To study physics means to study the universe. More precisely, how the universe works. Without a doubt, physics is the most interesting branch of science, since the Universe is much more complicated than it seems, and it contains everything that exists. Sometimes the world behaves very strangely, and perhaps you have to be a real enthusiast to share the joy of this list with us. Here are ten of the most amazing discoveries in the latest physics, which made many, many scientists rack their brains not for years - for decades.
Time stops at the speed of light
According to Einstein's special theory of relativity, the speed of light is constant - and is approximately 300,000,000 meters per second, regardless of the observer. This in itself is unbelievable considering that nothing can move. faster than light, but still purely theoretical. There's an interesting part of special relativity called "time dilation" which says that the faster you move, the slower time moves for you, as opposed to your surroundings. If you drive for an hour, you will age a little less than if you were just sitting at your computer at home. Additional nanoseconds are unlikely to significantly change your life, but still the fact remains.
It turns out that if you move at the speed of light, time will generally freeze in place? This is true. But before you try to become immortal, keep in mind that moving at the speed of light is impossible if you are not lucky enough to be born light. From a technical point of view, moving at the speed of light would require an infinite amount of energy.
We have just concluded that nothing can move faster than the speed of light. Well... yes and no. While this remains technically true, there is a loophole in the theory that has been found in the most incredible branch of physics, quantum mechanics.
Quantum mechanics is essentially the study of physics at microscopic scales, such as the behavior of subatomic particles. These types of particles are incredibly small, but extremely important, as they are the building blocks of everything in the universe. You can think of them as tiny spinning electrically charged balls. Without unnecessary complications.
So we have two electrons (subatomic particles with a negative charge). is a special process that binds these particles in such a way that they become identical (have the same spin and charge). When this happens, from that point on the electrons become identical. This means that if you change one of them - say, change the spin - the second one will react immediately. Regardless of where he is. Even if you don't touch it. The impact of this process is amazing - you understand that in theory this information (in this case, the direction of the spin) can be teleported anywhere in the universe.
Gravity affects light
Let's go back to the light and talk about general theory relativity (also by Einstein). Included in this theory is a concept known as light deflection - the path of light may not always be straight.
Strange as it may sound, this has been proven time and time again. While light doesn't have any mass, its path depends on things that have that mass, like the sun. So if light from a distant star passes close enough to another star, it will go around it. How does this affect us? It's simple: perhaps the stars that we see are in completely different places. Remember the next time you look at the stars, it could all just be a trick of the light.
Thanks to some of the theories we've already discussed, physicists have fairly accurate ways of measuring the total mass present in the universe. They also have fairly accurate ways of measuring the total mass that we can observe - but bad luck, these two numbers do not match.
In fact, the volume of the total mass in the universe is much larger than the total mass that we can calculate. Physicists had to look for an explanation for this, and the result was a theory that included dark matter - a mysterious substance that does not emit light and takes on approximately 95% of the mass in the universe. Although the existence of dark matter has not been formally proven (because we cannot observe it), there is a lot of evidence in favor of dark matter, and it must exist in one form or another.
Our universe is expanding rapidly
Concepts are getting more complex, and to understand why, we need to go back to theory. big bang. Before becoming a popular TV show, the Big Bang theory was an important explanation for the origin of our universe. To put it simply: our universe began with an explosion. Debris (planets, stars, etc.) spread out in all directions, driven by the enormous energy of the explosion. Because the debris is quite heavy, we expected this explosive spread to slow down over time.
But that did not happen. In fact, the expansion of our universe is happening faster and faster over time. And it's weird. This means that space is constantly growing. The only possible way to explain it is dark matter, or rather dark energy, which causes this constant acceleration. What is dark energy? To you .
All matter is energy.
Matter and energy are just two sides of the same coin. In fact, you always knew this if you ever saw the formula E = mc 2 . E is energy and m is mass. The amount of energy contained in a particular amount of mass is determined by multiplying the mass by the square of the speed of light.
The explanation for this phenomenon is quite exciting and is due to the fact that the mass of an object increases as it approaches the speed of light (even if time slows down). The proof is quite complicated, so you can just take my word for it. Look at atomic bombs, which convert rather small amounts of matter into powerful bursts of energy.
Wave-particle duality
Some things are not as clear cut as they seem. At first glance, particles (like an electron) and waves (like light) seem to be completely different. The first are solid pieces of matter, the second are beams of radiated energy, or something like that. Like apples and oranges. It turns out that things like light and electrons are not limited to just one state - they can be both particles and waves at the same time, depending on who is looking at them.
