Category Archives: Quantum Physics
The search for dark matter gets a speed boost from quantum technology – The Conversation US
Nearly a century after dark matter was first proposed to explain the motion of galaxy clusters, physicists still have no idea what its made of.
Researchers around the world have built dozens of detectors in hopes of discovering dark matter. As a graduate student, I helped design and operate one of these detectors, aptly named HAYSTAC. But despite decades of experimental effort, scientists have yet to identify the dark matter particle.
Now, the search for dark matter has received an unlikely assist from technology used in quantum computing research. In a new paper published in the journal Nature, my colleagues on the HAYSTAC team and I describe how we used a bit of quantum trickery to double the rate at which our detector can search for dark matter. Our result adds a much-needed speed boost to the hunt for this mysterious particle.
There is compelling evidence from astrophysics and cosmology that an unknown substance called dark matter constitutes more than 80% of the matter in the universe. Theoretical physicists have proposed dozens of new fundamental particles that could explain dark matter. But to determine which if any of these theories is correct, researchers need to build different detectors to test each one.
One prominent theory proposes that dark matter is made of as-yet hypothetical particles called axions that collectively behave like an invisible wave oscillating at a very specific frequency through the cosmos. Axion detectors including HAYSTAC work something like radio receivers, but instead of converting radio waves to sound waves, they aim to convert axion waves into electromagnetic waves. Specifically, axion detectors measure two quantities called electromagnetic field quadratures. These quadratures are two distinct kinds of oscillation in the electromagnetic wave that would be produced if axions exist.
The main challenge in the search for axions is that nobody knows the frequency of the hypothetical axion wave. Imagine youre in an unfamiliar city searching for a particular radio station by working your way through the FM band one frequency at a time. Axion hunters do much the same thing: They tune their detectors over a wide range of frequencies in discrete steps. Each step can cover only a very small range of possible axion frequencies. This small range is the bandwidth of the detector.
Tuning a radio typically involves pausing for a few seconds at each step to see if youve found the station youre looking for. Thats harder if the signal is weak and theres a lot of static. An axion signal in even the most sensitive detectors would be extraordinarily faint compared with static from random electromagnetic fluctuations, which physicists call noise. The more noise there is, the longer the detector must sit at each tuning step to listen for an axion signal.
Unfortunately, researchers cant count on picking up the axion broadcast after a few dozen turns of the radio dial. An FM radio tunes from only 88 to 108 megahertz (one megahertz is one million hertz). The axion frequency, by contrast, may be anywhere between 300 hertz and 300 billion hertz. At the rate todays detectors are going, finding the axion or proving that it doesnt exist could take more than 10,000 years.
On the HAYSTAC team, we dont have that kind of patience. So in 2012 we set out to speed up the axion search by doing everything possible to reduce noise. But by 2017 we found ourselves running up against a fundamental minimum noise limit because of a law of quantum physics known as the uncertainty principle.
The uncertainty principle states that it is impossible to know the exact values of certain physical quantities simultaneously for instance, you cant know both the position and the momentum of a particle at the same time. Recall that axion detectors search for the axion by measuring two quadratures those specific kinds of electromagnetic field oscillations. The uncertainty principle prohibits precise knowledge of both quadratures by adding a minimum amount of noise to the quadrature oscillations.
In conventional axion detectors, the quantum noise from the uncertainty principle obscures both quadratures equally. This noise cant be eliminated, but with the right tools it can be controlled. Our team worked out a way to shuffle around the quantum noise in the HAYSTAC detector, reducing its effect on one quadrature while increasing its effect on the other. This noise manipulation technique is called quantum squeezing.
In an effort led by graduate students Kelly Backes and Dan Palken, the HAYSTAC team took on the challenge of implementing squeezing in our detector, using superconducting circuit technology borrowed from quantum computing research. General-purpose quantum computers remain a long way off, but our new paper shows that this squeezing technology can immediately speed up the search for dark matter.
Our team succeeded in squeezing the noise in the HAYSTAC detector. But how did we use this to speed up the axion search?
Quantum squeezing doesnt reduce the noise uniformly across the axion detector bandwidth. Instead, it has the largest effect at the edges. Imagine you tune your radio to 88.3 megahertz, but the station you want is actually at 88.1. With quantum squeezing, you would be able to hear your favorite song playing one station away.
