Category Archives: Quantum Physics

The Department of Physics, Engineering Physics and Astronomy at Queens University invites applications for a Tenure-track faculty position at the rank of Assistant Professor with specialization in theoretical quantum optics or condensed matter physics, with a preferred starting date of July 1, 2022.

Candidates must have a PhD or equivalent degree completed at the start date of the appointment. The main criteria for selection are academic and teaching excellence. The successful candidate will provide evidence of high-quality scholarly output that demonstrates potential for independent research leading to peer assessed publications and the securing of external research funding, as well as strong potential for outstanding teaching contributions at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and an ongoing commitment to academic and pedagogical excellence in support of the departments programs and in support of promoting equity and diversity in physics. Candidates must provide evidence of an ability to work collaboratively in an interdisciplinary and student-centred environment. The successful candidate will also be expected to make contributions through service to the department, the Faculty, the University, and/or the broader community. Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience.

People from across Canada and around the world come to learn, teach, and carry out research at Queens University. Faculty and their dependents are eligible for an extensive benefits package including prescription drug coverage, vision care, dental care, long term disability insurance, life insurance and access to the Employee and Family Assistance Program. You will also participate in a pension plan. Tuition assistance is available for qualifying employees, their spouses and dependent children. We recognize that recruiting and retaining faculty may involve considerations of spouses and domestic partners. To that end, the university provides assistance for partners seeking employment through the Faculty Recruitment and Support Program and where possible will attempt to accommodate the needs of partners of members of the faculty. Queens values families and is pleased to provide a top up to government parental leave benefits for eligible employees on maternity/parental leave. In addition, Queens provides partial reimbursement for eligible daycare expenses for employees with dependent children in daycare. Details are set out in the Queens-QUFA Collective Agreement. For more information on employee benefits, see Queens Human Resources.

Additional information about Queens University can be found on the Faculty Recruitment and Support website. The University is situated on the traditional territories of the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe, in historic Kingston on the shores of Lake Ontario. Kingstons residents enjoy an outstanding quality of life with a wide range of cultural, recreational, and creative opportunities. Visit Inclusive Queens for information on equity, diversity and inclusion resources and initiatives.

Queen's University is one of Canada's leading research-intensive universities. The Department of Physics, Engineering Physics & Astronomy at Queen's University has 33 full-time Faculty working in the areas of condensed matter physics and optics, engineering and applied physics, astronomy and astrophysics, and particle astrophysics.

The successful candidate for this position will be a theoretical or computational physicist with a research program that complements and extends the existing research activities of the Queens quantum optics and condensed matter physics group. Condensed matter physics and optics (CMPO) deals with fundamental questions about how matter is organized and how it interacts with light. CMPO explores deep fundamental physics questions, while providing new platforms for emerging technologies such as semiconductor devices and the emerging second quantum revolution. The successful candidate will amplify Queens strengths in quantum research and capitalize on this exciting time in this growing field. Researchers at Queens perform pure and applied research, with core research strength in quantum and nonlinear optics, quantum sensing, nanophotonics, neuromorphic computing, soft condensed matter, surface science, two-dimensional materials, laser machining, organic and inorganic opto-electronic devices, spintronics, and scanning probe microscopy. Faculty have ready access to major shared infrastructure at Queen's, including the Centre for Advanced Computing (https://cac.queensu.ca/), Nanofabrication Kingston (www.nanofabkingston.ca/), and collaborations with members of the Nanophotonic Research Centre. The candidate will also have the opportunity to contribute to major quantum science initiatives happening worldwide and in Canada through National Quantum Strategy, under which the federal government has committed $360M in funds.

Providing opportunities for junior faculty to develop a strong teaching and research profile and maintaining an environment where all faculty can thrive is our top priority. Support for course development and delivery is provided by the Department, the Queens Centre for Teaching and Learning, and the First day to First Sabbatical program of the Faculty of Arts and Science. Support of junior faculty to develop strong research programs includes a significant Research Initiation Grant, grant writing workshops and review services, funding support for graduate students through the Queens Graduate Award program, and one-to-one mentorship from senior faculty members.

The University invites applications from all qualified individuals. Queens is strongly committed to employment equity, diversity and inclusion in the workplace and encourages applications from Black, racialized/visible minority and Indigenous/Aboriginal people, women, persons with disabilities, and 2SLGBTQ+ persons. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, in accordance with Canadian immigration requirements, Canadian citizens and permanent residents of Canada will be given priority.

To comply with federal laws, the University is obliged to gather statistical information as to how many applicants for each job vacancy are Canadian citizens / permanent residents of Canada. Applicants need not identify their country of origin or citizenship; however, all applications must include one of the following statements: I am a Canadian citizen / permanent resident of Canada; OR, I am not a Canadian citizen / permanent resident of Canada. Applications that do not include this information will be deemed incomplete.

In addition, the impact of certain circumstances that may legitimately affect a nominees record of research achievement will be given careful consideration when assessing the nominees research productivity. Candidates are encouraged to provide any relevant information about their experience and/or career interruptions.

A complete application consists of:

The first review of applications will begin on December 31, 2021, and will continue until a successful candidate is found.