Seriously. It sounds ridiculous, but there is concrete evidence that light is a wave and light is a particle. Light is both. Simultaneously. Not some intermediary between two states, namely both. We have returned to the field of quantum mechanics, and in quantum mechanics the Universe loves in this way and not otherwise.
All objects fall at the same speed
To many, it may seem that heavy objects fall faster than light ones - this sounds sensible. Surely a bowling ball falls faster than a feather. This is true, but not the fault of gravity - the only reason why it turns out this way is because earth atmosphere provides resistance. Even 400 years ago, Galileo first realized that gravity works the same way on all objects, regardless of their masses. If you were with a bowling ball and a feather on the Moon (which has no atmosphere), they would fall at the same time.
Well, everything. At this point, you can move the mind.
You think space itself is empty. This assumption is quite reasonable - that's why it is space, space. But the Universe does not tolerate emptiness, therefore, in space, in space, in emptiness, particles are constantly born and die. They are called virtual, but in fact they are real, and this has been proven. They exist for a fraction of a second, but that's long enough to break some of the fundamental laws of physics. Scientists call this phenomenon "quantum foam" because it looks horribly like the gas bubbles in a soft drink.
Double slit experiment
We noted above that everything can be both a particle and a wave at the same time. But here's the catch: if an apple is in the hand, we know exactly what shape it is. This is an apple, not some kind of apple wave. What determines the state of a particle? Answer: we.
The double slit experiment is just an incredibly simple and mysterious experiment. That's what it is. Scientists place a screen with two slits against a wall and shoot a beam of light through the slit so we can see where it will hit the wall. Since light is a wave, it will create a certain diffraction pattern and you will see streaks of light scattered all over the wall. Although there were two slots.
But the particles should react differently - flying through two slots, they should leave two stripes on the wall directly opposite the slots. And if light is a particle, why doesn't it exhibit this behavior? The answer is that light will exhibit this behavior - but only if we choose to. As a wave, light passes through both slits at the same time, but as a particle, it will only pass through one. All we need to turn light into a particle is to measure each particle of light (photon) passing through the slit. Imagine a camera that takes a picture of every photon passing through the slit. The same photon cannot fly through another slit without being a wave. The interference pattern on the wall will be simple: two strips of light. We physically change the results of an event simply by measuring them, observing them.
This is called the "observer effect". And although this good way to finish this article, she didn’t even scratch the surface of the absolutely incredible things that physicists find. There are tons of variations on the double slit experiment that are even crazier and more interesting. You can look for them only if you are not afraid that quantum mechanics will suck you in the head.
MOSCOW, February 8 - RIA Novosti. More than 70% of Russians are not able to name a single scientific achievement of the country for recent decades- these are the results of a sociological study by VTsIOM, carried out on the Day of Russian Science. At the same time, at least ten discoveries of our scientists in recent years have left a noticeable mark on world science.
Gravitational waves
In August 2017, the LIGO detector detected gravitational waves caused by the collision of two neutron stars in the galaxy NGC 4993 in the constellation Hydra. The most precise device felt the perturbation of space-time, although its source was 130 million light-years from Earth. Science magazine called it the top discovery of the year.
The physicists of Lomonosov Moscow State University and the Nizhny Novgorod Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences made a considerable contribution to it. The Russians joined the search for gravitational waves on the LIGO detector in 1993 thanks to Vladimir Braginsky, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (passed away in March 2016).
LIGO first recorded gravitational waves (from the collision of two black holes) in September 2015.
Lake Vostok in Antarctica
The Russians own the last major geographical discovery on the planet - Lake Vostok in Antarctica. A giant reservoir is located under a four-kilometer thickness of ice in the very center of the Sixth Continent. Theoretically, it was predicted back in the 1950s by oceanologist Nikolai Zubov and geophysicist Andrei Kapitsa.
It took almost three decades to drill the glacier. Members of the AARI Russian Antarctic Expedition reached the relict lake on February 5, 2012.
Lake Vostok isolated from outside world at least 14 million years old. Scientists are interested in whether any living organisms have survived there. If there is life in a reservoir, then its study will serve the most important source information about the past of the Earth and will help the search for organisms in space.
Space project "Radioastron"
In July 2011, the Spektr-R radio telescope was launched into orbit. Together with ground-based radio telescopes, it forms a kind of ear that can hear the pulse of the Universe in the radio range. This successful Russian project called "Radioastron" is unique. It is based on the principle of ultra-long baseline radio interferometry, developed by Academician Nikolai Kardashev, director of the Astrospace Center of the Lebedev Physical Institute.
