MIT's David Dai and Liang Fu have investigated what happens when a semiconductor bilayer has two electrons for every hole. One possible outcome is a crystal made of trions, exotic quasiparticles made of two electrons and one hole. physics.aps.org/articles/v17/s…

Instabilities are problem not just for plasmas in tokamaks but also for an approach to accelerating electrons by shooting protons into a plasma. Researchers at CERN have diagnosed one type of instability, filamentation, and proposed a cure. physics.aps.org/articles/v17/s…

Mike Verostek of the University of Rochester and his colleagues interviewed 20 grad students about their experiences finding advisers. They discovered that making the process more systematic and less haphazard would be more successful and less stressful. physics.aps.org/articles/v17/76

The governments of Australia and the state of Queensland will invest $620 million in PsiQuantum, a Silicon Valley startup that aims to build a photon-based quantum computer by 2027. science.org/content/articl…

Earth's winds and its planetary rotation drive ocean circulation. New research has identified an important mechanism for dissipating that energy: Vortices created when seas rub against coasts. physics.aps.org/articles/v17/77

Rydberg states are bunched together in energy, which opens easy routes to de-excitation. That problem can be sidestepped by using so-called circular Rydberg states, which are less prone to de-excitation thanks to selection rules. physics.aps.org/articles/v17/s…

Fluxonium qubits consist of loops of nanoscale Josephson junctions. Thanks to recent advances in fabrication, the qubits have become easier to make. New research has now made them easier to couple together. physics.aps.org/articles/v17/s…

If a star strays too close to its host galaxy's black hole, it could get so ripped apart by tidal forces that its remains wrap all the way around the black hole, collide with themselves and explode in a burst of gamma rays. aasnova.org/2024/05/01/a-p…

More evidence of the exquisite control physicists wield over ultracold atoms. A team from MIT has created two 1D sheets of optically trapped dysprosium atoms and brought them together close enough that the atoms can interact across the gap. physicsworld.com/a/bilayer-of-u…

Is gravity intrinsically classical even on scales where quantum effects might be expected to appear? Ludovico Lami at the University of Amsterdam and his colleagues propose an experiment to tackle that fundamental question. physics.aps.org/articles/v17/65

A planetary scientist, a materials scientist and a particle physicist comment on the science in Netflix's adaptation of Liu Cixin's science fiction novel The Three-Body Problem. nature.com/articles/d4158…

Thanks to the universality of quantum mechanics, one quantum system can mimic another, even if they're quite different. Here the frequency modes of photons trapped in an optical fiber represent the orbitals occupied by electrons in dimers. physics.aps.org/articles/v17/s…

The commercialization of magnesium-ion batteries could be closer thanks to the development of a cathode material inspired by high-entropy metals. These have simple lattices occupied randomly by multiple elements. physics.aps.org/articles/v17/75

At an altitude of 5640 meters, the newly operational University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory (TAO) in Chile is the world's highest ground-based telescope. Thanks to the thin dry air, TAO can comfortably detect the mid IR emitted by planetary nurseries. physicsworld.com/a/worlds-highe…

Calculations show that a doughnut-shaped Universe isn’t ruled out by cosmic observations. Story by Charles Day.

physics.aps.org/articles/v17/74

Rechargeable batteries are critical for the transition to renewable energy. Products powered by sodium-ion batteries are starting to hit the market as potentially more sustainable alternatives to the usual lithium-based batteries.

physics.aps.org/articles/v17/73

Excellent piece by Rachel Berkowitz and Physics Magazine on our latest research published in PRX Energy - love the artwork too! Interested in learning more about our operando developments - check out chemrxiv.org/engage/chemrxi… too....

Check out the article from Physics Magazine outlining new understanding of the degradation of batteries using an innovative operando X-Ray technique on pouch cells🔋

Louis F J Piper  @Ashok_Menon FI-Degradation @FI_FutureCat  #EarthDay

PRX Energy paper lnkd.in/eDXMtrDm

People too often treat batteries as disposable commodities that they just throw into the dustbin after they’re done using them. Battery researcher Ying Shirley Meng believes that batteries will only become fully green when recycling is part of the design.

physics.aps.org/articles/v17/72

Real-time in situ x-ray observations of new nickel-rich lithium-ion batteries by Louis F J Piper WMG reveal that reduced performance comes from lithium ions getting trapped in the cathode. 🌏 #EarthWeek

Story by Rachel Berkowitz.
physics.aps.org/articles/v17/70