Diamond defects, now in pairs, reveal hidden fluctuations in the quantum world

Amazing stuff! This could be huge! 

"Now ... researchers have developed a diamond-based quantum sensor that reveals rich new information about magnetic phenomena at this minute scale. The technique uncovers fluctuations that are beyond the reach of existing instruments and provides key insight into materials such as graphene and superconductors. Superconductors have enabled today’s most advanced medical imaging tools and form the basis of hoped-for technologies like lossless power lines and levitating trains. ...

the team reported roughly 40-times greater sensitivity than previous techniques. ...

That enables unprecedented measurement and reveals details about magnetic fluctuations that hide in the statistical data of more conventional approaches. ...

Her team’s new technique is based on engineered defects near the surface of a lab-grown diamond. These diamonds, about the size of a large flake of sea salt ... one missing atom in a lattice of billions. But because those defects interact strongly with magnetic fields, and because they can be carefully engineered, they make excellent magnetic sensors.

Typically, these sensors are treated as individual points in space. In this latest advance, de Leon and her team built a system that implants two of these defects extremely close together, allowing the defects to interact in quantum-mechanical ways  ..."

From the abstract:

"Nitrogen vacancy (NV) centres in diamond are widely deployed as local magnetic sensors, using single-qubit control to measure both time-averaged fields and noise with nanoscale spatial resolution1.

Moving beyond single qubits to multi-qubit control enables new sensing modalities such as measuring nonlocal spatiotemporal correlators or using entangled states to enhance measurement sensitivity.

Here we describe protocols for using optically unresolved NV centre pairs and nuclear spins as multi-qubit sensors for measuring correlated noise at nanometre length scales.

For noninteracting NV centres, we implement a phase-cycling protocol that disambiguates magnetic correlations from variance fluctuations, leveraging the presence of a third qubit, a 13C nucleus, to effect coherent single-NV spin flips and enable phase cycling even for co-aligned NV centres that are spectrally unresolved. For length scales around 10 nm, we create maximally entangled Bell states through dipole–dipole coupling between two NV centres and use these entangled states to directly read out the magnetic field correlation, rather than reconstructing it from independent measurements of unentangled NV centres.

Importantly, this changes the scaling of sensitivity with readout noise from quadratic to linear.

For conventional off-resonant readout of the NV centre spin state (for which the readout noise is roughly 30 times the quantum projection limit), this results in more than an order of magnitude improvement in sensitivity. Finally, we demonstrate methods for detecting high spatial- and temporal-resolution correlators with pairs of strongly interacting NV centres."

Diamond defects, now in pairs, reveal hidden fluctuations in the quantum world - Princeton Engineering "In spaces smaller than a wavelength of light, electric currents jump from point to point and magnetic fields corkscrew through atomic lattices in ways that defy intuition. Scientists have only ever dreamed of observing these marvels directly."

Multi-qubit nanoscale sensing with entanglement as a resource (no public access)

Multi-qubit nanoscale sensing with entanglement as a resource (preprint, open access)

Credits: Quantensensor zeigt Magnetfelder, die bisher niemand sehen konnte "Neue Quantensensor-Technologie nutzt verschränkte Diamant-Defekte, um unsichtbare magnetische Phänomene in Supraleitern und Graphen zu messen."

Nathalie de Leon, a leader in diamond-based quantum sensing technologies, led the development of a technique that uncovers previously invisible magnetic fluctuations that are key to understanding quantum materials like graphene and superconductors.

Planet X: evidence mounts for undiscovered 9th planet in our solar system

Welcome new planet! More to explore! Get your telescope ready!

"... But for the past decade, astronomers have been finding it increasingly likely that something big – often called Planet X – might actually be out there. And a new study by a team from Princeton University has substantially raised the likelihood that it really exists. ...

The evidence comes from an apparently non-random distribution in the orientation of the orbits of smaller outer Solar System bodies known as trans-Neptunian objects or Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs). ...

At the moment, he says, the quest to actually find Planet X is on hiatus, awaiting the opening of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, a half-billion-dollar (or more) project being built on a mountaintop in northern Chile. ..."