"Radioastron" studies supermassive black holes and, in particular, ejections of matter (jets) from them. Using the world's largest (recorded in the Guinness Book of Records) radio telescope, scientists hope to see the shadow of a black hole, which is presumably at the center of the Milky Way.
Experiments with graphene
In 2010, natives of Russia Andrey Geim and Konstantin Novoselov became laureates Nobel Prize in physics for the study of graphene. Both graduated from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, worked at the Institute of Physics solid body RAS in Chernogolovka, and in the 1990s they left to continue research abroad. In 2004, they proposed a now classic way to obtain two-dimensional graphene by simply peeling it off a piece of graphite with tape. Currently, Nobel laureates work at the University of Manchester in the UK.
Graphene is a layer of carbon one atom thick. They saw the future of terahertz electronics in it, but then they discovered a number of flaws that have not yet been overcome. For example, graphene is very difficult to turn into a semiconductor, and besides, it is very fragile.
A new kind of Homo
In 2010, a sensation spread around the world - a new species of ancient people was discovered who lived simultaneously with sapiens and Neanderthals. Relatives were dubbed Denisovans by the name of the cave in Altai, where their remains were found. The place of the Denisovans on the human family tree was established after deciphering the DNA isolated from the tooth of an adult and the little finger of a little girl, who died 30-50 thousand years ago (it is unfortunately impossible to say more precisely).
Ancient people chose Denisova Cave 300 thousand years ago. Scientists from the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences have been excavating there for decades, and only progress in methods molecular biology finally allowed to reveal the secret of the Denisovans.
Archaeologists want to restore appearance Denisovan manDirector of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, this year's state prize winner Academician Anatoly Derevyanko hopes that during excavations in the Denisova Cave in Altai, scientists will be able to find a skull or fragments of an extinct human species - the Denisovan man - and restore its appearance.Superheavy atoms
In the 1960s, Russian physicists predicted an "island of stability" - a special physical state, within which superheavy atoms must exist. In 2006, experimenters from the Joint Institute nuclear research in Dubna, the 114th element, later called flerovium, was discovered on this "island" with the help of a cyclotron. Then, one after another, the 115th, 117th and 118th elements were discovered - respectively, moscovium, tennessine and oganesson (in honor of the discoverer Academician Yuri Oganesyan). So replenished the periodic table.
Poincare conjecture
In 2002-2003 Russian mathematician Grigory Perelman solved one of the millennium problems - he proved the Poincaré conjecture formulated a hundred years ago. He published the solution in a series of articles on arxiv.org. It took his colleagues several years to verify the proof and accept the discovery. Perelman was nominated for the Fields Prize, the Clay Mathematical Institute gave him a million dollars, but the mathematician refused all awards and money. He also ignored the offer to participate in the elections for the title of academician.
Grigory Perelman was born in St. Petersburg, graduated from Physics and Mathematics School No. 239 and the Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics of Leningrad University, worked in the St. Petersburg branch of the Mathematical Institute. V. A. Steklova. He does not communicate with the press, does not conduct public activities. It is not even known in which country he now lives and whether he is engaged in mathematics.
Last year, Forbes magazine included Grigory Perelman among the people of the century.
laser on heterostructures
In the late 1960s, physicist Zhores Alferov designed the world's first semiconductor laser based on heterostructures he had grown. At that time, scientists were actively looking for a way to improve the traditional elements of radio circuits, and this was possible thanks to the invention of fundamentally new materials that had to be grown layer by layer, atom by atom, and from different compounds. Despite the laboriousness of the procedures, it was possible to grow such crystals. It turned out that they can radiate like lasers and thus transmit data. This made it possible to create computers, compact discs, fiber optic communications, and new space communications systems.
In 2000, academician Zhores Alferov was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.
High temperature superconductors
In the 1950s, theoretical physicist Vitaly Ginzburg, together with Lev Landau, took up the theory of superconductivity and proved the existence of a special class of materials - type II superconductors. The physicist Alexei Abrikosov discovered them experimentally. In 2003, Ginzburg and Abrikosov received the Nobel Prize for this discovery.
In the 1960s, Vitaly Ginzburg took up theoretical justification high-temperature superconductivity, wrote a book about it together with David Kirzhnits. At that time, the existence of materials that would conduct without resistance electricity at a temperature slightly higher absolute zero, few believed. And in 1987, compounds were discovered that turned into superconductors at 77.4 Kelvin (minus 195.75 degrees Celsius, the boiling point of liquid nitrogen).
