April 19th, 2009 / No Comments
In simulations involving collisions of nanoclusters, hundreds of atoms packed together into a single unit, an unexpected result has come to light: There is a non-zero probability that the nanoclusters will leave the collision with more energy than they started it with. Researchers Hisao Hayakawa, of Kyoto University, and Hiroto Kuninaka, of Chuo University in Tokyo, produced the computer modeling and have published results of their nanocluster collision simulations in March’s Physical Review E [... ]
Posted in: Condensed Matter, Quantum Physics
April 10th, 2009 / 1 Comment
I apologize for the downtime experience over the past week - I have been moving over to a new host the past couple weeks, and had some trouble migrating the database in the way that I wanted.
The softcore link: Lagrangian points L4 and L5 to be Explored by Twin Spacecraft
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090409153020.htm
hardcore: Predicted Exotic Gravitational Lenses
http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0904/0904.1454v1.pdf
Posted in: Astronomy, Uncategorized
February 26th, 2009 / 1 Comment
Recent news stories provide a few details about an apparently successful test of a military laser that has been in the works for some time now. They plan to deploy this infrared laser from the nose of an aircraft in order to neutralize missle threats. Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grunman are participating in the project, with plans to test fire the main laser while in flight sometime during August 2009.
Because details are scarce [...]
Posted in: General, High Energy, Uncategorized
December 19th, 2008 / 1 Comment
The US Defense Intelligence Agency recently released a 40-page report on the viability of using gravitational waves as weapons, and whether they pose any threat to us. Although gravitational waves are abundant, their power relative to something like a bomb is very small. The report, not surprisingly, found that there was absolutely no threat from [...]
Posted in: Astrophysics
December 10th, 2008 / No Comments
An MIT team led by Jocelyn Monroe has found a new, more efficient method of detecting the weakly-interacting massive particle (WIMPs) that are thought to make up dark matter, which comprises up to 23% of the Universe’s total mass.
Dark matter has been an area of research recently. In particular, many are working to identify and detect the common yet elusive particles that are thought to make up the majority of it. Some scientists work from the theoretical side, producing and analyzing models that describe and put constraints on dark matter. Others are trying to observe these particles using various experiments [...]
Posted in: Astrophysics
December 8th, 2008 / No Comments
While there has been a lot of improvement in the methods and techniques used to search for exoplanets that may be habitable for life, the most popular and successful techniques favor the discovery of larger-than-Earth planets. This is because most of these methods rely on gravitational interactions or electromagnetic radiation interactions, both affected by mass and size of the planet. One example is transit detection, which relies on the size of the planet blocking out a substantial enough amount of light from the system star. Another example is Doppler shift detection, which counts on the mass of the planet being great enough to have a noticeable effect on the position of the system star, periodically altering its light’s Doppler shift. A few exoplanets have even been directly imaged now, the most recent one being a couple weeks or so ago.
However, the possibilities of many of the 331 detected exoplanets being habitable remains low, mostly due to these and accompanying characteristics. A new hypothesis paper by Bloh W. et al (nice names, source at bottom), suggests there is a much greater probability than previously thought. In their astrobiology paper they propose a thermal evolution model based on [...]
Posted in: Astrophysics
December 4th, 2008 / 1 Comment
Neutron stars are formed from the gravitational collapse of massive stars undergoing a supernova. Although somewhat rare, they are of great interest due to physics involved. Instead of being composed of normal matter, they are almost entirely neutrons. They are very dense, but do not collapse into a black hole due to the Pauli exclusion principle. It has been widely theorized that these objects could emit gravitational waves (GWs) due to their incredible density, but only if they are rotating quickly.
A direct consequency of the theory of general relativity, GWs are small perturbations in space-time. Because nothing travels faster than light, changes in a gravitational field must also [...]
Posted in: Astrophysics, Nuclear Physics
December 3rd, 2008 / 1 Comment
Metamaterials are engineered media that have many unique electromagnetic properties. Among these exotic properties is the possibility of a negative index of refraction, while most materials have a positive index of refraction. This leads to several interesting implications:
The doppler shift is reversed
Wave fronts move opposite to the flow of energy
Snell’s law is reversed
Because of these unusual properties, several potential applications have been proposed, such as [...]
Posted in: Atomic, Molecular, and Optical
December 2nd, 2008 / No Comments
A new paper by Leonid Marochnik, Daniel Usikov, and Grigory Vereshkov suggests that dark energy maybe be the third macroscopic quantum effect, after superfluidity and superconductivity. Dark energy is a theoretical form of energy that causes the rate of expansion of the Universe to speed up. In terms of total mass-energy present in the Universe, it is thought to account for up to 74% of it.
Current models that attempt to explain dark energy include Lambda-CDM (Cold Dark Matter) and Quintessence. Lambda-CDM includes a cosmological constant that describes this dark energy as a vacuum energy that fills fills all space. It is called the standard model of cosmology, as it is the most widely accepted model. Quintessence, on the other hand [...]
Posted in: Astrophysics, Quantum Physics
December 1st, 2008 / 2 Comments
No one knows what dark matter is exactly. Whatever dark matter is, though, we do know that it is affecting everything on a universal scale. Dark matter interacts gravitationally with other particles in the universe, but does not interact with electromagnetic radiation (light). This makes it impossible to observe directly. At the moment there are [...]
Posted in: Astrophysics, High Energy
