabling the hydrogen atoms to move around while the oxygen atoms remain steady in their positions. It is like a solid oxygen lattice in a sea of floating hydrogen atoms.”

    The presence of mobile hydrogen atoms within the ice causes it to absorb and scatter light in an irregular manner, resulting in its opaque, black appearance.

    According to a report by Live Science, Professor Pierfranco Demontis first proposed the idea of superionic ice in 1988. In 2018, scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Lab in California discovered the first evidence of this type of ice. Was measured the ice’s electrical conductivity and briefly observed its structure before it melted away after a few nanoseconds.

    They needed to produce the ice in a more stable state. They compressed their water droplet using a diamond anvil weighing 0.2 carats and subjected it to a laser beam. The droplet was subjected to pressure, equivalent to 3.5 million times that of Earth’s atmosphere, by using the diamonds’ hardness in the frost. Additionally, the laser was used to heat the droplet to temperatures exceeding those of the sun’s surface. They were able to determine the structure of superionic ice by analyzing the intensities and angles of the X-rays that were scattered by the atoms in the ice. What increased their time in the microsecond (millionth of a second) range to see their ice than the shock-wave experiment.

    Through additional research on superionic ice, there is an understanding of its characteristics and the conditions it forms naturally. It´s speculated it exists in planets like Uranus, and Neptune or even in the frozen seas of Jupiter’s moon Europa.

    If so, superionic ice is central to safeguarding planets (beyond our solar system) against dangerous solar radiation and cosmic rays. Superionic ice conducts electricity, has viscosity, and has chemical stability.

    Originally published on Live Science.

  • Scientists Develop Small Lens for Trapping Atoms

    Scientists Develop Small Lens for Trapping Atoms

    Graphical illustration of light focusing using a planar glass surface studded with millions of nanopillars (referred to as a metalens) forming an optical tweezer. (A) Device cross section depicts plane waves of light that come to a focus through secondary wavelets generated by nanopillars of varying size. (B) The same metalens is used to trap and image single rubidium atoms.
    Graphical illustration of light focusing using a planar glass surface studded with millions of nanopillars (referred to as a metalens) forming an optical tweezer. (A) Device cross section depicts plane waves of light that come to a focus through secondary wavelets generated by nanopillars of varying size. (B) The same metalens is used to trap and image single rubidium atoms. Credit: Sean Kelley/NIST

    Atoms are notoriously tough to regulate. They move in a zigzag pattern similar to fireflies, can escape from the most durable containers, and even exhibit random movements at temperatures close to absolute zero.

    For quantum tools like atomic clocks or quantum computers to function properly, researchers must be able to capture and manipulate individual atoms. If individual atoms can be contained and manipulated over large distances, they have the potential to function as quantum bits or qubits. These tiny units of information can use the state or orientation of the atom to perform calculations at speeds much faster than even the most powerful supercomputers.

    A team of researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), in collaboration with partners from JILA, a joint institute of the University of Colorado and NIST located in Boulder, have successfully demonstrated a novel miniaturized version of “optical tweezers” for capturing individual atoms using a laser beam as “chopsticks”. This marks the first instance of single-atom trapping using this method.

    Typically, optical tweezers, which were awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics, involve the use of large lenses that are several centimeters in size or microscopic lenses placed outside a vacuum chamber for trapping individual atoms. In the past, NIST and JILA have utilized this method to develop an atomic clock with great success.

    A Recent Design

    In the recent design, instead of conventional lenses, the NIST team utilized non-traditional optics consisting of a square glass wafer, measuring approximately 4 millimeters in length, that is etched with numerous pillars each just a few hundred nanometers in height. These pillars, collectively known as metasurfaces, function as miniature lenses. They can focus laser light to capture, manipulate and image individual atoms within a vapor.

    Unlike regular optical tweezers, metasurfaces can function within the vacuum chamber where a cloud of trapped atoms is present.

    The process entails several steps. At first, when an uncomplicated form of light, called an “airplane wave”, comes into contact with clusters of small nanopillars, the nanopillars alter the plane wave into a sequence of minor waves, each slightly out of phase with the one beside it. This causes the adjacent waves to reach their maximum point at different times.

    The wavelets then interact or “interfere” with one another, causing them to concentrate their energy at a specific point, which is where the targeted atom will be trapped. By adjusting the angle of the incoming plane waves of light that hit the nanopillars, the wavelets are focused on slightly different positions, allowing the optical system to capture multiple atoms located in slightly different areas from each other.

    According to Amit Agrawal, a scientist at NIST, the use of these small, flat lenses in a vacuum chamber eliminates the need for a complex optical system with moving parts to trap atoms.

    Previous to this research, scientists at both NIST and JILA had effectively employed conventional optical tweezers to design atomic clocks.

    In the new research, Agrawal and two other NIST scientists, Scott Papp and Wenqi Zhu, and partners from Cindy Regal’s group at JILA, designed, produced, and evaluated the metasurfaces and did single-atom capturing experiments.

    New Lens Technique

    The researchers published a paper in PRX Quantum today stating that they had successfully trapped 9 individual rubidium atoms using this method. Agrawal believes that scaling up the technique by using multiple metasurfaces or a larger field of view could lead to the trapping of multiple single atoms and pave the way for a chip-scale optical system to routinely trap a variety of atoms.

    The system held the atoms in position for approximately 10 secs, which is long enough to research the quantum mechanical homes of the particles and also use them to save quantum details. In quantum experiments, timeframes of microseconds to milliseconds are common. The scientists illuminated the trapped rubidium atoms with a separate light source to verify their capture by inducing them to fluoresce. The metasurfaces had previously played a crucial role in forming and focusing the incoming light that trapped the rubidium atoms, and now they played another critical role. They captured and focused the fluorescent light emitted by the same atoms, redirecting the fluorescent radiation to a camera to capture images of the atoms.

    The metasurfaces have capabilities beyond just trapping individual atoms. They can use their precise light-focusing abilities to manipulate individual atoms into specific quantum states tailored for specific experiments involving atom trapping.

    The tiny lenses can use polarized light to orient an atom’s spin in a particular direction, much like the rotation of the Earth on its axis. These interactions between focused light and individual atoms are valuable for various atom-scale experiments and devices, including the development of future quantum computers.

    Reference: T.-W. Hsu et al, Single-Atom Trapping in a Metasurface-Lens Optical Tweezer, PRX Quantum (2022). DOI: 10.1103/PRXQuantum.3.030316

    Read the original article on PHYS.