Applicants are encouraged to send all documents in their application packages electronically in PDF format to Prof. Robert Knobel at physhead@queensu.ca , although hard copy applications may be submitted to:

Robert Knobel, Head,

The Department of Physics, Engineering Physics and Astronomy

Stirling Hall

64 Bader Lane

Queens University

Kingston, Ontario

CANADA K7L 3N6

The University will provide support in its recruitment processes to applicants with disabilities, including accommodation that takes into account an applicants accessibility needs. If you require accommodation during the interview process, please contact Melissa Balson in The Department of Physics, Engineering Physics and Astronomy, at 4mjb5@queensu.ca.

Academic staff at Queens University are governed by a Collective Agreement between the University and the Queens University Faculty Association (QUFA), which is posted at http://queensu.ca/facultyrelations/faculty-librarians-and-archivists/collective-agreement and at http://www.qufa.ca.

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Tenure-Track Faculty Position in Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics or Theoretical Quantum Optics in Kingston, ON for Queen's University - Physics

This is the coldest temperature achieved in laboratory conditions.

Scientists have surpassed the record for the coldest temperature ever measured in a laboratory: they dropped magnetized gas 120 meters from the tower and reached a temperature of 38 trillion degrees Celsius above -273.15 Celsius.

A team of German researchers studied the so-called fifth level quantum properties: Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), a gas derivative that exists only in the ultracolt state. At the BEC stage, matter begins to act like a large atom, making it an attractive topic for quantum physicists particularly interested in the dynamics of particles. Temperature is a measure of molecular vibration: the higher the set of molecules moving, the higher the overall temperature. Thus, zero is the point at which all molecular motions stop minus 273.15 degrees Celsius. Scientists have developed a special scale for very low temperatures called the Kelvin scale, where zero corresponds to absolute Kelvin.

As we approach zero, strange things begin to happen. For example, according to a 2017 study published in the journal Nature Physics, light actually becomes a liquid that can be poured into a container. According to a 2017 study published in the journal Nature Communications, supercooled helium stops friction at extremely low temperatures. At NASAs Cold Atomic Laboratory, researchers found atoms in two locations simultaneously.

In this record-breaking experiment, scientists captured a cloud containing approximately 100,000 atoms in a magnetic field inside a vacuum chamber. They then cooled the room to 2 degrees Celsius to 2 billion degrees above absolute zero, which would be a world record.

But its not cool enough for researchers who want to push the boundaries of physics; To be even cooler, they need to simulate deep space conditions. Thus, the team placed their installation in the Bremen Tower of the European Space Agency, the Center for Micro Gravity Research at the University of Bremen in Germany. By reducing the vacuum chamber to free fall, by quickly turning the magnetic field on and off, BEC allows it to float without retreating by gravity, which reduces the molecular motion of rubidium atoms to almost zero. As a result, BEC set an all-time record of 38 picochelins 38 trillion kelvin in about 2 seconds. Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Boulder, Colorado, achieved the previous record of 36 ppm Kelvin using special beams. The coldest known natural site in the universe is the Boomerang Nebula, located in the constellation Centaurus, about 5,000 light-years from Earth. According to the European Space Agency, its average temperature is -272 C (about 1 Kelvin).

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Scientists have broken the record for coldest temperatures - The Press Stories

a. Wojciech urek, a prominent specialist in the field of quantum physics, was awarded an honorary doctorate from the AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow on Friday.

The university awarded the scientist with this distinction for his research achievements, including for introducing into science a new type of quantum symmetry, based on the influence of the environment on a quantum object; Co-author of the quantum Darwinian theory.

a. Wojciech urek specializes in quantum physics, statistics and astrophysics. He works at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

He is a well-known and highly valued figure all over the world, said AGH UST Rector, the professor. Jersey Lees. Slogans such as quantum decoherence or banning qubit cloning by physicists around the world are associated with the name of our graduate and friend Professor. Wojciech urek - stressed.

He also noted that AGH UST rarely confers honorary titles and special people receive them. Among the few scientists awarded by AGH UST in the field of chemistry and physics are two Nobel Laureates Sir Harald Kroto, discoverer of fullerenes, and Dan Shechtman, discoverer of crystals.

A. The Rector said: Wojciech urek is the most distinguished physics graduate of the AGH University of Science and Technology, whose scientific achievements and contributions to the academic community exceed our already stringent standards.

The praise was delivered by the professor. Janusz Adamovsky. He noted the biography and achievements of the professor. Shork. He emphasized, among other things, that the respected person maintains constant contacts with his university and with Polish sciences. Ludator said the research by the eminent physicist dramatically changed our views on the nature of the universe, explaining in particular how the quantum nature of the small world leads to the classical properties of the surrounding large world.

A. Wojciech urek is a world-renowned authority in the field of quantum physics, the creator of scientific theories that explain the most fundamental properties of the universe. His research also contains important practical aspects, including in materials science and the construction of a quantum computer. The laureate made a significant contribution to the The development of world sciences, and consequently the development of our civilization, - said the professor. Adamovsky.

It is with passion and great pride that I accept an honorary doctorate from my university emphasized the professor. Wojciech Schorek. In his speech, he recalled his years of study at the AGH University of Science and Technology, noting that he owed her education. He also mentioned that he met his wife here. The scientist who had grandchildren thanked his family for attending the ceremony. Max and Necia tried to come. Nyssa managed to get out of New Mexico. Max had to turn halfway. His teachers remembered.