The search for high-temperature superconductors was continued by physicists Mikhail Eremets and Alexander Drozdov, who are now working in Germany. In 2015, they discovered that hydrogen sulfide gas can become a superconductor, and at a record high temperature for this phenomenon - minus 70 degrees. Nature magazine named Mikhail Yeremets the Scientist of the Year.
The last mammoths on earth
In 1989, Sergei Vartanyan, a young employee of the Leningrad state university, who studied the ancient geography of the Arctic, came to Wrangel Island, lost in the Arctic Ocean. He collected the bones of mammoths, lying there in abundance, and using radiocarbon analysis determined that they were only a few thousand years old. As subsequently established, woolly mammoths became extinct 3730 years ago. Island mammoths were slightly smaller than their mainland relatives, growing up to 2.5 meters at the withers, so they are also called dwarf ones. An article by Vartanyan and his colleagues about the latest mammoths on Earth was published in Nature in 1993, and the whole world learned about their discovery.
The mammoth genome from Wrangel Island was deciphered in 2015. Now Sergey Vartanyan with Russian and foreign colleagues continue to analyze it in order to find out all the features of the life of pygmy mammoths and unravel the mystery of their disappearance.
Image copyright Science Photo Library Image caption Schrödinger's paradox has been known for a long time, but it has not yet been possible to demonstrate it at the physical level.
The detection of gravitational waves in space-time, as well as the first practical demonstration of the famous Schrödinger paradox, are included in the list of the biggest achievements in physics for 2016, according to Physics World magazine.
It also includes the discovery of the first exoplanet in our nearest star system.
Detection of gravitational waves, recognized as the biggest discovery of the year, was achieved by the LIGO scientific community, which involves more than 80 scientific institutions around the world.
The community uses several laboratories trying to detect deviations in the structure of space-time that occur when a powerful laser pulse passes through a vacuum tunnel.
The first signal they recorded was the result of the collision of two black holes at a distance of more than a billion light-years from Earth.
According to Hamish Johnston, editor of the journal Physics World, which published a list of achievements, these observations were the first direct evidence of the existence of black holes.
Image copyright LIGO/T. Pyle/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY Image caption Albert Einstein was the first to suggest the possibility of the existence of gravitational wavesOther major physical discoveries of the year include:
Shroedinger `s cat: Scientists have been puzzling over the mystery of Schrödinger's cat for years. This is a thought experiment by the Austrian scientist Erwin Schrödinger. The cat is in the box. The box contains a mechanism containing radioactive atomic nucleus and a container of poisonous gas. The paradox is that an animal can be alive or dead at the same time. You can find out for sure only by opening the box. This means that opening the box highlights one of the cat's many states. But before the box is opened, the animal cannot be considered alive or dead - the cat can be in two states at the same time.
However, American and French physicists for the first time were able to track the state of the cat on the example of the internal structure of the molecule, which manifests itself in the simultaneous presence of the system in two quantum states.
To do this, experts brought the molecules into an excited state using an X-ray laser (razer). From the obtained diffraction patterns of high spatial and temporal resolution, physicists assembled a video.
Compact "gravimeter": Scientists from the University of Glasgow have built a gravimeter that is capable of very accurately measuring the force of gravity on Earth. It is a compact, accurate and inexpensive device. The device can be used in the search for minerals, in the construction and research of volcanoes.
Nearest exoplanet to us: Astronomers have discovered signs of the presence of a planet in the habitable zone in the Proxima Centauri system. This planet, called Proxima b, is only 1.3 times the mass of Earth and could have liquid water on its surface.
Image copyright ESO/M.Kornmesser Image caption This is what the surface of the planet Proxima b might look likeQuantum entanglement: A group of physicists from the USA managed to demonstrate the effect of quantum mechanical entanglement for the first time using the example of a macroscopic mechanical system.
Development experimental methods study quantum systems and the development of methods for entangling various kinds of objects should, according to the forecasts of physicists, lead to the emergence of fundamentally new computers.
Miracle material: For the first time, scientists have been able to measure the property of the graphene material - the so-called negative refraction. This phenomenon can be used to create new types of optical devices, such as extremely sensitive lenses and lenses.
Atomic Clock: German physicists discovered the transmutation of the thorium-229 isotope, which could become the basis for the design of a new type of atomic clock. Such clocks will be much more stable than existing instruments of this type.
Optics for microscopes: Scottish scientists at the University of Strathclyde have created a new type of microscope lens called the Mesolens. The new lenses have a large field of view and high resolution.