In the world of radio broadcasting this would be a recipe for disaster, because different stations would interfere with one another. But with only one dark matter signal to look for, a wider bandwidth allows physicists to search faster by covering more frequencies at once. In our latest result we used squeezing to double the bandwidth of HAYSTAC, allowing us to search for axions twice as fast as we could before.
Quantum squeezing alone isnt enough to scan through every possible axion frequency in a reasonable time. But doubling the scan rate is a big step in the right direction, and we believe further improvements to our quantum squeezing system may enable us to scan 10 times faster.
Nobody knows whether axions exist or whether they will resolve the mystery of dark matter; but thanks to this unexpected application of quantum technology, were one step closer to answering these questions.
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The search for dark matter gets a speed boost from quantum technology - The Conversation US
A Magnetic Twist to Graphene Could Offer a Dramatic Increase in Processing Speeds Compared to Electronics – SciTechDaily
Schematic of a valley-spiral in magnetically encapsulated twisted bilayer graphene. Credit: Jose Lado
By combining ferromagnets and two rotated layers of graphene, researchers open up a new platform for strongly interacting states using graphenes unique quantum degree of freedom.
Electrons in materials have a property known as spin, which is responsible for a variety of properties, the most well-known of which is magnetism. Permanent magnets, like the ones used for refrigerator doors, have all the spins in their electrons aligned in the same direction. Scientists refer to this behavior as ferromagnetism, and the research field of trying to manipulate spin as spintronics.
Down in the quantum world, spins can arrange in more exotic ways, giving rise to frustrated states and entangled magnets. Interestingly, a property similar to spin, known as the valley, appears in graphene materials. This unique feature has given rise to the field of valleytronics, which aims to exploit the valley property for emergent physics and information processing, very much like spintronics relies on pure spin physics.
Valleytronics would potentially allow encoding information in the quantum valley degree of freedom, similar to how electronics do it with charge and spintronics with the spin. Explains Professor Jose Lado, from Aaltos Department of applied physics, and one of the authors of the work. Whats more, valleytronic devices would offer a dramatic increase in the processing speeds in comparison with electronics, and with much higher stability towards magnetic field noise in comparison with spintronic devices.
Structures made of rotated, ultra-thin materials provide a rich solid-state platform for designing novel devices. In particular, slightly twisted graphene layers have recently been shown to have exciting unconventional properties, that can ultimately lead to a new family of materials for quantum technologies. These unconventional states which are already being explored depend on electrical charge or spin. The open question is if the valley can also lead to its own family of exciting states.
For this goal, it turns out that conventional ferromagnets play a vital role, pushing graphene to the realms of valley physics. In a recent work, Ph.D. student Tobias Wolf, together with Profs. Oded Zilberberg and Gianni Blatter at ETH Zurich, and Prof. Jose Lado at Aalto University, showed a new direction for correlated physics in magnetic van der Waals materials.
The team showed that sandwiching two slightly rotated layers of graphene between a ferromagnetic insulator provides a unique setting for new electronic states. The combination of ferromagnets, graphenes twist engineering, and relativistic effects force the valley property to dominate the behavior of the electrons in the material. In particular, the researchers showed how these valley-only states can be tuned electrically, providing a materials platform in which valley-only states can be generated. Building on top of the recent breakthrough in spintronics and van der Waals materials, valley physics in magnetic twisted van der Waals multilayers opens the door to the new realm of correlated twisted valleytronics.
Demonstrating these states represents the starting point towards new exotic entangled valley states. Said Professor Lado, Ultimately, engineering these valley states can allow realizing quantum entangled valley liquids and fractional quantum valley Hall states. These two exotic states of matter have not been found in nature yet, and would open exciting possibilities towards a potentially new graphene-based platform for topological quantum computing.
Reference: Spontaneous Valley Spirals in Magnetically Encapsulated Twisted Bilayer Graphene by Tobias M.R. Wolf, Oded Zilberberg, Gianni Blatter and Jose L. Lado, 4 February 2021, Physical Review Letters.DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.056803
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Yale Quantum Institute Co-sponsored Event – Alternative Realities for the Living – Quantum Physics & Fiction – Yale News
Friday February 12 at 4 pm Zoom Webinar
Join us for the 11thtalk of Yale Quantum Institute series of nontechnical talks aiming to bring a new regard to quantum physics and STEM by having experts cast new light on often-overlooked aspects of scientific work.