The AGH UST campus has changed, but I still feel at home here. There are a lot of new buildings, but the nature of the place has remained the same. Krakow became unexpectedly beautiful. It was always respectful and had charm, but this beauty was hidden. Now you can See it - said the professor. urek, adding that he likes to come to Krakow very much.

He also gave a scientific lecture in which he spoke, among other things, about topological defects.

At the end of the ceremony, a congratulatory message sent to the world by the Minister of Education, Science and Higher Education Przemysaw Czarnek was read.

Wojciech urek was born in 1951 in Bielsko-Biaa. In 1974, he graduated from the Nuclear Physics Technical Faculty of the Faculty of Nuclear Physics and Technology in the Faculty of Mining and Metallurgical Electrical Engineering at the AGH University of Science and Technology. He defended his doctorate in 1979 at the University of Texas at Austin College of Physics, where until 1981 he remained in an internship with the professor. John Archibald Wheeler.

In 1981 as we read in his autobiography he joined the professors theoretical astrophysics group. Kip Stephen Thorne at Caltech where he earned Richard C. Tolman. Since 1984, he has been associated with the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where, among other things, he headed the theoretical astrophysics group.

Scientific achievements of the professor. urek has been honored with many awards, including. Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Award, Commanders Cross of the Bologna Restituta, Medal of Los Alamos, Honorary Doctorate from Jagiellonian University (PAP)

Author: Beata Koodziej

bko/pat/beech/

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Physics professor. Wojciech urek holds an honorary doctorate from the AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow - R&R Magazine...

For a while, graphene has been a concentration of strong research in both academic and industrial backgrounds because of its unusual electrical conduction properties.

A Phys.orgreport said, as the slimmest material known to humans, graphene is particularly two-dimensional and has photonic and electronic properties from conventional 3D materials.

Researchers at Purdue University, including Todd Van Mechelen, Wenbo Sun, and Zubin Jacob, have found and shown in their research that the viscous fluid of graphene, the colliding electrons in solids with behavior similar to fluids, support unidirectional electromagnetic waves specifically on edge.

On the other hand, such edge waves are linked to a new topological stage of matter and signify a transition of phase in the material, not unlike the switch from solid to liquid.

ALSO READ: Physicists Discover Multilayered Heterostrcuture Platform to Achieve Ultrastrong Photon-to-Magnon Coupling

(Photo: Jynto on Wikimedia Commons)Comparison STM topographic image of a section of graphene sheet with spectroscopy images of electron interference

One notable feature of this new phase of graphene is that light travels a single direction along the edge of the material and is vigorous to disorder, deformation, and imperfections.

Researchers at Purdue have attached this nonreciprocal impact to developing "topological circulations," one-way routers of indications, the tiniest in the world, that could eventually be a breakthrough for on-chip, all-optical procedure.

Essentially, circulators are a fundamental building block in the so-called integrated optical circuits. However, they have resisted miniaturization due to their bulky mechanisms and the narrow bandwidth of the existing technologies.

Also indicated in the study published in the journal, Nature Communications, topological circulations are overcoming this by being both broadband and ultra-subwavelength, enabled by an extraordinarily electromagnetic phase of matter.

Applications for such technology comprise information routing and interconnects between classical and quantum computing systems.

According to a BBVAreport, to understand how quantum computing works and quantum mechanics on which it is based, there is a need to look back to the beginning of the 20th century, "when this physical theory was originally raised."

Among other subjects of research, quantum physics started with the study of the particles of an atom, including its electrons at a microscopic scale, something that has never been done in the past.

Doctor in theoretical physics, high school teacher, and advisor to an exhibition hosted at the Center of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona called Quantum, Arnau Riera defines the term as a conceptual change.

In the classical world, the systems' properties being studied are well defined. On the other hand, in the quantum world, this is not the case in which particles can have different values. They are not secluded subjects, and their states are weak, Riera explained.

In classical computing, the expert also said, "We know how to solve problems," because of computer language used when programming. More so, operators not feasible in bit computing can be carried out with a quantumcomputer.

In quantum computing, all numbers and probabilities that can be developed with the so-called N qubits are superimposed with 1,000 qubits, the exponential probabilities go far beyond those that are done in classical computing.

Related information about the graphene light project is shown Charbax's YouTube video below:

RELATED ARTICLE: Obtaining Motional Ground State of Larger-Scale Object Made Possible by Physics Experts

Check out more news and information on Nanotechnologyin Science Times.

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Nanotech Solution: Research Unveils How Edgy Light on Graphene May Lead to Single Route of Information - Science Times

Decades ago, Albert Einstein developed a theory that not only does space skew, it skews as well. It turns out that this idea called parallel theory of gravity which the scientific community has abandoned in favor of general relativity and quantum theory, can solve many of the major problems in cosmology that arise today.

Halfway through his career, Albert Einstein became convinced that his grand theory of general relativity which describes gravity not as a force, but as a manifestation of the curvature of space-time had missed something. Yes, space is distorted and curved, but not as initially thought. Taking into account the true warping of space, he believed that it was possible to come up with a great unified theory of physics, a hypothetical theory of everything.

However, the physicist did not delve into this idea, and therefore fell into oblivion. But today, nearly a century later, some intractable astrophysical problems (such as dark matter and energy, among others) have caused scientists to question all previously established and accepted theories; Perhaps the key to all these unexplained problems lies in another understanding of space. Thus, they could lead to a re-examination of Einsteins forgotten theory.

