Category: Particles
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Extra dimensions. Existence. Cosmos.
This could be the way the world ends. First, a pair of cosmic protons smash together at unimaginable speeds. The tremendous energy of their crash would create a tiny, ephemeral black hole, so small that it would last just a fraction of a second before evaporating. Where the black hole just was, a bubble of…
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Made free… Only to be enslaved… Worms… Gods…
Atoms are composed of electrons moving around a central nucleus they are bound to. The electrons can also be torn away, overcoming the confining force of their nucleus, using the powerful electric field of a laser. Half a century ago, the theorist Walter Henneberger wondered if it was possible to free an electron from its…
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Quantum space. Ghostly differences. A calm lake.
The foundation stone of quantum mechanics doesn't just describe the behavior of infinitesimal subatomic particles – it also governs the movement of the largest and most massive objects in the Universe, says a prominent astrophysicist. Planetary scientist Konstantin Batygin was exploring the concept of astrophysical disks – sometimes called accretion disks; massive self-gravitating swirls of…
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Light speed. Less than 1000 m/s.
Researchers at TU Wien were the first to successfully detect Weyl particles in strongly correlated electron systems - that is, materials where the electrons have a strong interaction with each other. In materials like this, the Weyl particles move extremely slowly, despite having no mass. "The strong interactions in such materials usually lead, via the…
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Electrical paradoxes. (Do they exist?)
A number of chemistry researchers from several institutions including Lund University in Sweden, have managed to identify a new mechanism that makes certain charged biomolecules attach to each other. The biomolecules in the present study serve as models for antibacterial peptides, that is, protein-like molecules that fulfil important functions in the body. "Antibacterial peptides are…
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