From the abstract:

"The plausibility of an unseen planet in the outer solar system, and the expected orbit and mass of such a planet, have long been a topic of inquiry and debate. We calculate the long-term orbital stability of distant TNOs, which allows us to expand the sample of objects that would carry dynamical information about a hypothetical unseen planet in the solar system.

Using this expanded sample, we find statistically significant clustering at the ∼3σ level for TNOs with semimajor axes >170 AU, in longitude of perihelion (ϖ), but not in inclination (i), argument of perihelion (ω) or longitude of node (Ω). Since a natural explanation for clustering in ϖ is an unseen planet, we run 300 n-body simulations with the giant planets, a disk of test particles representing Kuiper belt objects, and an additional planet with varied initial conditions for its mass, semimajor axis, eccentricity, and inclination. Based on the distribution of test particles after 1−2 Gyr, we compute relative likelihoods given the actual distribution of ϖ as a function of semimajor axis for distant TNOs on stable orbits using a significantly larger sample than previous work.

We find the best-fit unseen planet parameters to be: mass mp=4.4±1.1M⊕, semimajor axis ap=290±30AU, eccentricity ep=0.29±0.13, and inclination ip=6.8±5.0∘. Only 0.06% of the Brown & Batygin (2021) Planet Nine reference population produce probabilities within 1σ of the maximum within our quadrivariate model, indicating that our work identifies a distinct preferred region of parameter space for an unseen planet in the solar system."

Planet X: evidence mounts for undiscovered 9th planet

Orbit of a Possible Planet X (open access)

Figure 6:Left: the relative probability density distribution for the unseen planet as a function of right ascension and declination. Right: the relative probability density distribution from Brown & Batygin. Blue dashed lines indicate the ecliptic plane and $\pm {20}^{\circ }$ from the Galactic plane.

In double breakthrough, mathematician helps solve two long-standing problems with paper and pencil

Good news! What progress will we make in mathematics once AI is being utilized?

Caveat: I am almost clueless as to what these achievements in the queen of all sciences (Carl Friedrich Gauss) are all about!

"A Rutgers University-New Brunswick professor who has devoted his career to resolving the mysteries of higher mathematics has solved two separate, fundamental problems that have perplexed mathematicians for decades. ..."

"... completed a proof of the 1955 Height Zero Conjecture posed by Richard Brauer, a leading German-American mathematician who died in 1977. Proof of the conjecture – commonly viewed as one of the most outstanding challenges in a field of math known as the representation theory of finite groups ...

In a sense, Tiep and his colleagues have been following a blueprint of challenges Brauer laid out for them in a series of mathematical conjectures posed and published in the 1950-60s.

“Some mathematicians have this rare intellect,” Tiep said of Brauer. “It’s as though they came from another planet or from another world. They are capable of seeing hidden phenomena that others can’t.” ...

In the second advance, Tiep solved a difficult problem in what is known as the Deligne-Lusztig theory, part of the foundational machinery of representation theory. The breakthrough touches on traces, an important feature of a rectangular array known as a matrix. The trace of a matrix is the sum of its diagonal elements. The work is detailed in two papers ...

Both breakthroughs are advances in the field of representation theory of finite groups, a subset of algebra. Representation theory is an important tool in many areas of math, including number theory and algebraic geometry as well as in the physical sciences, including particle physics. Through mathematical objects known as groups, representation theory also has been used to study symmetry in molecules, encrypt messages and produce error-correcting codes.

Following the principles of representation theory, mathematicians take abstract shapes that exist in Euclidean geometry – some of them extremely complex – and transform them into arrays of numbers. This can be achieved by identifying certain points that exist in each three- or higher-dimensional shape and converting them to numbers placed in rows and columns. ..."

From the abstract (an unusually short one, but the proof is 110 pages long):

"We complete the proof of Brauer's Height Zero Conjecture from 1955 by establishing the open implication for all odd primes."

