Saturday, October 11, 2014

Holometer


The sensitivity of various experiments to fluctuations in space and time. Horizontal axis is the log of apparatus size (or duration times the speed of light), in meters; vertical axis is the log of the RMS fluctuation amplitude in the same units.


The Fermilab Holometer in Illinois is under construction and is intended to be the world's most sensitive laser interferometer when complete, surpassing the sensitivity of the GEO600 and LIGO systems, and theoretically able to detect holographic fluctuations in spacetime.[1][2][3]
According to the director of the project, the Holometer should be capable of detecting fluctuations in the light of a single attometer, meeting or exceeding the sensitivity required to detect the smallest units in the universe called Planck units.[1][4] Fermilab states: "Everyone is familiar these days with the blurry and pixelated images, or noisy sound transmission, associated with poor internet bandwidth. The Holometer seeks to detect the equivalent blurriness or noise in reality itself, associated with the ultimate frequency limit imposed by nature."[2]
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How is holographic noise different from space-time foam?

John Wheeler's vision of quantum space-time was a roiling foam of virtual black holes. It was based on extrapolation of quantum field theory to the Planck scale. The holographic view is that space-time is not quantized like other fields, but emerges from a quantum system with fewer degrees of freedom than field theory. If this is right, foam is not the right way to visualize the smallest scales See: Holometer: Frequently asked Questions

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 The AdS/CFT correspondence is often described as a "holographic duality" because this relationship between the two theories is similar to the relationship between a three-dimensional object and its image as a hologram.[23] Although a hologram is two-dimensional, it encodes information about all three dimensions of the object it represents. In the same way, theories which are related by the AdS/CFT correspondence are conjectured to be exactly equivalent, despite living in different numbers of dimensions.

One physical system which has been studied using the AdS/CFT correspondence is the quark–gluon plasma, an exotic state of matter produced in particle accelerators. This state of matter arises for brief instants when heavy ions such as gold or lead nuclei are collided at high energies. Such collisions cause the quarks that make up atomic nuclei to deconfine at temperatures of approximately two trillion kelvins, conditions similar to those present at around 10^{-11} seconds after the Big Bang.[41]

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 Entropy, if considered as information (see information entropy), is measured in bits. The total quantity of bits is related to the total degrees of freedom of matter/energy.

Thursday, October 09, 2014

Majorana Fermions Discovered


A Majorana fermion (/məˈrɒnə ˈfɛərmɒn/[1]), also referred to as a Majorana particle, is a fermion that is its own antiparticle. They were hypothesized by Ettore Majorana in 1937. The term is sometimes used in opposition to a Dirac fermion, which describes fermions that are not their own antiparticles.
All of the Standard Model fermions except the neutrino behave as Dirac fermions at low energy (after electroweak symmetry breaking), but the nature of the neutrino is not settled and it may be either Dirac or Majorana. In condensed matter physics, Majorana fermions exist as quasiparticle excitations in superconductors and can be used to form Majorana bound states governed by non-abelian statistics.

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Princeton University physicists built a powerful imaging device called a scanning-tunneling microscope and used it to capture an image of an elusive particle that behaves simultaneously like matter and antimatter. To avoid vibration, the microscope is cooled close to absolute zero and is suspended like a floating island in the floor above. The setup includes a 40-ton block of concrete, which is visible above the researchers. The research team includes, from left, graduate student Ilya Drozdov, postdoctoral researcher Sangjun Jeon, and professors of physics B. Andrei Bernevig and Ali Yazdani. (Photo by Denise Applewhite, Office of Communications)
Princeton University scientists have observed an exotic particle that behaves simultaneously like matter and antimatter, a feat of math and engineering that could eventually enable powerful computers based on quantum mechanics. Capping decades of searching, Princeton scientists observe elusive particle that is its own antiparticle.
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 Majorana fermions are predicted to localize at the edge of a topological superconductor, a state of matter that can form when a ferromagnetic system is placed in proximity to a conventional superconductor with strong spin-orbit interaction. With the goal of realizing a one-dimensional topological superconductor, we have fabricated ferromagnetic iron (Fe) atomic chains on the surface of superconducting lead (Pb). Using high-resolution spectroscopic imaging techniques, we show that the onset of superconductivity, which gaps the electronic density of states in the bulk of the Fe chains, is accompanied by the appearance of zero energy end states. This spatially resolved signature provides strong evidence, corroborated by other observations, for the formation of a topological phase and edge-bound Majorana fermions in our atomic chains. Observation of Majorana fermions in ferromagnetic atomic chains on a superconductor

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Saturday, October 04, 2014

Then, A Theory in the Abstract

ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment)Image Credit by CERN

Collisions in the LHC generate temperatures more than 100,000 times hotter than the centre of the Sun. For part of each year the LHC provides collisions between lead ions, recreating in the laboratory conditions similar to those just after the big bang. See: Alice
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You have to reach a certain point in which the experiments bring you to the question of what arises in the beginning and then update(See Susskind's Lecture 1: Theoretical Minimum.) So you figured out the time line here and saw that preceding this point in time there is a fundamental question about how the universe begins.