The acclaimed Nigerian Poet and Novelist Ben Okri, one of the foremost postmodern authors, is joining us to talk about his newest book Prayer For The Living, which includes the Quantum Physics Murder Mystery Alternative Realities are True. During this event, Ben will read this short story, share how quantum physics came muddy the water of this British police investigation, and answer the audience questions about his extensive body of work.
This talk, co-sponsored byThe Franke Program in Science and the Humanities,is open to all and will be accessible to students, researchers, the wider university public and the New Haven Community.
Order Ben Okris newest book: Prayer for the Living onBookshop.org,Akashic, orAmazon.
Register here:https://yale.zoom.us/webinar/register/8816106641445/WN_1LIwOVD3SrKsHrThae3caA
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In Violation of Einstein, Black Holes Might Have ‘Hair’ – Quanta Magazine
Identical twins have nothing on black holes. Twins may grow from the same genetic blueprints, but they can differ in a thousand ways from temperament to hairstyle. Black holes, according to Albert Einsteins theory of gravity, can have just three characteristics mass, spin and charge. If those values are the same for any two black holes, it is impossible to discern one twin from the other. Black holes, they say, have no hair.
In classical general relativity, they would be exactly identical, said Paul Chesler, a theoretical physicist at Harvard University. You cant tell the difference.
Yet scientists have begun to wonder if the no-hair theorem is strictly true. In 2012, a mathematician named Stefanos Aretakis then at the University of Cambridge and now at the University of Toronto suggested that some black holes might have instabilities on their event horizons. These instabilities would effectively give some regions of a black holes horizon a stronger gravitational pull than others. That would make otherwise identical black holes distinguishable.
However, his equations only showed that this was possible for so-called extremal black holes ones that have a maximum value possible for either their mass, spin or charge. And as far as we know, these black holes cannot exist, at least exactly, in nature, said Chesler.
But what if you had a near-extremal black hole, one that approached these extreme values but didnt quite reach them? Such a black hole should be able to exist, at least in theory. Could it have detectable violations of the no-hair theorem?
A paper published late last month shows that it could. Moreover, this hair could be detected by gravitational wave observatories.
Aretakis basically suggested there was some information that was left on the horizon, said Gaurav Khanna, a physicist at the University of Massachusetts and the University of Rhode Island and one of the co-authors. Our paper opens up the possibility of measuring this hair.
In particular, the scientists suggest that remnants either of the black holes formation or of later disturbances, such as matter falling into the black hole, could create gravitational instabilities on or near the event horizon of a near-extremal black hole. We would expect that the gravitational signal we would see would be quite different from ordinary black holes that are not extremal, said Khanna.
If black holes do have hair thus retaining some information about their past this could have implications for the famous black hole information paradox put forward by the late physicist Stephen Hawking, said Lia Medeiros, an astrophysicist at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. That paradox distills the fundamental conflict between general relativity and quantum mechanics, the two great pillars of 20th-century physics. If you violate one of the assumptions [of the information paradox], you might be able to solve the paradox itself, said Medeiros. One of the assumptions is the no-hair theorem.
The ramifications of that could be broad. If we can prove the actual space-time of the black hole outside of the black hole is different from what we expect, then I think that is going to have really huge implications for general relativity, said Medeiros, who co-authored a paper in October that addressed whether the observed geometry of black holes is consistent with predictions.
Perhaps the most exciting aspect of this latest paper, however, is that it could provide a way to merge observations of black holes with fundamental physics. Detecting hair on black holes perhaps the most extreme astrophysical laboratories in the universe could allow us to probe ideas such as string theory and quantum gravity in a way that has never been possible before.
One of the big issues [with] string theory and quantum gravity is that its really hard to test those predictions, said Medeiros. So if you have anything thats even remotely testable, thats amazing.
There are major hurdles, however. Its not certain that near-extremal black holes exist. (The best simulations at the moment typically produce black holes that are 30% away from being extremal, said Chesler.) And even if they do, its not clear if gravitational wave detectors would be sensitive enough to spot these instabilities from the hair.
Whats more, the hair is expected to be incredibly short-lived, lasting just fractions of a second.
But the paper itself, at least in principle, seems sound. I dont think that anybody in the community doubts it, said Chesler. Its not speculative. It just turns out Einsteins equations are so complicated that were discovering new properties of them on a yearly basis.
The next step would be to see what sort of signals we should be looking for in our gravitational detectors either LIGO and Virgo, operating today, or future instruments like the European Space Agencys space-based LISA instrument.