In double breakthrough, mathematician helps solve two long-standing problems

In Double Breakthrough, Mathematician Solves Two Long-Standing Problems (original news release) "Rutgers professor’s proofs will provide deeper understanding of math mysteries and may lead to advances in science and technology"

Brauer's Height Zero Conjecture (pre-print, open access, first published September 2022, 110 pages)

Character levels and character bounds for finite classical groups (open access)

Uniform Character Bounds for Finite Classical Groups (pre-print, open access)

Nuclear fusion record paves way for commercial reactors

Good news! If we were not wasting all that money and effort on unreliable, intermittent wind and solar power, we might already enjoy limitless nuclear fusion power!

"The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) hits a new fusion reactor endurance record that could open the door to practical fusion power on a commercial scale. Using a tungsten lining, the WEST reactor held a reaction for six minutes. ..."

"Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy(Link is external)’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) measured a new record for a fusion(Link is external) device internally clad in tungsten, the element that could be the best fit for the commercial-scale machines required to make fusion a viable energy source for the world. 

The device sustained a hot fusion plasma(Link is external) of approximately 50 million degrees Celsius for a record six minutes with 1.15 gigajoules of power injected, 15% more energy and twice the density than before. The plasma will need to be both hot and dense to generate reliable power for the grid. ..."

Fusion record paves way for commercial reactors

Fusion record set for tungsten tokamak WEST (original news release)

Lab builds its first nuclear fusion stellarator in 50 years and opens the door for research into new plasma physics

Good news! The faster we succeed with realizing the potential of nuclear fusion, the fast we can bury the greatest scam of our time, the Global Warming hoax and Climate Change religion.

"For the first time, scientists have built a fusion experiment using permanent magnets, a technique that could show a simple way to build future devices for less cost and allow researchers to test new concepts for future fusion power plants. ...

a new type of stellarator, a twisty machine that confines plasma, the electrically charged fourth state of matter, to harness the fusion process that powers the sun and stars and potentially generate clean electricity.

"Using permanent magnets is a completely new way to design stellarators," ... the device, known as MUSE. "This technique allows us to test new plasma confinement ideas quickly and build new devices easily."

Stellarators typically rely on complicated electromagnets that have complex shapes and create their magnetic fields through the flow of electricity. Those electromagnets must be built precisely with very little room for error, increasing their cost. ..."

From the abstract:

"This paper documents the design and construction of MUSE, the world's first permanent magnet (PM) stellarator and the first quasi-axisymmetric experiment. The purpose of MUSE is to develop and assess a new way of building optimised stellarators that uses simple planar coils PMs. Our PM optimisation algorithm consists of initialising a geometry to pack dipoles densely, running the FAMUS code to minimise surface field error subject to PM constraints and applying discrete jumps to reach a physically realisable solution. FAMUS treats the PM system as a set of ideal point dipoles. From there we construct finite-volume magnet towers to be housed in 3D-printed PM holders. We describe the design of the PM holders, which were validated by laser metrology. We analyse the effects of finite permeability, sensitivity to perturbations and magnetostatic forces. An exact analytic formula for the magnetic field from a finite-volume PM tower is presented to compute PM–PM forces and stress on the PM holder. Stellarator construction is complete and experiments are underway."

A return to roots: Lab builds its first stellarator in 50 years and opens the door for research into new plasma physics

A return to roots: PPPL builds its first stellarator in decades and opens the door for research into new plasma physics (original news release)

Design and construction of the MUSE permanent magnet stellarator (open access)

A photo of MUSE, the first stellarator built at PPPL in 50 years and the first ever to use permanent magnets

At left: Some of the permanent magnets that make MUSE’s innovative concept possible. At right: A close-up of MUSE's 3D-printed shell.

A breakthrough discovery could accelerate the arrival of controlled fusion energy produced by Tokamak reactors

Good news!

If we can realize nuclear fusion as a reliable energy source on earth then the Global Warming hoax and Climate Change religion would immediately collapse and be exposed as one of the greatest scams ever known to humans!

"Researchers led by Chang Liu of PPPL [Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory] have unveiled a promising approach to mitigating damaging runaway electrons created by disruptions in Tokamak fusion devices. Key to the approach was harnessing a unique type of plasma wave that bears the name of astrophysicist Hannes Alfvén, a 1970 Nobel laureate.

Alfvén waves have long been known to loosen the confinement of high-energy particles in tokamak reactors, allowing some to escape and reducing the efficiency of the doughnut-shaped devices. ...