It now appears that if space were to twist in addition to curvature, many of the most complex problems in physics could disappear.

According to physicist John Wheeler, Einsteins theory of relativity, developed in 1915, can be summed up in a few words: Time and space tell matter how to move; Matter tells spacetime how to bend One way to mentally visualize this theory of relativity is to represent space-time in three dimensions as a stretched trampoline canvas that deforms under the weight of objects placed on it: If the canvas is well stretched, the objects light will generate almost nothing. On the other hand, if we add something heavier in the center, it will sink into the canvas, and a lighter object will tend to skew towards that heavy object.

In other words, the presence of matter (mass) changes the geometry of spacetime and this distortion in turn tells matter how to move. Another essential element of general relativity: the equivalence principle, according to which the effects of the gravitational field are locally identical to the effects of the acceleration of the observers frame of reference (gravity and acceleration are indistinguishable).

Then, in the 1920s, Einstein and other theoretical physicists laid the foundation for quantum theory, which helped describe the behavior of atoms and subatomic particles, their interactions, and some properties of electromagnetic radiation. It follows from this theory that for a particular particle it is impossible to know its exact position and velocity at the same time (this is the uncertainty principle) an uncertainty that Einstein could not accept.

Thus began work on an alternative theory of electromagnetism. In general relativity, Einstein discovered that using the 4D version of curvature to describe spacetime works perfectly. His idea was to develop a new version of his theory using torsion and to check if this could explain both gravity and electromagnetism (the latter governed by Maxwells equations).

According to this new hypothesis, massive objects and charged objects cause spacetime to twist beneath them, in slightly different ways: one leads to electromagnetism, the other leads to gravity. This theory, known as remote parallel gravity, was published in 1928. However, it ultimately failed to convincingly explain electromagnetism.

With general relativity and quantum theory enjoying all the attention of the scientific community, interest in parallel gravity which aims to unite all of natures forces has waned rapidly. While general relativity and quantum theory continue to be affirmed on numerous occasions today, they cannot provide a complete description of reality because they are mutually incompatible and powerless in the face of some of the mysteries of the universe.

While general relativity supports the existence of black holes, it completely breaks down when it tries to describe their unique cores. Likewise, it is impossible to describe gravity on such a subatomic scale where quantum mechanics dominates: on this scale, when gravity becomes strong and at a short scale, general relativity no longer holds.

Nor can these two theories explain the accelerating rate of expansion of the universe. Only a hypothetical substance, dark energy, can provide a reliable solution. In addition, the rate of expansion itself, the Hubble constant, poses a problem: the two methods used to measure itfrom the diffuse cosmic background and from smaller starsoffer different results.

In the end, either the universe contains mysterious matter that can explain everything, or gravity doesnt work the way we thought it would. At present, physicists do not believe that parallel gravity can unify physics, but it could be an interesting candidate for a new theory of gravity, even better than general relativity.

Recently, however, theorists began Connecting remote parallel gravity to string theory One of the approaches to quantum gravity, which says that all the forces and energy of the universe come from the vibrations of invisible strings. In their work, they show how parallel gravity can be a consequence of string theory. This is an important idea, because string theory should be able to explain all the laws of physics, and if parallel gravity is a better version of general relativity and turns out to be true, then it would be possible to derive remote parallelism from mathematics from string theory.

However, the latter has not been considered an established theory and some points are still debated among scholars. But if one day we can improve this approach so that it provides an impeccable description of the real world, perhaps we will achieve the theory of everything Einstein dreamed of.

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Can a forgotten theory of Einstein solve the crisis of cosmology? - Awani Review

Mandi, October 23

As many as 452 graduating students, including 104 girls, of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mandi, were awarded degree at its 9th convocation today. Padma Vibhushan Anil Kakodkar, former chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of India, was the chief guest while Prof Prem Vrat, chairman of the Board of Governors, IIT, Mandi, presided over the event.

Kakodkar virtually congratulated all graduating students. He said, The world is having unprecedented challenges as well as opportunities. I am sure that graduating from the IIT, Mandi, will be a great asset for you.

He said, We are now in an era dominated by high-end technologies, such as semiconductors, artificial intelligence, computing and telecom, advanced aerospace and pharmaceuticals. Soon, new frontiers of technologies exploiting genetics, quantum physics, cognitive and brain sciences, among others, will start dominating. Young engineers need to close in the gaps in these technologies, which currently seem to be expanding for a better future.

The institute has seen a rise in the number of girl students passing out in all streams. Prof Ajit K Chaturvedi, Director, IIT, Mandi, said, Despite the challenges posed by Covid, our faculty members and students have achieved all-round success. We will remember 2021 as the year when all of us stepped up to play difficult roles to navigate through these uncertain times. TNS

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452 graduates of IIT, Mandi awarded degree - The Tribune

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "Global Rubidium Market Outlook to 2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

This report provides deep insights into the current and future state of the rubidium market across various regions. The study comprehensively analyzes the rubidium market by segmenting based on type (Rubidium Chloride, Rubidium Hydroxide, Rubidium Carbonate, Rubidium Copper Sulfate, Rubidium Silver Iodide, and Others), commercial source (Lepidolite, Pollucite, and Others), application (Specialty Glass, Electronics, Biomedical Research, Pyrotechnics, and Others), and geography (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, and Middle-East and Africa).