One should now build upon their work and really compute what would be the frequency of this gravitational radiation, and understand how we could measure and identify it, said Helvi Witek, an astrophysicist at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. The next step is to go from this very nice and important theoretical study to what would be the signature.
There are plenty of reasons to want to do so. While the chances of a detection that would prove the paper correct are slim, such a discovery would not only challenge Einsteins theory of general relativity but prove the existence of near-extremal black holes.
We would love to know if nature would even allow for such a beast to exist, said Khanna. It would have pretty dramatic implications for our field.
Correction: February 11, 2021The original version of this article implied that theorists are unable to simulate black holes closer than 30% away from being extremal. In fact, they can simulate near-extremal black holes, but their typical simulations are 30% away from being extremal.
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In Violation of Einstein, Black Holes Might Have 'Hair' - Quanta Magazine
Scientists narrow down the ‘weight’ of dark matter trillions of trillions of times – Livescience.com
Scientists are finally figuring out how much dark matter the almost imperceptible material said to tug on everything, yet emit no light really weighs.
The new estimate helps pin down how heavy its particles could be with implications for what the mysterious stuff actually is.
The research sharply narrows the potential mass of dark matter particles, from between an estimated 10^minus 24 electronvolts (eV) and 10^19 Gigaelectron volts (GeV) , to between 10^minus 3 eV and 10^7eV a possible range of masses many trillions of trillions of times smaller than before.
The findings could help dark matter hunters focus their efforts on the indicated range of particle masses or they might reveal a previously unknown force is at work in the universe, said Xavier Calmet, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom.
Related: The 11 biggest unanswered questions about dark matter
Calmet, along with doctoral student Folkert Kuipers, also of the University of Sussex, described their efforts in a new study to be published in the March issue of Physical Letters B.
By some estimates, dark matter makes up about 83% of all the matter in the universe. Its thought only to interact with light and ordinary matter through gravity, which means it can only be seen by the way it curves light rays.
Astronomers found the first hints of dark matter when gazing at a galactic cluster in the 1930s, and theories that galaxies are threaded with and fringed by vast halos of dark matter became mainstream after the 1970s, when astronomers realized galaxies were whirling faster than they otherwise should, given how much visible matter they contained.
Related: The 12 strangest objects in the universe
Possible candidates for dark matter particles include ghostly, tiny particles known as neutrinos, theoretical dark, cold particles known as axions, and proposed weakly-interacting massive particles, or WIMPs. The new mass bounds could help eliminate some of these candidates, depending on the details of the specific dark matter model, Calmet said.
What scientists do know is that dark matter seems to interact with light and normal matter only through gravity, and not via any of the other fundamental forces; and so the researchers used gravitational theories to arrive at their estimated range for the masses of dark matter particles.
Importantly, they used concepts from theories of quantum gravity, which resulted in a much narrower range than the previous estimates, which used only Einstein's theory of general relativity.
"Our idea was a very simple one," Calmet told Live Science in an email. "It is amazing that people have not thought of this before."
Einstein's theory of general relativity is based on classical physics; it perfectly predicts how gravity works most of the time, but it breaks down in extreme circumstances where quantum mechanical effects become significant, such as at the center of a black hole.
Theories of quantum gravity, on the other hand, try to explain gravity through quantum mechanics, which can already describe the other three known fundamental forces electromagnetic force, the strong force that holds most matter together, and the weak force that causes radioactive decay. None of the quantum gravity theories, however, as yet have strong evidence to support them.
Calmet and Kuipers estimated the lower bound for the mass of a dark matter particle using values from general relativity, and estimated the upper bound from the lifetimes of dark matter particles predicted by quantum gravity theories. The nature of the values from general relativity also defined the nature of the upper bound, so they were able to derive a prediction that was independent of any particular model of quantum gravity, Calmet said.
The study found that while quantum gravitational effects were generally almost insignificant, they became important when a hypothetical dark matter particle took an extremely long time to decay and when the universe was about as old as it is now (roughly 13.8 billion years), he said.
Physicists previously estimated that dark matter particles had to be lighter than the "Planck mass" about 1.2 x 10^19 GeV, at least a 1,000 times heavier than the largest-known particles yet heavier than 10^minus 24 eV to fit with observations of the smallest galaxies known to contain dark matter, he said.
But until now, few studies had attempted to narrow the range, even though great progress had been made in understanding quantum gravity over the last 30 years, he said. "People simply did not look at the effects of quantum gravity on dark matter before."