Researchers derived a theory for the remarkable circularity of these interactions. The results aligned well with runaways in experiments on the DIII-D National Fusion Facility, a DOE tokamak that General Atomics operates for the Office of Science. Tests of the theory also proved positive on the Summit supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. ...

Disruptions start with sharp drops in the million-degree temperatures required for fusion reactions. These drops, called “thermal quenches,” release avalanches of runaways similar to earthquake-produced landslides. “Controlling disruptions stands as a paramount challenge to the success of tokamaks,” ..."

From the abstract:

"Alfvénic modes in the current quench (CQ) stage of the tokamak disruption have been observed in experiments. In DIII-D the excitation of these modes is associated with the presence of high-energy runaway electrons (REs), and a strong mode excitation is often associated with the failure of RE plateau formation. In this work we present results of self-consistent kinetic-MHD simulations of RE-driven compressional Alfvén eigenmodes (CAEs) in DIII-D disruption scenarios, providing an explanation of the CQ modes. Simulation results reveal that high energy trapped REs can have resonance with the Alfvén mode through their toroidal precession motion, and the resonance frequency is proportional to the energy of REs. The mode frequencies and their relationship with the RE energy are consistent with experimental observations. The perturbed magnetic fields from the modes can lead to spatial diffusion of REs including the nonresonant passing ones, thus providing the theoretical basis for a potential approach for RE mitigation."

A breakthrough discovery could accelerate the arrival of controlled fusion energy on Earth (secondary news source)

A breakthrough discovery could accelerate the arrival of controlled fusion energy on Earth

Self-Consistent Simulation of the Excitation of Compressional Alfvén Eigenmodes and Runaway Electron Diffusion in Tokamak Disruptions (no public access)

Fusion Breakthrough Once Thought Impossible Brings Energy Device Closer to Realization

Nuclear fusion would be all we need for sustainable energy supply for humanity going forward!

Forget about (pre-industrial) wind mills and solar power! In hindsight, these will be considered by future generations as dominant human follies!

Why do we not invest more money into nuclear fusion power!

"The breakthrough shows how to more precisely shape the enclosing magnetic fields in stellarators to create an unprecedented ability to hold the fusion fuel together.

“The key thing was developing a piece of software that allows you to rapidly try out new design methods,” ...
The current breakthrough produces what is called “quasisymmetry” in stellarators to nearly match the confining ability of a tokamak’s symmetrical fields. While scientists have long sought to produce quasisymmetry in twisting stellarators, the new research develops a trick to create it nearly precisely. The trick uses new open-source software called SIMSOPT (Simons Optimization Suite) that is designed to optimize stellarators by slowly refining the simulated shape of the boundary of the plasma that marks out the magnetic fields. ..."

From the abstract:

"Quasisymmetry is an unusual symmetry that can be present in toroidal magnetic fields, enabling the confinement of charged particles and plasma. Here it is shown that both quasiaxisymmetry and quasihelical symmetry can be achieved to a much higher precision than previously thought over a significant volume, resulting in exceptional confinement. For a 1 Tesla mean field far from axisymmetry (vacuum rotational transform >0.4), symmetry-breaking mode amplitudes throughout a volume of aspect ratio 6 can be made as small as the typical ∼50μT

 geomagnetic field."

Fusion Breakthrough Once Thought Impossible Brings Energy Device Closer to Realization

Magnetic Fields with Precise Quasisymmetry for Plasma Confinement (no public access)

The AI industry is built on geographic and social inequality, research shows

More baloney and obsessions coming out of the highly compensated ivory tower! Marxist ideology packaged as scientific research!

"Those best-positioned to profit from the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) systems are those with the most economic power. ..."

The AI industry is built on geographic and social inequality, research shows | VentureBeat

Here it the link to the underlying research paper:

The Limits of Global Inclusion in AI Development

Princeton University: Race and policing in America

Yes, there are many flawed research studies about this subject out there! To make skin color the subject of research into policing is itself extremely flawed and unscientific! This is ideology driven research! Terrible!

Race and policing in America – Discovery: Research at Princeton

This is the propaganda image the elite Princeton University used for this article! Shameful! Joseph Goebbels could not have done it better!

