The Next Generation 3GeV Synchrotron Radiation Facility Project in Japan
Advanced synchrotron radiation (SR) has been recognized as a premier research tool for developments of science and technology as well as for core industrial applications. Large-scale SR facilities around the world are constantly evolving, providing super brilliant and super directive X-rays. Consequently, a new range of applications in the nano-disciplines has been created.
Professor Toshiki Tajima Receives the 2018 Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar Prize of Plasma Physics
The Division of Plasma Physics annually selects an outstanding plasma physicist for the S. Chandrasekhar Prize of Plasma Physics.
Orbital Crossing with Spin Flip Found in Noncentrosymmetric Metals
Abstract
In noncentrosymmetric metals, the antisymmetric spin orbit interaction resolves spin degeneracy of electronic bands and therefore a Fermi surface splits into two pieces. In the metals belonging to a certain point group, however, the spin degeneracy recovers at the special symmetry points. Here, we found the orbital crossing phenomenon in which a carrier transfers from one split Fermi surface to the other one at a degenerate point. We further estimated the probability of crossing the orbital and revealed that the estimation allows us to judge the occurrence of spin flip at the degenerate point.
IceCube Neutrino Telescope Points to Sources of High-energy Cosmic Rays
Groups in the Asia-Pacific are celebrating the latest breakthrough from the IceCube neutrino telescope which recently presented the first evidence for high-energy neutrinos from an astrophysical source.
The Origin of Water’s Anomalous Properties Captured by X-ray Experiments
Water is the most important liquid for our existence on Earth and it plays an essential role in physics, chemistry, biology and geoscience. What makes water unique is not only its importance but also the anomalous behavior of many of its macroscopic properties. For example, density, specific heat, viscosity and compressibility of water behave in ways opposite to other liquids that we know. If we look at a glass of ice water, everything is, in a sense, upside down.
Exploring the energy frontier in particle physics
The desire to understand the elementary constituents of matter and their interactions has been one of the most important drivers of physics research. In the past 50 years, major progress in the field of particle physics has been made by accelerating particles to the highest energies available (the energy frontier) and by colliding them to produce and study new particles and interactions. Recent examples are the 1992 discovery of the top quark, by the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) and D0 experiments, in the Tevatron collider at Fermilab; and the 2012 discovery of the Higgs boson, by the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) and A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS (ATLAS) experiments, in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. These important discoveries, as well as many others, are the experimental foundations of the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics.
The Australian SKA Pathfinder: A ‘next generation’ Radio Telescope
The Australian SKA Pathfinder is a new 36-element radio interferometer designed to be a fast survey telescope. Its key technology, phased-array receivers designed by CSIRO, has shown proven advantages in bandwidth, field of view and adaptability. ASKAP is located at a superbly ‘radio quiet’ site in Western Australia, one of the sites that will house the international Square Kilometre Array.
Triangular Current Profile for Future High-energy Accelerators
Beam-driven, collinear wakefield acceleration is one of the most promising methods proposed for the next generation of high-energy physics accelerators. This method has some similarities to a transformer where the wakefield plays the role of the voltage. A high-current drive beam experiences a low wakefield when it passes a media (e.g. plasma, dielectric structure, etc), and this is transformed into a high wakefield to accelerate a trailing low-current witness beam.
Quantum Computers for Exponentially Hard Problems
A new generation of application specific quantum computers has shown great promise in solving exponentially hard problems that are inaccessible to classical computers, by employing innovative designs that do not utilize traditional gate-based architectures. The real world problems that can be treated range from issues important to industry, to the most challenging problems in cosmology. This article will explain these novel approaches being investigated at Swinburne University and elsewhere, with experiments and theory planned or underway in Australia, Japan, Europe and the USA.
LIGO Detected Primordial Black Holes?
In September 2015, gravitational waves (GWs) were detected for the first time by the LIGO detectors, the two laser interferometers in the United States. It was found that detected GWs originate from the coalescence of two black holes (BHs) in a binary, each weighing about 30 times the mass of the Sun (30 solar mass). Although there have been indirect observations of BHs in the X-ray binaries, their masses are at most 15 solar masses.
New Eyes on the Sky
The UFFO (Ultra-Fast Flash Observatory) Pathfinder for gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), and the TUS (Transient Ultraviolet Setup) telescope for ultrahigh energy cosmic rays, were launched onboard the Lomonosov satellite at 11:00 a.m., April 28, 2016, by the Soyuz-2.1a rocket, which first launched from the Vostochny Cosmodrome.
Optics in Ancient China
The early contributions of ancient China to optics predate those of Euclid, but are little known in the west. During the Warring States period, 2400 years ago in China, Mo Zi, a philosopher, thinker and scientist, stated explicitly the concepts of linear optics: the straight line propagation of light, reflection of light by planar, concave and convex mirrors, and the pinhole camera. Refraction of light was also discovered then, and the refractive index of water was measured to be 1.25, which is very close to the modern value of 1.33. These are recorded in the Book of Mo Zi. In the early Western Han Dynasty, Liu An, King of Huai-Nan, also compiled several works, where novel optical devices are …