The report examines the market drivers and restraints, along with the impact of Covid-19 on the market's growth, in detail. The study covers & includes emerging market trends, developments, opportunities, and challenges in the industry. This report also covers extensively researched competitive landscape sections with profiles of major companies, including their market shares and projects.

Rubidium is a very soft, highly reactive (among the highest in the periodic table), silvery-white metal in the alkali metal group. It is the first element in the group that's denser than water and sinks. Rubidium metal is easily vaporized and has a convenient spectral absorption range, making it a frequent target for laser manipulation of atoms. With a slightly higher melting point than normal human body temperature, rubidium can be found in a molten/ liquid state under slightly warmer conditions.

According to the publisher, the global rubidium market is expected to witness growth at a considerable rate during the forecast period. The major factors responsible for the global rubidium market's growth would be growing biomedical research-oriented applications and increasing demand in the making of specialty glasses. Rubidium Chloride and Rubidium Carbonate are the key compounds in the respective sectors mentioned above. Atomic resonance-frequency-reference oscillators, photovoltaic cells, and fireworks are a few other products with rubidium's applications, guiding the market. However, availability and high cost are two challenges besides transportation and storage-related safety issues that restrain the rubidium market's growth.

North America is expected to be the largest market for global rubidium due to its existing market position in the electronics and optics sectors. The growth here is likely to be faster than that in other regions due to the region's knack for high-tech gadgets and innovations. Rubidium, a rather lesser-known element, has scope for applications in quite a diverse range of products or processes, including areas such as quantum physics. With each passing year, rubidium adds another feather to its cap of applications.

Key Topics Covered:

1. Executive Summary

2. Research Scope and Methodology

3. Market Analysis

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Market Dynamics

3.2.1 Drivers

3.2.2 Restraints

3.3 Market Trends & Developments

3.4 Market Opportunities

3.5 Feedstock Analysis

3.6 Regulatory Policies

3.7 Analysis of Covid-19 Impact

4. Industry Analysis

4.1 Supply Chain Analysis

4.2 Porter's Five Forces Analysis

4.2.1 Competition in the Industry

4.2.2 Potential of New Entrants into the Industry

4.2.3 Bargaining Power of Suppliers

4.2.4 Bargaining Power of Consumers

4.2.5 Threat of substitute products

5. Market Segmentation & Forecast

5.1 By Type

5.1.1 Rubidium Chloride

5.1.2 Rubidium Hydroxide

5.1.3 Rubidium Carbonate

5.1.4 Rubidium Copper Sulfate

5.1.5 Rubidium Silver Iodide

5.1.6 Others

5.2 By Commercial Source

5.2.1 Lepidolite

5.2.2 Pollucite

5.2.3 Others

5.3 By Application

5.3.1 Specialty Glass

5.3.2 Electronics

5.3.3 Biomedical Research

5.3.4 Pyrotechnics

5.3.5 Others

6. Regional Market Analysis

7. Key Company Profiles

7.1 Microsemi

7.2 Spectratime

7.3 American Elements

7.4 LANHIT

7.5 Frequency Electronics

7.6 Chengdu Spaceon Electronics

7.7 AccuBeat

7.8 Excelitas Technologies

7.9 CASIC

7.10 Montero Mining & Exploration

7.11 Lithium Australia

7.12 Stanford Research Systems

7.13 IQD

7.14 Inorganic Ventures

7.15 ESPI Metals

8. Competitive Landscape

9. Conclusions and Recommendations

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/9jhugb.

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Insights on the Rubidium Global Market to 2026 - by Type, Commercial Source, Application and Region - ResearchAndMarkets.com - Business Wire

Julian Voss-Andreaes quantum sculptures are a combination of art and science that reflect his background in both fields.

While studying physics in Europe in 1999, Voss-Andreae asked himself what it would feel like to be a quantum object moving through time and space. Later, after moving to Portland and enrolling at the Pacific Northwest College of Art, he used the same idea to create what he calls an intuitively simple sculpture.

Quantum Man, which is now displayed at the Maryhill Museum of Art in Goldendale, Washington, was the result. While conceptually the project came together just as he had hoped, Voss-Andreae was surprised by how visually striking it proved to be.

It looks solid from both sides, but directly from one angle, it seems to disappear, Voss-Andreae said. And I felt this was a really interesting connection with how quantum physics tells us that everything depends on your perspective.

His quantum sculptures are made up of a series of metal plates that define cross-sections of the figure being depicted. Theyre welded together, spaced apart by strategically placed pins. In quantum physics, Voss-Andreae said, an object is described as wavefronts running perpendicular to its direction of movement. The metal plates of his sculptures represent these wavefronts.

Voss-Andreaes quantum sculptures have been included in public and private art collections worldwide. In Portland, The Reader, which depicts a cross-legged woman reading a book in her lap, can be seen at Portland Community Colleges Southeast Campus.

-- Dave Killen

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Oregon-based artist makes disappearing sculptures inspired by physics - OregonLive

FOR AS LONG as our species can remember, even before Plato and Confucius, we were deploying two pairs of conceptual distinctions to carve up the world and make it understandable: the distinction between parts and wholes, and the distinction between particulars and universals.

