Category Physics

Conceptual representations of magnetic phases in MnSi and the experimental set-up.

RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science may be about to wind back time. Skyrmions have been widely touted as providing the basis for new high-density memory devices because of their small size and relative stability. However, it has proven difficult to create, delete, and move them, and skyrmion-based devices are not yet competitive with other high-tech devices based on spin.

The group set out to work using a specially designed stress probe that could apply mechanical stress to the surface of manganese-silicide, a “chiral magnetic” that is known to host skyrmions, cooled to very low temperature...

An accretion disc around a black hole. Credit: Image courtesy of University of Leicester

Astronomers have discovered a previously unknown link between the way young stars grow and the way black holes and other exotic space objects feed from their surroundings. The study shows how the ‘flickering’ in the visible brightness of young stellar objects (YSOs) – very young stars in the final stages of formation – is similar to the flickering seen from black holes or white dwarfs as they violently pull matter from their surroundings ie accretion.

The relatively cool accretion discs around young stars, whose inner edges can be several times the size of the Sun, show the same behaviour as the hot, violent accretion discs around planet-sized white dwarfs, city-sized black holes and supermassive black...

Part of the Stratos II rocket. Credit: Image courtesy of Radboud University

Stratos II+, a rocket built entirely by students of Delft University of Technology, will be launched again on Wed Oct 14. The first attempt in 2014 unfortunately failed due to technical problems. The rocket will hold an antenna to intercept radio signals below 30 MegaHertz and a digital receiver. The payload from Nijmegen is part of a preparatory programme for a radio telescope on the moon. Such a telescope would, for the first time, enable researchers to measure radiation generated shortly after the Big Bang.

Building a radio telescope on the moon involves special requirements regarding the weight, dimensions, power consumption, as well as the processing and transfer of data...

Researchers are using traditional kitting and braiding fabrication techniques to produce electrically conducting, wearable fabrics capable of sensing a wide range of human movement. The ability to arrange different types of fibres with predetermined spatial organisation gives us the colour, vibrancy and comfort we encounter in traditional textiles.

A knitted textile based on the polymeric composite fibres, produced at the Australian National Fabrication Facility, is highly sensitive, stable and able to detect a wide range of human movement. The team demonstrated a working device with remote sensing capabilities using a knee sleeve prototype of the fabric that ‘talks’ to a commercial wireless receiver. These fibres are not only stretchable but also conduct electricity...