A new path toward sending and receiving information with single photons of light has been discovered by an international team of researchers led by the University of Michigan. …
Tag: photons
Heat-free optical switch would enable optical quantum computing chips
In a potential boost for quantum computing and communication, a European research collaboration reported a new method of controlling and manipulating single photons without generating heat. The solution makes it possible to integrate optical switches and single-photon detectors in a single chip. …
Photon-photon polaritons: the intriguing particles that emerge when two photons couple
Scientists at the University of Bath in the UK have found a way to bind together two photons of different colors, paving the way for important advancements in quantum-electrodynamics—the field of science that describes how light and matter interact. In time, the team’s findings are likely to impact developments in optical and quantum communication, and precision measurements of frequency, time and…
Ghost particle from shredded star reveals cosmic particle accelerator
Tracing back a ghostly particle to a shredded star, scientists have uncovered a gigantic cosmic particle accelerator. The subatomic particle, called a neutrino, was hurled towards Earth after the doomed star came too close to the supermassive black hole at the center of its home galaxy and was ripped apart by the black hole’s colossal gravity. It is the first particle…
Researchers detect galactic source of gamma rays that could produce very high-energy cosmic rays
IFIC researcher Francisco Salesa Greus, along with other members of the HAWC collaboration, have detected very high-energy photons from a galactic source that could produce cosmic rays. The detection of neutrinos through telescopes such as KM3NeT or IceCube would confirm the study. This finding has been published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Source: https://phys.org/news/2021-02-galactic-source-gamma-rays-high-energy.html…
Large proto-cluster of galaxies discovered in the midst of clearing the cosmic fog
When the universe was about 350 million years old it was dark: there were no stars or galaxies, only neutral gas—mainly hydrogen—the residue of the Big Bang. That foggy period began to clear as atoms clumped together to form the first stars and the first quasars, causing the gas to ionize and high-energy photons to travel freely through space. Source: https://phys.org/news/2021-02-large-proto-cluster-galaxies-midst-cosmic.html…
JADES will go deeper than the Hubble Deep Fields
Astronomers announced this month that a new deep-field survey called JADES will be carried out with the James Webb Space Telescope, Hubble’s much-anticipated successor. The Webb is due to launch later this year. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/jades-deep-field-surveys-epoch-of-1st-galaxies…
BASE opens up new possibilities in the search for cold dark matter
The Baryon Antibaryon Symmetry Experiment (BASE) at CERN’s Antimatter Factory has set new limits on the existence of axion-like particles, and how easily those in a narrow mass range around 2.97 neV could turn into photons, the particles of light. BASE’s new result, published by Physical Review Letters, describes this pioneering method and opens up new experimental possibilities in the search…
Pivotal discovery in quantum and classical information processing
Working with theorists in the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, researchers in the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have achieved a scientific control that is a first of its kind. They demonstrated a novel approach that allows real-time control of the interactions between microwave photons and magnons, potentially leading to advances in electronic devices and…
A new look at the universe’s oldest light
New work agrees with older research suggesting the oldest light in the universe – from the most distant galaxy yet known – started its journey toward us 13.77 billion years ago. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/a-new-look-at-the-universes-oldest-light…