Category Physics

New research sheds light on a Phenomenon known as ‘False Vacuum Decay’

Image of the Universe
Vacuum decay is thought to play a central role in the creation of space, time and matter in the Big Bang, but until now there has been no experimental test
 
Professor Ian Moss

An experiment conducted in Italy, with theory support from Newcastle University, has produced the first experimental evidence of vacuum decay.

In quantum field theory, when a not-so-stable state transforms into the true stable state, it’s called “false vacuum decay.” This happens through the creation of small localised bubbles.

While existing theoretical work can predict how often this bubble formation occurs, there hasn’t been much experimental evidence.

Now, an international research team involving Newcastle University scientists has for the first observed these bubbles forming in carefully controlled a...

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New Superconducting Material discovered in Transition-Metal Dichalcogenides Materials

New superconducting material discovered in transition-metal dichalcogenides materials
The crystal structure and superconducting properties of (InSe2)0.12NbSe2. Credit: Niu Rui

With the support of electrical transport and magnetic measurement systems of Steady High Magnetic Field Facility (SHMFF), a research team from Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), discovered a new superconducting material called (InSe2)xNbSe2, which possesses a unique lattice structure. The superconducting transition temperature of this material reaches 11.6 K, making it the transition metal sulfide superconductor with the highest transition temperature under ambient pressure.

The results were published in Journal of the American Chemical Society.

TMD materials have received lots of attention due to their numerous applications in the fields of cata...

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Researchers create Faster and Cheaper way to Print Tiny Metal Structures with Light

Their technique could transform a scientific field reliant on cost-prohibitive technology. Researchers have developed a light-based means of printing nano-sized metal structures that is 480 times faster and 35 times cheaper than the current conventional method. It is a scalable solution that could transform a scientific field long reliant on technologies that are prohibitively expensive and slow. Their method is called superluminescent light projection (SLP).

Technological advances in many fields rely on the ability to print metallic structures that are nano-sized — a scale hundreds of times smaller than the width of a human hair.

Sourabh Saha, assistant professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, and Jungho Choi, a Ph.D...

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The Metalens meets the Stars – Large, All-glass Metalens Images Sun, Moon and Nebulae

image of the metalens and camera
This 10-centimeter-diameter glass metalens can image the sun, the moon and distant nebulae with high resolution. (Credit: Capasso Lab/Harvard SEAS)
 

Metalenses have been used to image microscopic features of tissue and resolve details smaller than a wavelength of light. Now they are going bigger.

Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed a 10-centimeter-diameter glass metalens that can image the sun, the moon and distant nebulae with high resolution.

It is the first all-glass, large-scale metalens in the visible wavelength that can be mass produced using conventional CMOS fabrication technology.

The research is published in ACS Nano.

“The ability to accurately control the size of tens of billions of nanopill...

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