A Honda engine is a part that along with other parts, like the steering wheel, the gears, and the fan belt composes the whole known as a Honda car. That very same engine, meanwhile, is also along with Toyota engines, General Motors engines, and Ford engines a particular that embodies or instantiates the universal idea of engine-ness.

What happens, then, when we take these two conceptual screens, so helpful for making sense of the perceivable world, and forge out into the heavens and down into the quantum?

Many of the greatest physicists tell us that any fundamental resolution of cosmological mystery will have to be conceptually mathematically beautiful. And in terms of theory, as far as we in the early 21st century can tell, any such beautiful resolution will center on a reconciliation of quantum mechanics, which focuses on the universe at a micro level, and the theory of relativity, which describes the universe at a macro level. As Einstein said, speaking of human psychology and not the cosmos, the only physical theories that we are willing to accept are the beautiful ones.

Think of a fern, we are told, with branches sprouting from its main stem. Sprouting from each of those branches there appear yet smaller ones that resemble it, and then sprouting from each of them there are even smaller ones that resemble it and so on, theoretically, ad infinitum. The branches, then, all vary the same pattern. But they do so at ever tinier scales and shifting positions. Varying the same pattern at ever decreasing magnitudes and altering orientations is, in a basic sense, what a fractal does. For this reason, fractals often are analogized to linguistic dialects, which preserve a languages structure while varying it across size and location.

Fractals get generated by a recursive algorithm, and each new execution is generated by applying the algorithm in question to the result of the previous one, creating as these iterations build up and depending on the algorithms features fantastic geometrical figures. And, as the Harvard physicist Nicole Yunger Halpern says, fractals are beginning to provide an exciting way of conceptualizing whats going on at the frontiers of physics. Cosmological systems, scientists are discovering, can exhibit fractal-like behavior, Yunger Halpern explains, meaning that they look very much the same at different spatial and temporal scales.

In the most exotic specimens, where fabulous spirals, tongues, and brocades begin to appear, the fractal is too smoothly continuous to divide into parts in any meaningful way. Its much more apt to divide a fractal into components based on each new iteration of the algorithm: first iteration, second iteration, third iteration, and so on. But that means that the whole we see is composed not of parts but of particulars: particulars that each instantiate the same universal that universal, of course, being the algorithm itself. A fractals beauty, then, emerges from a crossover of the two ur-distinctions. It emerges from the gorgeous ways in which particulars, not parts, compose a whole.

Physicists find a second source of beauty in the symmetries revealed by and in their calculations. Symmetry varies the same pattern over and over. But not at different scales and orientations, as fractals do. Instead, symmetries vary a pattern through different rotations and reflections.

The physicist Sabine Hossenfelder deploys the analogy of a mandala to give a sense of such reflections and rotations. A mandala takes a pattern and then reflects it so that right becomes left and left becomes right, or rotates it so that up becomes down and down becomes up, over and over again. Both reflective and rotational symmetry form the backbone of some of the most influential theories of modern physics. Paul Diracs equations display a form of reflective symmetry, Hossenfelder says, by incorporating particles of antimatter with the same mass as corresponding particles [] with the opposite charge. Contemporary string theory embodies a rotational symmetry by which, as Steven Weinberg writes, when you rotate an object from an ordinary dimension to a quantum dimension [] a particle of force becomes a particle of matter and vice versa.

Think of a Persian carpet. When you marvel at its symmetry the same pattern but rotated and reflected in multiple ways what exactly, in terms of those fundamental concepts, parts and wholes or particulars and universals, are you savoring? Certainly, the parts of the carpet, each containing the exact same pattern, however rotated or reflected, are what, summed together, compose the whole. But they dont do so in the way a cars parts an engine, a fuel tank, a fan belt, and so forth compose the whole of a car. Unlike the parts of my car, the parts of the carpet are identical, as if my car contained 80 engines, reflected and rotated in relation to each other.

So if the parts of the carpet dont compose a whole in the typical fashion, maybe its more apt to say that the carpet is made up of particulars that each instantiate the same universal, which of course is what a pattern is. But that doesnt quite work either. For a particular to instantiate a universal, it must embody it in a particular way. A Hondas engine instantiates the universal engine through the particularities of the Hondas design, while a Toyotas engine instantiates the universal engine through the particularities of a Toyotas design. But theres nothing particular, at least in this way, in the particulars of the carpet. Each instantiates the universal the pattern in exactly the same way, merely rotating or reflecting it. Each part universally, not particularly, embodies the pattern.

Maybe, then, the carpet can best be described as possessing identifiable parts, each of which instantiates the same pure universal, simply rotated and reflected as the case may be. Perhaps the beauty of symmetry, in other words, rests not in the ways in which its parts compose a whole, since they dont do so the way a cars parts compose a whole. Nor does it lie in the ways in which it arrays particulars that instantiate a universal since, again, nothing in the carpet particularizes a universal in the way my cars engine does. Instead, symmetrys beauty lies in the way it accomplishes a kind of crossover. The beauty of a symmetrical design emerges, it would seem, from the ways its rotationally and reflectively arranged parts each instantiate the same unalloyed universal.

