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Physics / Physics news 1234

Cosmic strings might emit cosmic sparks, answer cosmological questions

October 09, 2008 | User rating: 4.2 / 5 after 50 vote(s) | User comments: 18

(PhysOrg.com) -- For astronomers, understanding what happened in the early moments of the universe could answer many questions in physics and astronomy. One possible player in the early universe is cosmic strings, which arise ...


Long-Lasting Quantum Memory Leads to Long-Distance Quantum Communication

October 07, 2008 | User rating: 4.3 / 5 after 46 vote(s) | User comments: 6

(PhysOrg.com) -- Physicists have taken a step closer to realizing long-distance quantum communication, in which a quantum state is transferred from one location to another by becoming entangled with a traveling ...


In quantum channels, zero plus zero can equal non-zero

October 06, 2008 | User rating: 4.6 / 5 after 58 vote(s) | User comments: 10

(PhysOrg.com) -- Physicists have discovered a strange characteristic of quantum communication channels. If two quantum channels each have a transmission capacity of zero, they may still have a nonzero capacity ...


Counterintuitive physics may help everyone drive home quicker

October 02, 2008 | User rating: 4.5 / 5 after 73 vote(s) | User comments: 19

If you're trying to drive to a destination as quickly as possible, you might think that knowing the traffic conditions would help you choose the quickest route for yourself. Traffic reports and new GPS technologies ...


In radiation 'ventriloquism,' electromagnetic waves travel backwards

September 23, 2008 | User rating: 4.4 / 5 after 78 vote(s) | User comments: 12

(PhysOrg.com) -- Typically, electromagnetic waves travel away from their sources. For instance, a radar system emits radio waves that travel all the way to a target, such as a car or plane, before being reflected ...


A broadband single-photon source

September 19, 2008 | User rating: 4.7 / 5 after 36 vote(s) | No comments yet

As science makes progress toward practical quantum computing, improved quantum cryptography and scalable quantum communications systems, single photon sources will become more important. Until now, though, ...


Physicists hope to tie light beams in knots

September 12, 2008 | User rating: 4.6 / 5 after 131 vote(s) | User comments: 33

Usually, light beams shine in a straight line, with the possible exception of light being bent by gravity. But scientists are now investigating how to make light beams into looped and knotted configurations. ...


Physicists estimate how fast Usain Bolt could have run

September 11, 2008 | User rating: 4.1 / 5 after 65 vote(s) | User comments: 11

(PhysOrg.com) -- By the record books, Jamaican runner Usain Bolt is the fastest human being on earth, and yet no one knows for sure exactly how fast he really is. At the Beijing 2008 Olympics, on Saturday, ...


Using 'slow light' to modulate single photon wavepackets

September 11, 2008 | User rating: 4.4 / 5 after 25 vote(s) | User comments: 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Single photons have been studied for a long time, Steve Harris tells PhysOrg.com. “But this is the first time that their wavepackets have been modulated.” Just as electrons may be described as either particles ...


Physicists investigate how time moves forward

September 05, 2008 | User rating: 4.2 / 5 after 152 vote(s) | User comments: 55

As humans, we have a very intuitive concept of time, and of the differences between the past, present, and future. But, as scientists Edward Feng of the University of California, Berkeley, and Gavin Crooks of the Lawrence ...


Physicists Rule Out the Production of Dangerous Black Holes at the LHC

September 01, 2008 | User rating: 4.4 / 5 after 91 vote(s) | User comments: 27

(PhysOrg.com) -- On August 8, the world's largest particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland, began the process of slowly throttling to full power. When its proton beams are circling ...


'Single-Crystal' Superconductors are a Big Step for the Field

August 28, 2008 | User rating: 4.7 / 5 after 32 vote(s) | No comments yet

(PhysOrg.com) -- In key advances for the field of superconductivity, a research group has created versions of a class of widely studied superconducting compounds that are each one continuous crystal, rather ...


Entanglement without Classical Correlations

August 27, 2008 | User rating: 4.1 / 5 after 59 vote(s) | User comments: 19

Quantum mechanics is full of counterintuitive concepts. The idea of entanglement – when two or more particles instantaneously exhibit dependent characteristics when measured, no matter how far apart they are – is one of them. ...


Scientists identify quantum differences between light and heavy water

August 26, 2008 | User rating: 4.4 / 5 after 54 vote(s) | User comments: 16

Scientists know that light water (H2O) and heavy water (D2O) have similar but not identical structures. Using quantum mechanics, researchers have recently identified several differences ...


Operating quantum memory at room temperature

August 25, 2008 | User rating: 4.5 / 5 after 42 vote(s) | User comments: 1

Quantum dots, along with quantum wires, have been attracting notice over the past decade as possible building blocks of quantum information processing. Indium arsenide quantum dots (InAs) can be used for memory operations ...


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