Calmet said the new bounds for the masses of dark matter particles, could also be used to test whether gravity alone interacts with dark matter, which is widely assumed, or if dark matter is influenced by an unknown force of nature.
"If we found a dark matter particle with a mass outside the range discussed our paper, we would not only have discovered dark matter, but also very strong evidence that there is some new force beyond gravity acting on dark matter," he said.
Originally published on Live Science.
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Scientists narrow down the 'weight' of dark matter trillions of trillions of times - Livescience.com
Switching Nanolight On and Off | Columbia News – Columbia University
A team of researchers led by Columbia University has developed a unique platform to program a layered crystal, producing imaging capabilities beyond common limits on demand.
The discovery is an important step toward control of nanolight, which is lightthat can access the smallest length scales imaginable. The work also provides insights for the field of optical quantum information processing, which aims to solve difficult problems in computing and communications.
We were able to use ultrafast nano-scale microscopy to discover a new way to control our crystals with light, turning elusive photonic properties on and off at will, said Aaron Sternbach, postdoctoral researcher at Columbia who is lead investigator on the study. The effects are short-lived, only lasting for trillionths of one second, yet we are now able to observe these phenomena clearly.
The research appears Feb. 4 in the journal Science.
Nature sets a limit on how tightly light can be focused. Even in microscopes, two different objects that are closer than this limit would appear to be one. But within a special class of layered crystalline materialsknown as van de Waals crystalsthese rules can, sometimes, be broken. In these special cases, light can be confined without any limit in these materials, making it possible to see even the smallest objects clearly.
In their experiments, the Columbia researchers studied the van der Waals crystal called tungsten diselenide, which is of high interest for its potential integration in electronic and photonic technologies because its unique structure and strong interactions with light.
When the scientists illuminated the crystal with a pulse of light, they were able to change the crystals electronic structure. The new structure, created by the optical-switching event, allowed something very uncommon to occur: Super-fine details, on the nanoscale, could be transported through the crystal and imaged on its surface.
The report demonstrates a new method to control the flow of light of nanolight. Optical manipulation on the nanoscale, or nanophotonics, has become a critical area of interest as researchers seek ways to meet the increasing demand for technologies that go well beyond what is possible with conventional photonics and electronics.
Dmitri Basov, Higgins professor of physics at Columbia University, and senior author on the paper, believes the teams findings will spark new areas of research in quantum matter.
Laser pulses allowed us to create a new electronic state in this prototypical semiconductor, if only for a few pico-seconds, he said. This discovery puts us on track toward optically programmable quantum phases in new materials.
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, University of California-San Diego, University of Washington, Center for Computational Quantum PhysicsFlatiron contributed to the study, Programmable hyperbolic polaritons in van derWaals semiconductors.
The work is supported as part of Programmable Quantum Materials, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences.
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Switching Nanolight On and Off | Columbia News - Columbia University
Photoelectric effect of physics in technology – The National
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BY MICHAEL JOHN UGLOI WAS working with the Curriculum Development and Assessment Division (CDAD) of the National Department of Education (NDOE) for a three-year stint.In the year 2001, as the Science and Technology Section head with the Secondary and National High Schools level at CDAD, I completed a Grade 12 Physics teachers resource unit booklet titled Energy Transmission by Waves started off by the previous incumbent namely Russel Jackson who was a physics graduate from the Oxford University, England. This resource booklet is currently in use by the Grade 12 Physics teachers to teach the Unit 4 Physics topic on Waves and Energy Transmission in PNG secondary and national high schools at the moment. I hope they still do.Whilst on energy transmission by particles, another particle I have encountered at CDAD was a nitrile ion. It is a triple bond radical with a carbon ion which are attached in a triple bond and carries a negative charge thus it is called an anion. Before chemistry big names and the PNG Grade 12 Chemistry co-examination panel like Professor Frank Griffin UPNG, Dr. Wimblemann from Germany UOG, Dr Charles from England Unitech, Dr Peter Petsul UPNG, Freddy Kuama UPNG, Arron Hayes from Australia NDOE, I discussed nitrile ion as a functional group that allows for formation of a fibre molecule and the other for a protein molecule synthesis.Fortunately, my explanation was accepted and the question on the