But how is it for the cosmos? Physicists often use the term symmetry in an exceedingly broad sense. Symmetry exists whenever some components of a system remain the same as the rest changes, just as the pattern of a carpet remains the same through its various rotations and reflections. An example of such symmetry, for physicists, arises from the basic fact that the laws of physics remain unaltered no matter how much we vary our location in space-time.

As awe-inspiring as that reality might be, its not beautiful in the more specific sense of the carpet in the sense of parts mirroring each other by instantiating the same universal through rotation and reflection. For that, we have to turn to the content of the laws of physics themselves, to the symmetry of Diracs equations, for example, or those of string theory. We also find the beauty of parts instantiating the same universal, the same pattern, in Murray Gell-Manns discovery that all the particles could be classified by symmetric patterns known as multiplets, or Steven Weinbergs revelation that certain internal symmetries between electrons and neutrinos necessitate the existence of the several fields, such as the electromagnetic field, in the Standard Model.

Symmetrical beauty lies not in how various parts compose a whole, nor in how various particulars instantiate a universal. Rather, it lies in how various parts instantiate a universal while rotating or reflecting it. Such features of the cosmos are, for physicists, profoundly beautiful. And they feel profoundly explanatory. Why? Because of the way they ultimately correspond to our understanding of the symmetrical beauty of a snowflake, how the parts of a system instantiate the same universal in mirror images. And the rest of us can, even if from afar, see why.

Beyond fractals and symmetries and of course, many fractals also display symmetry physicists find beauty as well in the way in which different aspects of the physical world mathematically map each other. The discovery that vastly disparate facets of reality share a common structure or display the same network of relationships that you can map them onto each other gives the sense of profound explanatory insight.

Consider, to use a common example, the structural parallels between Joe, John, and Bobby Kennedy and Archie, Peyton, and Eli Manning. The fatherelder son younger son relationships in each family map onto each other exactly, even though the individual elements on either side differ. This kind of sameness between structures is often called isomorphism, iso being Greek for same, and morph for shape or form. Because the Kennedys and the Mannings are different individuals, the structures, while isomorphic, are not identical.

When it comes to physics, finding isomorphisms or mutual mappings between otherwise non-identical entities yields deep understanding. If one has really technically penetrated a subject, as John von Neumann once said, things that previously seemed in complete contrast might reveal themselves as purely mathematical transformations of each other. Such aesthetic beauty and hence explanatory satisfaction can, for example, be found, as the Nobel laureate Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar says, in the way in which the theory of colliding waves and the theory of black holes map onto each other.

But why is mapping beautiful? And, for those who find beauty explanatorily satisfying, why is isomorphism so satisfyingly explanatory?

Return for a moment to the Kennedys and the Mannings. Each family particularizes a common structure: the structure of father, elder son, and younger son. But though each family might be its own particular, the isomorphism the common structure that each instantiates is a kind of whole, not a universal. After all, when it comes to universals, the Kennedys and the Mannings instantiate very different ones. The Kennedys embody the universals of politics, and the Mannings the universals of sports. They are, to use von Neumanns words, in complete contrast. Instead, its more apt to say that each of the two particulars instantiates the same whole, if a whole is something greater than the sum of its parts if it is whatever it is that structures and connects those parts.

Physicists find beauty, as a last example, in equations. Think of E = mc2. Energy equals mass times the speed of light squared. Both m and c2 are parts, as the philosopher of science Robert Crease says, of one side of the equation. E, the other side of the equation, is a universal, a property that is instantiated in particles across the cosmos. A useful term for this relationship, in which parts on one side of an equation compose universals on the other side is translation. Physicists often employ this term in referring to equations. The metaphor of languages and their translations pervades the philosophical analysis of equations, and it helps explain their beauty. It could end up being, as Rodolfo Gambini and Jorge Pullin say, that string theory and loop quantum gravity both provide quantum theories of gravity cast in different languages. And the required equations, A. R. P. Rau writes, would then be like dictionaries allowing us to go from one to another.

The metaphor of translation, when applied to equations, proves to be an apt one. When a given sentence translates from one language into another, the words in the first do not map onto the words in the second one-to-one. Instead, the words in one language which are parts of speech together compose a meaning, a universal, in the other. Thats what it means for them to be translated. For example, a string of English words, such as the moment when a meal is concluded but the people around the table continue to chat, are all needed, together, to compose the meaning captured by sobremesa in Spanish. Those words are parts of English. The Spanish sobremesa to which they translate is a universal, one we have all experienced in our own particular ways.

The Harvard mathematician Barry Mazur neatly illustrates this translational aspect of equations. He analogizes it to poetry and in so doing highlights its capacity for beauty. Consider, Mazur says, these lines of Yeats: Like a long-legged fly upon the stream / His mind moves upon silence.

Here, Mazur observes, [T]he equation is between something that is concrete/sensual and external (the long-legged fly upon the stream) and something that might actually be even [] much harder to catch and hold still: a curious interior state.

In other words, in Yeatss equation, the stream and the long-legged fly on the one side are parts that together compose the universal, the property of a curious inner state a mind moving upon silence on the other.

The quest for beauty and, if beauty is what gives us a sense that we have understood, then the quest for understanding too ultimately requires us to burst through the ur-categories, the categories through which we see the world as consisting of particulars that instantiate universals and parts that compose wholes. Here, at the precipice of our understanding, we need the ur-categories to switch dance partners. Here, its particulars that must pair up with wholes, either composing them as with fractals or instantiating them as with isomorphisms. And its parts that must mate with universals again, either instantiating them as in symmetry or composing them as in equations.

