Category Physics

Images from a new camera that can detect tiny traces of light through the body’s tissues. Here, the camera is detecting light emitted from a medical device known as an optical endomicroscope whilst in use in sheep lungs. Image on left shows light emitted from the tip of the endomicroscope, revealing its precise location in the lungs. Right image shows the picture that would be obtained using a conventional camera, with light scattered through the structures of the lung. Credit: University of Edinburgh

Scientists have developed a camera that can see through the human body and is designed to help doctors track endoscopes that are used to investigate a range of internal conditions...

The ALPHA team at the ALPHA facility, CERN. Credit: CERN

New research has enabled recent experiments to make the first measurement of the 1S – 2S atomic state transition in antihydrogen. A theoretical approach was developed for the ALPHA experiment at CERN, and provides the insight needed to make high precision spectroscopic measurements of the transition energy between the 1S and 2S energy levels. As a result, successful measurements have now been made to a precision of better than one part in a billion.

The research presented by Dr Rasmussen, Professor Niels Madsen, and Professor Francis Robicheaux, also points the way forward to even higher precision measurements of the properties of antihydrogen...

Jonathan G. Richens, John H. Selby, and Sabri W. Al-Safi. “Entanglement is Necessary for Emergent Classicality in All Physical Theories.” Physical Review Letters. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.080503

Is entanglement really necessary for describing the physical world, or is it possible to have some post-quantum theory without entanglement? In a new study, physicists have mathematically proved that any theory that has a classical limit-meaning that it can describe our observations of the classical world by recovering classical theory under certain conditions-must contain entanglement...

Phase-Defined van der Waals Schottky Junctions with Significantly Enhanced Thermoelectric Properties. The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, 2017; 8 (13): 2887 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.7b01089

A new device being developed by Washington State University physicist Yi Gu could one day turn the heat generated by a wide array of electronics into a usable fuel source. The device is a multicomponent, multilayered composite material called a van der Waals Schottky diode. It converts heat into electricity up to 3X more efficiently than silicon – a semiconductor material widely used in the electronics industry. While still in an early stage of development, the new diode could eventually provide an extra source of power for everything from smartphones to automobiles.

“The ability of our diode to ...