To effectively adapt to change, living organisms rely on their ability to rapidly detect and process sensory information in their surroundings. The sensory information available at a given time continuously changes, which means that it can typically only be observed...
General Physics
Study gathers strong evidence of the doubly magic nature of ¹⁰⁰Sn
Recent experiments at CERN have shed new light on the nuclear properties of atomic nuclei (i.e., the central regions of atoms accounting for most of their mass). A key objective of recent research into atomic nuclei has been to better understand the properties of...
Detecting Planck-scale dark matter by leveraging quantum interference
While various studies have hinted at the existence of dark matter, its nature, composition and underlying physics remain poorly understood.
Findings hint at a superfluid phase in ²⁹F and ²⁸O
Data collected by the SAMURAI spectrometer at RIKEN's RI Beam Factory (RIBF) in Japan recently led to the detection of a rare fluorine (F) isotope, known as 30F. This has opened interesting possibilities for the study of rare nuclear structures and corresponding...
New Sisyphus cooling technique could enhance precision of atomic clocks
Researchers in the Neutral Atom Optical Clocks Group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), University of Colorado and Pennsylvania State University recently devised a new sub-recoil Sisyphus cooling technique that could help to improve the...
Physicists successfully observe Kibble–Zurek scaling in an atomic Fermi superfluid
The Kibble–Zurek (KZ) mechanism is a theoretical framework introduced by physicists Tom Kibble and Wojciech Zurek. This framework essentially describes the formation of topological defects while systems undergo non-equilibrium phase transitions.
Cosmic microwave background experiments could probe connection between cosmic inflation, particle physics
Various large-scale astrophysical research projects are set to take place over the next decade, several of which are so-called cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments. These are large-scale scientific efforts aimed at detecting and studying CMB radiation, which...
Physicists introduce method for mechanical detection of individual nuclear decays
In recent years, physicists and engineers have developed increasingly sophisticated instruments to study particles and the interactions between them with high precision. These instruments, which include particle detectors, sensors and accelerometers, could help...
Belle II experiment reports the first direct measurement of tau-to-light-lepton ratio
The Belle II experiment is a large research effort aimed at precisely measuring weak-interaction parameters, studying exotic hadrons (i.e., a class of subatomic particles) and searching for new physical phenomena. This effort primarily relies on the analysis of data...
A model outlining the microscopic origin of black hole entropy
Black holes are intriguing astronomical objects that have a gravitational pull so strong that it prevents any object and even light from escaping. While black holes have been the topic of numerous astrophysical studies, their origins and underlying physics remain...