organic chemistry was included in the Grade 12 examination in that year. The idea exemplified here is that fibre from for instance plant cellulose can be made into clothes that you wear.Quite contrarily, a protein is something that you can have as food whether it is a plant or an animal protein. This particular particle (nitrile) has carried an imminent potential to create such wonders that can also convert into energy as proteins can convert to saccharides and cellulose are polysaccharides just like the wave particle that transmit energy that both can, do work on the other side of the equation.That was a preamble to this lecture. The photoelectric effect is a demonstration of this energy coupled with its transmission in the form of a wave as an energy particle. An energy packet called a photon (Ephoton) gives rise to the speed of light(v) as a factor of the Plancks constant and together divided by the photon wavelength. A constant is a number that is always given in any mathematical or chemical equation. (That is; Ephoton=hv=hc/wavelength of photon.) The maximum amount of energy is required in electron volt (eV) to displace a valence electron from its rightful position. The two as a wave and a particle to effect in the energy and its transmission are inseparable which has brought to the revolutionizing phenomenon of the wave-particle duality as Albert Einstein found and established for the contemporary physics studied throughout the world.This is a Nobel Prize winning attempt by Albert Einstein who brought to light the concept of electron displacement from selected surfaces of metallic substances. When a beam of light is passed to a surface essentially valence electrons are displaced as we have seen earlier in previous lectures. In the previous lectures we have also seen that electrons in the outer layers of a nucleus of a selected metallic substance which are called valence electrons can easily be displaced. Those valence electrons carry less, binding energies versus the other preceding electrons progressively lying closer to the nucleus who are progressively more strongly bounded to the nucleus in a linear relationship.That is directly proportional to the nucleus which means the closer the electrons are to the nucleus the more energy they carry. In other words, the closer they are to the nucleus, the more working energy they have. Hence electrons closer to the nucleus are harder to remove than they outer lying valence electrons.The phenomenon of the photoelectric effect is simply light rays whose energy are greater than the binding energy inherent to the valence electron(s) are displaced. Therefore, those displaced electrons are the freed electrons now driven to the conduction band to allow for them to flow resulting in the flow of electricity that is literally flow of electrons in one way and the flow of current in the reverse direction.
Applications of photoelectric effect in technologyThe dislodged electron called the photo electron acquires its energy from its frequency from this field of study. It is not the intensity of the light as one may anticipate. For instance, you can increase the intensity of light and expect to energise the level of energy of the photo electron which does not work. Only an increase in the frequency than intensity will intensify the content energy of the irradiated photo electron from an energy packet called the photon that hit the metallic surface in the form of a wave-particle duality.The applications are such as the exact tracing and detection of electron emissions of surfaces effecting photoelectric emission.Such examples will be the beta energy waves seen in medical devices to scanning patients of, for instance, babies in the pregnant mothers. Other areas will be in vascular tissues such as arteries for correct fluid dynamics as well as scanning of delicate and subtle organs such as brains and eyeballs.Also, a huge application is in the electronic devices whereby every electron can be accounted for such as Geiger Muller Counter for detection of radiations as alpha, beta and gamma particles. A crucial determination can be made of such as the critical points for a cut off point for a saturation or an allowable electron quantum for an amplification of a transistor. Furthermore, an electron is determined for a transistor to act as a switch for a message relay from one electronic device such as an emitter and collector currents from a biased base current say like 0.6 amperes to run a load such as a loudspeaker or a light (lamp) for message delivery in electronics.Other applications are seen in photocells. The photocells have two ends called electrodes. One end is the anode and the other is the cathode. When light is incident on the cathode it emits electrons which are attracted by the anode. This will switch on a separate switch so it can thus act as a relay. That relay could be a doorbell or a security light system.There are also other applications like the famous solar cells. It is a specially prepared solar cells made of the element silicon. Silicon with a four-valence electron makes a good option to induce electrons in photoelectric emission as the energy packet of the photon. The fourvalence electrons flow as current as they get excited and freed from their joules of the working energy. This has been a profound scientific leap taken from modern physics resulting from the whole concept of the wave-particle duality of the quantum mechanics.
