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    Measuring Tiny Quantum Effects with High Precision

    March 11, 2022, Categories  Physics

    A research team has discovered a Heisenberg-limited metrology via weak-value amplification without using entangled resources. Most quantum information technologies including quantum computers – considered a step above supercomputers – and quantum communication that cannot be hacked are based on the principle of quantum entanglement. However, entangled systems exist in a small microscopic world and are pretty fragile. Quantum metrology, which provides enhanced sensitivity over conventional measurements in precision metrology, has also mainly relied on quantum entanglement, so that it is hard to implement in real life applications. Recently, a Korean research team has proposed a method to achieve the quantum metrology precision without using entangled resources.

    A POSTECH research te...

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    196 Lasers help Scientists Recreate the Conditions inside Gigantic Galaxy Clusters

    March 11, 2022, Categories  Physics, Astronomy/Space

    A technician works at the National Ignition Facility. Scientists used the array of 196 lasers to create conditions similar to the hot gas inside gigantic galaxy clusters.

    Experiments point the way to solving mystery that keeps clusters hot. Galaxies rarely live alone. Instead, dozens to thousands are drawn together by gravity, forming vast clusters that are the largest objects in the universe.

    “Galaxy clusters are one of the most awe-inspiring things in the universe,” said Prof. Emeritus Don Lamb, a University of Chicago astrophysicist and co-author on a new paper published March 9 – one that may point the way towards solving a decades-long mystery.

    Scientists have long known that the hydrogen gas in galaxy clusters is searingly hot – about 10 million degrees Kelvin, or roughly t...

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    Innovative Solution for Thermal Energy Storage

    March 11, 2022, Categories  Physics

    The paper, “High power and energy density dynamic phase change materials using pressure-enhanced close contact melting” by Wuchen Fu, Yashraj Gurumukhi, Xiao Yan, Vivek S. Garimella, William P. King, and Nenad Miljkovic, is available at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-022-00986-y. Miljkovic is an Associate Professor in Mechanical Science & Engineering (MechSE) and researcher in the Materials Research Lab at UIUC. Fu, Gurumukhi, and Garimella are graduate students in his group, and Yan was formerly his postdoc. King is the Ralph A. Andersen Endowed Chair in MechSE and MRL.

    Have you ever gotten relief from summertime heat by draping a wet towel over your head? If so, you’ve benefited from a phase-change material (PCM): a substance that releases or absorbs energy when it ...

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    Black Hole Billiards in the Centers of Galaxies

    March 11, 2022, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Illustration of a swarm of smaller black holes in a gas disk rotating around a giant black hole . Interactions between three black holes, such as those shown in the foreground, occur relatively often and will with high probability result in a merger on a non-circular orbit (credit: J. Samsing/Niels Bohr Institute)

    Researchers provide the first plausible explanation to why one of the most massive black hole pairs observed to date by gravitational waves also seemed to merge on a non-circular orbit. Their suggested solution, now published in Nature, involves a chaotic triple drama inside a giant disk of gas around a super massive black hole in a galaxy far, far away.

    Black holes are one of the most fascinating objects in the Universe, but our knowledge of them is still limited — especi...

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