Your aware that the reductionist agenda has a dual purpose, to not only tell us about the matters at hand, but reveals something about the very nature of creation in the cosmos. All these satellites are sensor attributed to the spectrum allocations which we have given to in sensor design.   These satellites then track for us. They give us  information about what is evident as we examine  the cosmos. People for some reason have totally missed this point about sensor development and cosmos related journeys.You develop what you need too,  in order to examine exactly where we are living. Where you might one day hope to live? Rocks, become important because they may hold the value of what is needed while you are on that other planet or moon.

Why AMS given you can use the extended environment, or,  design experiments given the weightlessness of space?

It may be hoped given the encouragement I give my grandson(very subtle) that he will give himself to the physics with which my later life has occupied me. Its a tough thing even as a parent, or grandparent to see these children become the new generation( the choices we could have made at their age) with which they can now become what we are so fondly attached.

But you know the rules right,  about setting them free?:) At the same time,  I know something that is needed,  that he has, and if he chooses to "see further" then the experiment with which I can so easily shown above, then he will be able to venture further "if"  he chooses to go into the abstract. But given that he might be 1 of 100, does this mean we should stop updating?

Just maybe, you young physicists of the white cloak today, will some day meet your younger counterparts and say hello to my grandson.

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Friday, October 03, 2014

Studying the Perfect Fluid


A simulated collision of lead ions, courtesy the ALICE experiment at CERN
A simulated collision of lead ions, courtesy the ALICE experiment at CERN - See more at: http://newscenter.lbl.gov/2010/11/04/lhc-lead/#sthash.yxm9loVb.dpuf
Within five different approaches to parton propagation and energy loss in dense matter, a phenomenological study of experimental data on suppression of large-pT single inclusive hadrons in heavy-ion collisions at both the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was carried out. The evolution of bulk medium used in the study for parton propagation was given by 2 + 1 dimensional or 3 + 1 dimensional hydrodynamic models which are also constrained by experimental data on bulk hadron spectra. Values for the jet transport parameter qˆ at the center of the most central heavy-ion collisions are extracted or calculated within each model, with parameters for the medium properties that are constrained by experimental data on the hadron suppression factor  See: Extracting the jet transport coefficient from jet quenching in high-energy heavy-ion collisions
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LHChamber Music



LHChamber Music, CERN scientists perform musical compositions created using data sonification of LHC experimental results (Video: CERN)

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Wednesday, October 01, 2014

Lecture 1: The Theoretical Minimum



Published on Feb 16, 2012 (January 9, 2012) Leonard Susskind provides an introduction to quantum mechanics. See: Lecture 1: The Theoretical Minimum

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Stellar flares seen from a nearby red dwarf star.



On April 23, NASA's Swift satellite detected the strongest, hottest, and longest-lasting sequence of stellar flares ever seen from a nearby red dwarf star. The initial blast from this record-setting series of explosions was as much as 10,000 times more powerful than the largest solar flare ever recorded. At its peak, the flare reached temperatures of 360 million degrees Fahrenheit (200 million Celsius), more than 12 times hotter than the center of the sun. The "superflare" came from one of the stars in a close binary system known as DG Canum Venaticorum, or DG CVn for short, located about 60 light-years away. Both stars are dim red dwarfs with masses and sizes about one-third of our sun's. They orbit each other at about three times Earth's average distance from the sun, which is too close for Swift to determine which star erupted. See: NASA | Swift Catches Mega Flares from a Mini Star

Problems with Your Blog Page?

I have notice black areas appearing on my blog page when accessing site through my laptop. I am wondering if this is a problem that I am just experiencing or if others Are having the same issue?

When will the Compass Point South?

If all the compasses in the world started pointing south rather than north, many people might think something very strange, very unusual, and possibly very dangerous was going on. Doomsayers would have a field day proclaiming the end is nigh, while more rational persons might head straight to scientists for an explanation.See:When Compasses Point South also Nova and Interactive
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Deep inside the Earth, the magnetic field arises as the fluid core oozes with hot currents of molten iron and this mechanical energy gets converted into electromagnetism. It is known as the geodynamo. In a car's generator, the same principle turns mechanical energy into electricity. No one knows precisely why the field periodically reverses, but scientists say the responsibility probably lies with changes in the turbulent flows of molten iron, which they envision as similar to the churning gases that make up the clouds of Jupiter. In theory, a reversal could have major effects because over the ages many aspects of nature and society have come to rely on the field's steadiness.See: Will Compasses Point South?-By WILLIAM J. BROAD Published: July 13, 2004-New York Times

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Particles in Peace

This was in May of 2013.



Yaron Herman plays piano jazz that is utterly unique. He learned to play based on a method using math and philosophy.

Bijan Chemirani, French-born percussionist, was initiated into the art of Iranian percussion by his father, Djamchid Chemirani, at an early age and has acquired enormous experience in adapting his playing style to other genres of music.

Here they perform together for the first time at TEDxCERN.
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