Arriving technology with photoelectric effectThere is currently an exciting finding in the area of the photoelectric effect in quantum mechanics and particularly quantum mechanical interference. This is a quote from David Busto, a doctoral student of Atomic Physics at Lund University (LTH) in Sweden: Now that we understand there is an asymmetry in the free electrons movement, we can gain a better understanding of the quantum dynamics in photo-ionisation.Busto further said, When we change the direction of the electron wave, we are using quantum mechanical interference. That is, the electron takes several paths towards its changed waveform. In classical physics, the electron can only go one way.The potential inherent here is that behaviour of electrons can be manipulated in atoms and molecules given their asymmetrical natures of the movement pattern. That displayed a controversial view to the classical physics that hosted the thought that the movement of the electrons has been standard and a routine trajectory. Molecules and atoms can be subjected to be controlled to suit ones need for any application at all.Such can open up new applications in nanotechnologies and nanocomputing when the current silicon wafer technology is nearing its 10 atomic diameter mark of a 100 micro-meter. Aggravating the current technology and a sigh of relief is the excessive build-up of heat that limits the power of computational expansion.In addendum, there is a mammoth need for reliability, customisation and robustness of the zettabyte in a trillion gigabytes of information circumventing and clogging the planet earth as I am speaking.My prayer for PNG is in this hymn (as singing is praying twice): Trust in the Lord and you shall not tire, bless Him the Lord, you shall not weaken, for the Lords own strength will uphold you. You shall renew, your life and live
Michael John Uglo is a lecturer in in Avionics, Auto-Piloting and Aircraft Engineering. Please send your comments to: michaeluglo4@gmail.com
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Photoelectric effect of physics in technology - The National
Quantum Physics Story Helgoland to Be Adapted by Fremantles The Apartment, CAM Film (EXCLUSIVE) – Variety
Italys CAM Film and Fremantles The Apartment have teamed up to acquire rights to bestselling Italian author Carlo Rovellis Helgoland, an origin story about quantum physics, with plans to turn the book into a high-end TV series.
A bestseller in Italy, Helgoland will soon be published in the U.K. and elsewhere around world. Itsthe story of quantum physics, the theory that has given rise to modern technology the computer chip, for one and atomic energy, but also to philosophical considerations and a new understanding of how just about everything works.
Rovellis previous books, Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, Reality Is Not What it Seems and The Order of Time are all international bestsellers, translated into 41 languages. He is a theoretical physicist who has worked in Italy and the U.S.
In June 1925, 23-year-old Werner Heisenberg, suffering from hay fever, retreated to a treeless, wind-battered island in the North Sea called Helgoland, reads the Helgoland blurb on the website for Penguin U.K., which will be releasing the book in March.
It was on this island that Heisenberg came up with the key insight behind quantum mechanics. Helgoland is thus the story of quantum physics and its bright young founders who were to become some of the most famous Nobel winners, according to promotional materials from Fremantle, which also called the tale a celebration of a youthful rebellion and intellectual revolution.
Today more than ever, we are living a life where our most simple and everyday actions are reflections of an unconditional trust in science, The Apartment chief Lorenzo Mieli told Variety. We therefore think its especially urgent and necessary to tackle this project at this particular moment in history.
Mieli, who is the producer of shows such as The New Pope, My Brilliant Friend and Paolo Sorrentinos upcoming The Hand of God, went on to note that through Rovellis solid and passionate book, we want to tell the human adventure of an extraordinary generation of scientists who changed modern thought forever, and not just from a scientific standpoint.
CAM Film is a Rome outfit headed by veteran producer Camilla Nesbitt, whose recent credits include Milan fashion world series Made in Italy, now streaming on Amazon in Italy, and upcoming French comedy Irreductible by Jerome Commandeur.
I am thrilled to start this extraordinary new adventure to bring on the screen all the emotion of scientific thought that only a great scientist and writer such as Carlo Rovelli could convey in a book, she said in a statement.
No screenwriters or other talent are yet attached to the project, which producers are shopping to streamers and broadcasters.
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29 Scientists Came Together in the "Most Intelligent Photo" Ever Taken – My Modern Met
The Fifth Solvay Conference on Quantum Mechanics in 1927, Brussels. Photo by Benjamin Couprie. From back row to front, reading left to right: Auguste Piccard, mile Henriot, Paul Ehrenfest, douard Herzen, Thophile de Donder, Erwin Schrdinger, Jules-mile Verschaffelt, Wolfgang Pauli, Werner Heisenberg, Ralph Howard Fowler, Lon Brillouin, Peter Debye, Martin Knudsen, William Lawrence Bragg, Hendrik Anthony Kramers, Paul Dirac, Arthur Compton, Louis de Broglie, Max Born, Niels Bohr, Irving Langmuir, Max Planck, Marie Skodowska Curie, Hendrik Lorentz, Albert Einstein, Paul Langevin, Charles-Eugne Guye, Charles Thomson Rees Wilson, Owen Willans Richardson. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons [Public domain])
While the fifth Solvay Conference is the most well known, this prestigious intellectual gathering was first held in 1911 with the theme of Radiation and the Quanta. A young Albert Einstein was in attendance, as was Max Planck, who discovered the energy quanta being discussed. Mathematician and physicist Henri Poincar was also presentknown as the last universalist for being a leader across multiple disciplines before academic specialization began to make that impossible.