Climate modeling at Princeton University

Princeton University is spreading the demagoguery of the Global Warming hoax!

This official pronouncement by Princeton University is laughable wishful thinking!

These computer models are far away from being reliable! There are way too many things we still do not understand about climate and weather! What about solar-induced climate change?

We cannot even predict weather accurately over 48 hours, but these scientists pretend they could predict climate up to hundred years from now! Ridiculous!

Just a reminder: The last Ice Age ended about 1608-1850, the Medieval Warm Period ran from about 950-1250.


"... The effort is aimed at addressing one of humanity’s biggest challenges: climate change. Computer modeling, the beating heart of modern climate science, is fundamental to our understanding of human-induced global warming and is a singularly important tool cited by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(link is external) (IPCC) in its climate change assessments. If international policymakers succeed in organizing to avert climate catastrophe, it will be largely due to the impact of these models — and the scientists who created them.  ... “Unless dramatic reductions of greenhouse gases are achieved, global warming is likely to exert far-reaching impacts upon human society and the ecosystem of our planet during the remainder of this century and for many centuries to come,” [Princeton University researchers] wrote."



Climate modeling at Princeton | Office of the Dean for Research

Einstein’s letters illuminate a mind grappling with quantum mechanics

Recommendable, but we do not learn e.g. anything about Einstein's political views. I have blogged here about that Einstein was a foolish and naive socialist and here about his arrogant, misanthropic views about religion. 

However,towards the end of the article, the article suggests that Einstein treated women miserably (ah, misogyny is so fashionable and politically correct): "That legend is not without tarnish though, as his letters occasionally reveal indications of misogyny. Most disconcerting to Einstein fans would be a letter from October 1925, in which Einstein berates his ex-wife, Mileva, for threatening to embarrass him with her memoirs. “Does it not enter your mind at all that no one would care one bit about such scribblings if the man that they were about had not, coincidentally, accomplished something special? If someone is a nobody, there is nothing to object to, but one should be truly modest and keep one’s trap shut. This is my advice to you.” Einstein then contends his remarks showed how good he was being to her — otherwise he would not be dispensing such sound advice. “Not only children need a smack now and again, but so do adults, and most especially women.”"

"This month Princeton released the latest volume of Einstein’s papers, covering the period May 1925–June 1927, while Einstein was at the University of Berlin."

Einstein’s letters illuminate a mind grappling with quantum mechanics | Science News: The latest volume of Einstein’s papers covers the infancy of quantum mechanics and new challenges to the theory of relativity.

Princeton scientists discover surprising quantum effect in an exotic superconductor

Amazing stuff (dated Nov. 2019)! Are we coming any closer to a room temperature superconductor?

"The researchers probed the behavior of iron-based superconductors when impurities – namely atoms of cobalt – are added to explore how superconductivity forms and dissipates. Their findings led to new insights into a 60-year old theory of how superconductivity behaves. ... Cobalt appears to be one of these exceptions. Contrary to the theory, the addition of cobalt forces the iron-based superconductor to lose its superconducting ability and become like an ordinary metal ... discovered that each cobalt atom has a limited local impact that vanishes an atom or two in distance away from the impurity. However, there is a strong, systematic evolution through a phase transition into a normal, non-superconducting state as the cobalt concentration increases. ... "

Princeton scientists discover surprising quantum effect in an exotic superconductor – Discovery: Research at Princeton: Superconductors are already in use in various capacities, but newer iron-based superconductors are an active area of investigation. Researchers led by a Princeton team have studied what happens to …

Race After Technology: Shining Light on the New Jim Code

Ruha Benjamin: And this is a professor at the elite Princeton University? And she is affiliated with the Institute for Advanced Study? This race panderer is a bad joke! There is nothing advanced about that!

Race After Technology: Shining Light on the New Jim Code | Institute for 
Advanced Study: I spent part of my childhood living with my grandma just off Crenshaw Boulevard in Los Angeles. My school was on the same street as our house, but I still spent many a day trying to coax kids on my block to “play school” with me on my grandma’s huge concrete porch covered with that faux-grass carpet. For the few who would come, I would hand out little slips of paper and write