Symmetries get analogized to mirrors, and isomorphisms to maps. And that makes sense; symmetries have to do with one thing repeating itself over and over, while isomorphisms have to do with one thing relating to another. In the same vein, fractals get likened to dialects, and equations to translations. And this, too, makes sense: fractals deal with one thing varying itself over and over, while equations deal with one thing relating to another. Mirrors are to maps what dialects are to translations. Each metaphor contributes to capturing what it is in symmetries, isomorphisms, fractals, and equations that endows them with the potential for transcendent beauty.

Consider the holographic theory that Juan Maldacena, a theoretical physicist at the Institute for Advanced Study, offers to reconcile quantum field theory and relativity. In his principal illustration, Maldacena depicts a disk with various symmetries in its interior, each part instantiating the same universal rotated and reflected. These correspond to the gravitational universe as relativity understands it. But at its edges, the disk turns into fractals, the whole of its circumference being composed of endless particulars of the same algorithm, in various sizes and counter-positions. These represent the quantum. And whats more, the interior symmetries and the edge fractals can be shown to relate to each other through equations i.e., translations insofar as the parts in each compose universals that abide in the other. They also relate as isomorphisms mutual mappings in that each, the interior and the edge, is a particular that instantiates the same whole, the same structure. Its quite magical.

For millennia, we have understood the world through particulars that instantiate universals and parts that compose wholes. Now the mystery of the universe asks that we the we that Einstein referred to, the human community at large go even further. It beckons us to transcend the limits of our understanding by seeing the cosmos in terms of particulars that instantiate or compose wholes and parts that compose or instantiate universals. Thats what scientific beauty is, as physicists describe it to us. And if the truth must be beautiful, its also where the path to ultimate explanation lies.

Andrew Stark, a professor of strategic management at the University of Toronto, is the author of The Consolations of Mortality (Yale University Press, 2016). His essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Review of Books, Times Literary Supplement, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and other publications.

Featured image: A 3D version of the Mandelbrot set plot Map 44 from the book The Beauty of Fractals by Duncan Champney is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Image has been cropped.

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The Mystery of the Cosmos: What Exactly Are We Looking For? - lareviewofbooks

News Reports| Lafayette Journal & Courier

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. Three Purdue professors have been selected to receive the highest honors in their respective fields:humanities and social sciences andquantum sciences, according to a Purdue press release.

ProfessorEllen Ernst Kossek is a distinguished professor ofManagement in the Krannert School of Management. She was nominated by her peers andchosen by university president Mitch Daniels to be giventhe2021 Lu Ann Aday Award.

TheLu Ann Aday Awardwas first established in 2017 by Purdue alumna Lu Ann Aday, a distinguished professor in Public Health and Medicine at the University of Texas School of Public Health-Houston, according to the release. This award annually recognizes a member of Purdue faculty who has achieved major impacts in the field of humanities and social sciences.

Kossek is a social scientist who researches how the functions of the workplace - employees, managers and overall organizations - can improve workplace cultures and the "effectiveness of work-family policies," according to the Purdue release.

Along with her research, Kossek also continuously organizes the"Dismantling Biases: Bridging Research to Practice"conference. Research from this conference has been published as books and referred articles, as stated in the release. The next conference is set for March 22-24, 2022.

Kossek will givethe Lu Ann Aday Distinguished Lecture at 2 p.m. on Nov. 1. The virtual lecture will be made available to the public.

Michael J. Manfra was nominated by his colleagues and selected by president Daniels to receive theArden L. Bement Jr. Award. This award was first established in 2015 by Purdue professor Emeritus Arden Bement and his wife, Louise Bement, to "annually recognize a Purdue faculty member for recent outstanding accomplishments in pure and applied sciences and engineering," according to the release.

Manfra is receiving this honor for his work in quantum physics. He and his team at Purdue reporter a landmark experiment in 2020 that found evidence of "anyons,"fractional statistics of quasiparticles. This was the first time direct evidence of such a substance's existence sincequasiparticles were first proposed in the early 1980s.

Manfra serves as thescientific director of Microsoft Quantum Lab West Lafayette andcontributesto the Quantum Science Center. He will give theArden L. Bement Jr. Distinguished Lecture at 3 p.m.on Nov. 12. This will be a virtual lecture and will be made available to the public, according to the release.

Yong Chen, a professor of physics and astronomy, electrical and computer engineering and thedirector of Purdue Quantum Science and Engineering Institute, willreceive the 2021 Herbert Newby McCoy Award. This prestigious award is given to those who have show outstanding work in the field of natural sciences.

Chen has successfully implemented a program at Purdue that focuses on "timely problems in nanoscience," according to the release. He continues to lead a large research group that works on quantum matter and devices.

Chen was one of the first in the world to "synthesize and study large-scale graphene and graphene single crystals," as stated in the release. As such, he is considered to be a global leader ingraphene-based materials.

In addition to his research, Chen serves on theGovernance Advisory Board forQuantum Science Center.

The 2021 recipients of these distinguished awardwill receive a cash prize along with a small grant for their university scholarly activities.

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Purdue professors recognized with highest honor in their fields - Journal & Courier