The only woman in attendance in 1911 was Marie Curie, the legendary researcher of radioactivity. Curie was already exceptionally accomplished, having won her first Nobel Prize in Physics (shared with her husband and a colleague) in 1903the first time the Prize was awarded to a woman. In 1911the year of the first Solvay ConferenceCurie won her second Nobel Prize, this time on her own and in Chemistry. She was the first person to win the prize twice, and she remains the only person to ever receive a prize in two scientific disciplines.
Despite Madame Curies' accomplishments, women were incredibly rare in STEM in the early 20th century. As a result, even in 1927, Curie was once more the only woman at the Fifth Solvay Conference. Einstein and Planck returned. They were joined by Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, Max Born, and Erwin Schrdingerall of whom were pioneers of the new quantum mechanics which drew upon Planck's quanta and other discoveries of how the universe functions on an atomic level.
Of the 29 scientists at the conference, 17 would win Nobel prizes in their lifetime. Virtually all would hold university chairs teaching the new theories which were changing the world from one Newton could explain to an entirely new realm of energy, wave-particle duality, and uncertainty. Captured on one day in October, the Salvoy Conference photo shows 29 of the greatest minds of the 20th century taking a brief break from the long process of defining the universe.
First Solvay Conference in 1911, Brussels. Photo by Benjamin Couprie. Seated (left to right): Walther Nernst, Marcel Brillouin, Ernest Solvay, Hendrik Lorentz, Emil Warburg, Jean Baptiste Perrin, Wilhelm Wien, Marie Skodowska-Curie, and Henri Poincar.Standing (left to right): Robert Goldschmidt, Max Planck, Heinrich Rubens, Arnold Sommerfeld, Frederick Lindemann, Maurice de Broglie, Martin Knudsen, Friedrich Hasenhrl, Georges Hostelet, Edouard Herzen, James Hopwood Jeans, Ernest Rutherford, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Albert Einstein, and Paul Langevin. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons [Public domain])
Neils Bohr, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922 for his work on atoms and their radiation. He developed the Bohr model to describe electrons, their charges, and how they move between orbits. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons [Public domain])
Marie Curie, two-time Nobel Laureate in Physics and Chemistry respectively. Curie was the first female professor at the University of Paris. Photo by Henri manuel circa 1920. (Photo: Wikimedi Commons [Public domain])
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Silence your stoner friends with this video of a room entirely constructed out of mirrors – The A.V. Club
We all have (or are) that one stoner friendthe lovable pal who habitually smokes an impressive amount of weed and often shares said weed with you, but only on the condition you listen to their misinformed theories on the latest quantum physics news they read on Google Digest.
It can be a bit much sometimes, which is why this new episode of The Action Lab, chemical engineer James J. Orgills ongoing Science FTW! YouTube series, does us all a solid by providing a novel distraction to silence your annoying stoner friends once and for all. Who under the influence can resist the identity-questioning lure of a mirror-encased room? So trippy, man!
Check out the video of its construction, along with some interesting factoids about light, mathematics, the nature of infinity itself.
Theres a lot of interesting info to process in Orgills video, assuming you didnt need to pause it early and lay down from vertigo. Take mirrors reflective limits, for example: If you suddenly turned off the rooms light source, surely a delay would show up somewhere along the seemingly endless line of reflections (thus briefly offsetting the inevitable existential dread that comes from standing in a room of infinite darkness), right?
Nope. The speed of a cameras light travels at, uh, the speed of light, or roughly 300,000 km/second. Since mirrors reflect a paltry 95% of light (step it up, mirrors!) one can only really see about 15-16 reflections in Orgills room, which is extremely far from the number necessary to begin seeing any kind of delay in light.
Theres also a brief explanation given on the mathematical phenomenon known as Gabriels Horn where an objects volume is finite, but its surface area is infinite. Neat stuff, but, after Orgill filled the mirror room with smoke and laser pointers, all we can think about is returning to our Dark Side of the Moon-in-reverse listening session.
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