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EPJ H Special Issue - From history of physics to “history for physics”
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- Published on 18 September 2024
The special issue “History for Physics: Contextualizing modern developments in the foundations of quantum theory” aims at demonstrating the importance of the history of physics within physics itself.
With their special issue “History for Physics: Contextualizing modern developments in the foundations of quantum theory” the guest editors aim to bridge contemporary topics in physics with their historical context and to draw attention to the history of physics as a subject of study and research for the active practitioner in physics but also hope to encourage historians of physics to engage with contemporary questions in physics, to possibly draw from this inspiration, or recognize need, for further historical research.
Central to carrying over the “history for physics” theme to the special issue format is the concept of tandem articles. Each tandem article consists of two parts: a part written by a historian of physics and a part written by a physicist. Both parts are supposed to treat one and the same aspect of a foundational issue involving quantum theory in a broad sense. In their respective parts, each author treats this aspect from their own respective perspective: The physicist contributes to the description of the state of the art of an open problem or debated phenomenon related to quantum physics, whereas the historian provides an appropriate historical account related to this actual case. The precise shaping and proportioning of the parts were left to the authors.
EPJ H Highlight - Were Bohr and von Neumann really in conflict over quantum measurements?
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- Published on 18 September 2024
Analysis suggests that the two pioneers of quantum mechanics may have had more similar views than previously thought regarding the nature of quantum systems, and the classical apparatus used to measure them.
In the early years of quantum theory, two foundational thinkers developed independent ideas about how measurements of quantum systems should be interpreted. While Niels Bohr suggested that these measurements require a clear distinction between the quantum system being measured and the classical apparatus performing the measurement, John von Neumann argued that quantum mechanics should apply to everything, including the measurement apparatus.
Since these interpretations emerged, quantum theorists have widely viewed them as being in conflict with each other. Yet through new analysis published in EPJ H: Historical Perspectives on Contemporary Physics, Federico Laudisa at the University of Trento suggests that Bohr and von Neumann’s views are far closer than currently thought.
EPJ C Highlight - The ALICE experiment – A journey through QCD
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- Published on 04 September 2024
The comprehensive review article “The ALICE experiment – A journey through QCD” has been recently published in the European Physical Journal C (EPJ C).
As of today, QCD is a gauge theory describing the interactions of quarks and gluons, the carriers of the strong force in analogy to the photon in electromagnetic processes. There is, however, a fundamental difference regarding the underling gauge symmetry, which is nonabelian in contrast to the one governing electromagnetic processes. Consequently, the strong force has the outstanding feature that its strength increases with increasing distance, resulting in a phenomenology of quark and gluon interactions depending upon the distance scale. In experiments where small distances are probed, the quarks and gluons behave like quasi-free elementary particles. Such processes can be described theoretically by perturbative methods; otherwise the quarks and gluons are confined, forming a small complex system inside a hadron, and lattice methods are required to describe the processes. In hindsight it becomes obvious why the searches for free quarks during the 1960s were doomed to fail.
EPJ D Highlight - Improving tuneability in optical differentiation
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- Published on 23 August 2024
By considering waves which propagate through sample surfaces as light interacts with them, a new technique could make it easier for researchers to create real-time images of microscopic samples.
Optical differentiation is a useful technique for analysing images of microscopic samples in real time. Currently, however, it lacks the ability to fine-tune the resolution in the images it produces.
Through new research published in EPJ D, a team led by Jian Wu at the National University of Defence Technology in Changsha, China, propose a new approach, which enabled them to tune the wavelengths reflected from crystal samples. Their technique could allow researchers to extract far more detailed images of their samples, and would be especially useful for analysing systems of cells and large molecules.
EPJ B Highlight - How did the COVID pandemic end so abruptly?
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- Published on 21 August 2024
New analysis suggests that a dramatic drop in deaths from COVID-19 between 2022 and 2023 could be attributed to an abrupt phase transition in the molecular structure of the virus’ spike protein.
During the winter of 2020 and 2021, the US saw deaths from COVID-19 reach 250,000. The following year, this number surged by a third to 330,000. But from August 2022 to March 2023, the number of deaths related to COVID-19 deaths plummeted to just 80,000, abruptly ending the COVID pandemic. This dramatic decline couldn’t be attributed solely to vaccines, which had been already widely available since Spring 2021.
