#material-physics

#material-physics

A core question we want to understand is where did matter come from. And then, if you know about antimatter, it's natural to ask, why is that not here? The process is not understood and we are hunting for clues as to why it happened, says Dr Christian Smorra, a physicist on the Baryon Antibaryon Symmetry Experiment (Base) at Cern.

When the Finnish startup unveiled its battery at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, the specifications shocked the battery industry. How could an unknown company leapfrog Toyota, Factorial, and CATL in the solid-state race? The startup claimed 400 watt-hours per kilogram of energy density, a 100,000-cycle lifespan and a charge time of roughly five minutes.

A grand aspiration of cavity quantum materials research is to uncover fundamentally new routes for controlling properties of matter by judiciously tailoring the quantum electromagnetic environment. Experiments with dark cavities revealed modified transport properties in the integer and fractional quantum Hall states of a 2D electron gas, as well as cavity-assisted thermal control of the metal-to-insulator transition in charge-density-wave systems.

We demonstrate how the apparent magnetic field induced lattice and CDW intensity change can be explained as a consequence of two independent experimental artifacts: a reconfiguration of atoms at the STM tip apex that alters the amplitudes of CDW modulations, and piezo creep, hysteresis and thermal drift, which artificially distort STM topographs.

Calling nanoscientists: your field needs you to try to replicate a landmark finding that quantum dots can act as biosensors inside living cells. As part of the first large-scale effort in the physical sciences to tackle the reproducibility crisis, researchers in France and the Netherlands are offering funds and resources in exchange for a few months of work. "We are trying to use

Analogue quantum simulations are a useful tool for investigating these systems, particularly in regimes in which the applicability of numerical techniques is limited. For different simulator platforms, figures of merit include the electron bandwidth and interaction strength, temperature and the number of simulated lattice sites. Their use is further underscored by the ability to realize distinct lattice geometries, on-site degrees of freedom and by the physical observables that are accessible to experimental measurement.

A supercooled microscopic ferromagnet proves the existence of gyroscopic magnetic behaviour that has been long sought by physicists.

In terms of making things happen, energy is an indispensable consideration. Systems spontaneously tend towards the lowest-energy state. When a system reaches equilibrium, no further energy can be extracted. That maximum entropy, lowest energy state is the inevitable end-state of the Universe. But until that moment arrives, reactions of all kinds will occur, continuing to liberate energy. In our bodies, chemical bonds break and reform: releasing energy.

The reason we can gracefully glide on an ice-skating rink or clumsily slip on an icy sidewalk is that the surface of ice is coated by a thin watery layer. Scientists generally agree that this lubricating, liquidlike layer is what makes ice slippery. They disagree, though, about why the layer forms. Three main theories about the phenomenon have been debated over the past two centuries. Last year, researchers in Germany put forward a fourth hypothesis that they say solves the puzzle.

The vascular system and the brain are examples of physical networks that differ from the networks typically studied in network science owing to the tangible nature of their nodes and links, which are made of material resources and constrain their layout. The importance of these material factors has been noted in many disciplines: as early as 1899, Ramón y Cajal suggested that we must consider the laws conserving the 'wire' volume to explain neuronal design8

When the battery starts discharging, the sulfur at the cathode starts losing electrons and forming sulfur tetrachloride (SCl 4), using chloride it stole from the electrolyte. As the electrons flow into the anode, they combine with the sodium, which plates onto the aluminum, forming a layer of sodium metal. Obviously, this wouldn't work with an aqueous electrolyte, given how powerfully sodium reacts with water.

A new way of probing nanometre-scale particles of a single chemical element has revealed that they have markedly different properties from larger chunks of the same element.