Image copyright Mesolens Image caption These structures in the brain of rats were captured by a new microscope based on Mesolens lenses.Super fast computer: Austrian scientists have achieved major success in the development of quantum computers. They created a model of fundamental interactions elementary particles, which can be used by prototypes of quantum computers.
Nuclear engine: Scientists at the University of Mainz in Germany have developed a prototype heat engine that consists of a single atom. It converts temperature differences into mechanical work by placing a single calcium ion in a funnel-shaped trap.
February 1, 2020Antiferromagnetic topological insulator
February 1, 2020Instability in a quantum gas caused by dissipation
February 1, 2020Rotation of a superfluid liquid
February 1, 2020The rotation of quantum superfluid liquids has been studied in many works, both theoretically and experimentally (see, for example, and ). An interesting case is when the rotation frequency approaches the holding frequency of the atomic trap potential or exceeds it. In this case, according to calculations, ring structures should appear, which can be represented as a union of many quantum vortices into one giant vortex. Such structures were indeed observed, but they rapidly decayed, or the liquid density in the center was not low. Researchers from the University of Paris-North XIII and the National Center scientific research France for the first time obtained in their experiment a ring structure that was stable for more than one minute. By rotating the nonspherical potential of the trap, the Bose-Einstein condensate of 87 Rb atoms was given an angular momentum, which increased to 350×h/2π per atom during selective evaporation. In this case, a ring with a radius of ≈30 μm with a hole in the center appeared in the condensate structure, rotating at a supersonic linear velocity reaching 18 Mach numbers. A quadrupole deformation mode was excited in the ring, for the description of which the existing hydrodynamic models turned out to be insufficient, and the development of a more detailed theory is required.
Behind Last year Important discoveries were made in Russia in the field of chemistry, physics, medicine
PHOTO: Alexander Kozhokhin, Evening MoscowThe correspondent of "VM" found out what was invented in the vastness of our country in 2017, and how Russian science recognized all over the world.
1. Quantum Blockchain- a system of distributed data storage, which is simply impossible to hack, because it is protected using quantum cryptography methods. And the world's first quantum blockchain was launched last May by Moscow physicists from the Russian Quantum Center. According to the developers, in the future this system will become indispensable in the preparation of "smart contracts", the storage of information on intellectual property rights and other data.
“All work on the creation of a quantum blockchain was carried out within the framework of investments already received for a quantum cryptography project,” said Alexei Fedorov, the creator of the technology. “Now it is necessary to create products on its basis - to refine the platform and create blockchain applications with business logic.
2. Three-dimensional metamaterial, created by Russian scientists from St. Petersburg, was recognized as one of the main discoveries of 2017 by one of the world's most prestigious scientific journals. Its properties make it possible to control the propagation of light and electromagnetic waves without any loss of energy. The peculiarity of the metamaterial is that its surface conducts current, and the insides are insulated.
“Thanks to three-dimensional insulators, we can achieve such behavior of electromagnetic waves that was previously technically unattainable,” commented Alexander Khanikaev, professor at the City University of New York.
3. Virtual Cancer Drug Testing System was also invented in Russia. The development belongs to geneticists from the Institute of Systems Biology. The technology was demonstrated in February last year. The invention once again proves that everything ingenious is simple. A team of researchers has created a computer analogue immune system person. For all medications it reacts in exactly the same way as our body. So now experiments with methods of treatment can be carried out in completely safe conditions, and the results obtained will be much more complete and effective. The software package, according to scientists, will speed up the process of developing and testing immunotherapy.
4. Another authoritative American magazine recognized 2017 as a breakthrough detection of gravitational waves that appear during the merger of neutron stars in the galaxy NGC 4993. Despite the fact that more than seventy of the world's leading observatories have been engaged in research in this area, it is our astrophysicists from the Russian Academy of Sciences and Lomonosov Moscow State University who have the right to be called pioneers. This discovery, by the way, is a direct confirmation of the Theory of Relativity.
5. On February 8, 2017, the official inclusion in the periodic table of the 118th chemical element oganesson, named after Yuri Oganesyan, scientific director of the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Moscow Region. It was through his efforts that the discovery was made. By the way, Oganesyan is the first Russian scientist whose name was given to a chemical element during his lifetime.
– The name of the 118th element was proposed by my colleagues working in Dubna together with scientists from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory of the USA, – said Oganesyan. - After a five-month discussion, the name of the element was finally approved. And I am grateful to my colleagues for such a high assessment of my work.