Through new research published in EPJ B Marcelo Moret of CIMATEC in Brazil, together with James Phillips at Rutgers University, New Jersey, suggest that a phase transition in the molecular structure of the COVID-19 spike protein made the virus less likely to cause severe infections. Their results offer important insights into how the pandemic ended so quickly, and could help us to prepare for future pandemics.
EPJ B Highlight - Scheduling meetings: Are the odds in your favour?
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- Published on 14 August 2024
The results of an exploration of the mathematical theory behind Doodle polls that began in jest may be applicable to many other situations that require consensus-building.
If you often schedule meetings, you are likely to know how difficult it is to pick a time that suits everyone. Furthermore, the advent of tools like Doodle can make it harder: all too often, a poll will ‘fail’ with no mutually acceptable slot found. It would surely be useful to know the probability that a poll with a given number of participants and slots will generate a suitable time.
Three US-based theoretical physicists have now generated mathematical models of this problem and published them in EPJ B. “Our study began almost as a joke, when we were irritated by the growing number of polls we had to complete”, says first author Harsh Mathur from Case Western University, Cleveland, OH. “But we found that the models we produced were mathematically sophisticated and could be useful more widely.”
EPJ B Highlight - Assessing the environmental impacts of Brazil’s biofuel sector
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- Published on 13 August 2024
Mathematical analysis reveals that within Brazil’s agriculture and livestock industry, the biofuels sector is most heavily reliant on other sectors with high greenhouse gas emissions.
Brazil is a world leader in biofuel production, but the environmental sustainability of the sector has faced criticism due to its impacts on deforestation, water use, and biodiversity, especially in the Amazon rainforest.
Through analysis published in EPJ B, researchers led by Eder Johnson de Area Leão Pereira at the Federal Institute of Maranhão reveal new insights into the biofuel industry's dependence on high greenhouse gas (GHG) emitting sectors.
EPJ B Highlight - Thinking about the rise of brain-inspired computing
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- Published on 02 August 2024
A new review paper looks at the growing and interdisciplinary area of research that investigates how principles of the biological brain can be translated to computers.
The recent widespread and long-lasting chaos caused by Microsoft outages across the globe exemplifies just how integral computing has become to our lives. Yet, as computer hardware and software improve, arguably the most sophisticated and powerful computer we know of is still the human brain.
Sharing its computing power through billions of neurons interacting via trillions of synapses, the human brain doesn’t just compete with the most powerful supercomputers devised, but by consuming less energy than it takes to power the light in your fridge, your brain beats computers in the efficiency department, hands down.
It is little wonder that scientists and computer engineers are inspired by the human brain when it comes to devising new computing methods.
In a new paper published in the journal EPJ B, Mohamadreza Zolfagharinejad from the University of Twente and his coauthors discuss the rise of brain-inspired computing, its burgeoning demand, and its importance in the modern world. The review offers a comprehensive overview of the latest advances in brain-inspired computing hardware.
EPJ B Highlight - Five ways to model text using networks
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- Published on 02 August 2024
Network theory can be used in different ways to model the relationship between words in a block of text, linking analytical patterns to coherence and to some more subjective aspects of writing quality.
The explosive growth of AI ‘chatbots’ over the last few years and their ability to generate text that simulates human writing, often very accurately, has focused attention on how text is structured.
One useful way of analysing text is to think of it as a network, and methods of network analysis that are familiar to mathematicians and computer scientists can be powerful in linguistics. Davi Alves Oliveira and Hernane Borges de Barros Pereira from the University of Bahia State, Bahia, Brazil have compared five methods of representing sentences as networks, showing that each has value for specific applications. This analysis has now been published in the journal EPJ B.
EPJ D Highlight - Investigating the link between N₂O ionization and ozone depletion
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- Published on 02 August 2024
Detailed measurements of the electron-impact ionization cross-section of nitrous oxide shed new light on how Earth’s ozone layer could be depleted by future manmade emissions.
Man-made emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O) are rapidly increasing globally and are predicted to pose a growing threat to Earth’s ozone layer. In the 1970s, it was discovered that N2O in the upper atmosphere can trigger ozone-depleting reactions through its interaction with low-energy electrons. However, the full impact of this process on the ozone layer remains poorly understood.
New research published in EPJ D, led by Mareike Dinger at the national metrology institute of Germany (PTB) in Braunschweig, Germany, provides extensive experimental data on the interaction between N2O and these low-energy electrons. Their measurements could offer deeper insights into the influence of man-made N2O emissions on the future state of Earth’s ozone layer.
