news 2024

A team of chemists at the University of Münster has developed a synthesis method for the site-selective integration of the biologically relevant difluoromethyl group into pyridines The difluoromethyl group often determines the properties of bioactive molecules and is therefore particularly interesting for drug research.

Rapid Test for Topological 2D Materials: Researchers from the Würzburg-Dresden Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat have developed a method with which two-dimensional topological materials can be detected more easily and quickly. Topological quantum materials are hailed as a cornerstone of future technological advancements.

Strongly interacting systems play an important role in quantum physics and quantum chemistry. Stochastic methods such as Monte Carlo simulations are a proven method for investigating such systems. However, these methods reach their limits when so-called sign oscillations occur. This problem has now been solved by an international team of researchers from Germany, Turkey, the USA, China, South Korea and France using the new method of wavefunction matching.

The interaction between high-intensity, ultrashort laser pulses and solids has opened up significant technological opportunities in recent years. Laser ablation, for example, allows high-precision materials processing, thereby facilitating the miniaturization of components in medical and telecommunications technologies.

A European research team has developed a novel spectroscopic method that can be used to observe ultrafast dynamic processes of electrons and vibrations within molecules - with atomic resolution and in real time. A team from the University of Jena supported the experimental team in Barcelona in the theoretical description of the processes.

High temperatures and extreme wind speeds influence the chemistry inside the planet's atmosphere. Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a team of astronomers, including scientists from MPIA, constructed a global temperature map of the hot, gas giant exoplanet WASP-43b.

News from Some materials are transparent to light of a certain frequency. When such light is shone on them, electrical currents can still be generated, contrary to previous assumptions. Scientists from Leipzig University and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore have managed to prove this. "This opens new paradigms for constructing opto-electronic and photovoltaic devices, such as light amplifiers, sensors and solar cells," says Inti Sodemann Villadiego, Professor at the Institute of Theoretical Physics at Leipzig University.

German-Indian research team achieves further step towards miniaturised optical isolators / For on-chip integration of optical computer technologies It has been known for centuries that light exhibits wave-like behaviour in certain situations. Some materials are able to rotate the polarisation, i.e. the direction of oscillation, of the light wave when the light passes through the material.

Magnetic fields spiral around the mass monster Sagittarius A* and form up for a restart The Event Horizon Telescope, a network of individual radio telescopes located all'over the world, has once again observed the centre of our galaxy, the Milky Way. Using the polarised part of the radio light, the researchers discovered strong magnetic fields that spiral out from the edge of the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*.

Researchers from six German research institutions are making a significant contribution to the development of detectors for a new experiment at CERN, the research centre for particle physics. The European Centre for Nuclear Research CERN close to Geneva has announced plans to conduct a new experiment called SHiP (Search for Hidden Particles) in search for previously unknown elementary particles.

The BepiColombo space probe measures carbon ions escaping from the atmosphere of Venus and thus helps to decipher the special development of Venus During its flyby of Venus, the European-Japanese space probe Bepi Colombo for the first time found carbon ions escaping from the planet's atmosphere into space in a previously unexplored region on the night side of the planet.

Researchers at the University of Würzburg have developed a method that can improve the performance of quantum resistance standards. It's based on a quantum phenomenon called Quantum Anomalous Hall effect. The precise measurement of electrical resistance is essential in industrial production or electronics - for example, in the manufacture of high-tech sensors, microchips and flight controls.

International research team show potential for nanoscale transistors in all-carbon film An international research team led by the University of Göttingen has demonstrated experimentally that electrons in naturally occurring double-layer graphene move like particles without any mass, in the same way that light travels.

Scientists have found new paths to steer and optimize electrochemical processes. Optimizing electrochemical reactions is essential for the transition to renewable energies. In electrochemical reactions, electric currents and potential differences are used to binding and induce reactions. Electrochemistry is a pre-requisite for hydrogen production, and for batterie technology, and thus for sustainable chemistry.

Würzburg physicists have discovered that quantum entanglement toughens up quasiparticles against impurity scattering - even when they are subject to strong disorder. Physicists at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU) have made a discovery that could boost the understanding of the role of entanglement in high-temperature copper oxide superconductors.

On May 29, 2023, the LIGO Livingston detector observed a mysterious signal, called GW230529. It originated from the merger of a neutron star with an unknown compact object, most likely an unusually light-weight black hole. With a mass of only a few times that of our Sun, the object falls into the "lower mass gap" between the heaviest neutron stars and the lightest black holes.

An international team including researchers from the University of Würzburg has succeeded in creating a special state of superconductivity. This discovery could advance the development of quantum computers. Superconductors are materials that can conduct electricity without electrical resistance - making them the ideal base material for electronic components in MRI machines, magnetic levitation trains and even particle accelerators.

Experimental and theoretical physicists at the Würzburg Institute for Topological Insulators have identified an unusual quantum Hall effect in a mercury telluride device as the signature of the parity anomaly . Topological insulators are materials that can conduct electricity, but only on their surface or edges.

Research team led by Göttingen University make extremely fast, precise images for first time From solar panels on our roofs to the new OLED TV screens, many everyday electronic devices simply wouldn't work without the interaction between light and the materials that make up semiconductors. A new category of semiconductors is based on organic molecules, which largely consist of carbon, such as buckminsterfullerene.

The travelling salesman problem is considered a prime example of combinatorial optimization problems. Now a Berlin team led by theoretical physicist Jens Eisert from Freie Universität Berlin has shown that a certain class of such problems can actually be solved better and much faster using quantum computers than with conventional methods.