Physical Review Letters

By adapting technology used for gamma-ray astronomy, researchers has found X-ray transitions previously thought to have been unpolarized according to atomic physics, are in fact highly polarized.

Researchers at The University of Tokyo show how including the effects of the surrounding water during the aggregation of charged particles can improve the accuracy of simulations, which may help elucidate biological self-assembly

A research group of Professor Makoto Tsubota and Specially Appointed Assistant Professor Satoshi Yui, both from the Graduate School of Science and the Nambu Yoichiro Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics, Osaka Metropolitan University, in cooperation with their colleagues from Florida State University and Keio University, revealed that there are laws of vortex diffusion in superfluid helium-4 (He II) at extremely low temperatures, near absolute zero (−273°C). In this study, by conducting a systematic numerical study and comparing the results with experimental observations, the research group found that quantum vortices cause "superdiffusion" over short periods of time and "normal diffusion" over longer periods of time, similar to the movement of pollen in still water.

An international team led by Osaka University used experimental measurements and theoretical modeling to better understand the shape formed by the protons and neutrons in the atomic nucleus of calcium-40. They found that destructive interference affects the mixture of elongated and spherical states. This research may help shed light on the reasons for the relative stability of atomic nuclei and how they are formed.

Osaka Metropolitan University scientists detected, for the first time, collective resonance at remarkably high and broad frequency bands. In a magnetic superstructure called a chiral spin soliton lattice (CSL), they found that resonance could occur at such frequencies with small changes in magnetic field strength. The findings suggest CSL-hosting chiral helimagnets as promising materials for future communication technologies.

Particle accelerators have helped researcher to draw new leading limits on the existence of magnetic monopoles from the collisions of energetic cosmic rays bombarding the Earth’s atmosphere.

Researchers at The University of Tokyo used a hybrid of Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulations to predict the self-assembly of charged Janus particles, which may lead to biomimetic nanostructures that can assemble like proteins

Scientists developed a procedure to reproduce the double peak feature of x-ray emission spectroscopy (XES) spectra in liquid water.

A team of researchers including Kavli IPMU's Valeri Vardanyan and Misao Sasaki have theorized that in addition to the gravitational waves originating from vacuum fluctuations during inflation, a large amount of gravitational waves can be sourced by the quantum vacuum fluctuations of additional fields during inflation.

If researchers can detect Q-balls in gravitational waves, it could help explain why more matter than anti-matter was left over after the Big Bang.

Researchers at The University of Tokyo use numerical simulations to model the process called devitrification during which glasses crystallize, which may help improve the long-term stability of glassy materials, like pharmaceuticals and smartphone screens.

Using only pen and paper, Kavli IPMU PI Hitoshi Murayama has found theoretical proof of a decades-old claim that Quantum Chromo Dynamics leads to light-weight pions.

Chirality, the lack of symmetry in matter, is an important issue in a myriad of scientific fields, ranging from high-energy physics to biology. Using magnets, a collaborative research group have furthered our understanding of how chiral information is transferred and memorized.

The University of Tokyo researchers use information theory to show that the accepted biochemical model of bacterial chemical sensing is mathematically equivalent to the optimal solution, with implications for microbiology and robotics

Tohoku University researchers have, for the first time, developed the technology for the nanosecond operation of the spintronics-based probabilistic bit (p-bit) - dubbed the poor man's quantum bit (q-bit).

What is the origin of black holes and how is that question connected with another mystery, the nature of dark matter? Dark matter comprises the majority of matter in the Universe, but its nature remains unknown.

An international team of scientists led by the Galician Institute of High Energy Physics and the University of Aveiro, including an undergraduate from the Department of Physics at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), has proposed the collision of two exotic compact objects known as boson stars as an alternative explanation for the origin of the gravitational wave signal GW190521.

In their paper, the team described a novel scenario for PBH formation and showed that the black holes from the “multiverse” scenario can be found using the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) of the 8.2m Subaru Telescope, a gigantic digital camera—the management of which Kavli IPMU has played a crucial role—near the 4,200 meter summit of Mt. Mauna Kea in Hawaii.

Osaka City University scientists have developed mathematical formulas to describe the current and fluctuations of strongly correlated electrons in quantum dots. Their theoretical predictions could soon be tested experimentally.

Yuto Minami at KEK and Eiichiro Komatsu at Kavli IPMU developed a new method to calibrate detectors to the light from dust in our Galaxy, thereby describing a new physics, with 99.2 percent accuracy, that may show parity symmetry breaking.

The quantum chromodynamics (QCD) phase transition in core-collapse supernovae has been examined for the first time, using state-of-the-art multi-dimensional supernova simulations and unique imprints of such a phase transition on the emitted gravitational-wave and neutrino signals have been detected. The findings have been reported in a paper jointly authored by Professor Ming-chung Chu and Dr. Lap-Ming Lin from The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), Dr. Shuai Zha (CUHK PhD 2019) and Professor Evan O’Connor from Stockholm University, and Professor Sean M. Couch from Michigan State University. It was recently published and selected as Editors’ Suggestion in the Physical Review Letters, a top physics journal.

Two Kavli IPMU string theorists and a condensed-matter theorist have found a quantum mechanical anomaly in the duality between the electric field and the magnetic field, which could play a role in removing an inconsistency in string theory.

Gravitational waves could contain evidence to prove that neutrino particles reshuffled matter and anti-matter, explains a new study.

A recent study, affiliated with South Korea's Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) has laid a solid foundation for further study of dispersive interaction by verifiying a new mechanism for matter-wave diffraction.

Using holography, researchers have found that when gravity is combined with quantum mechanics, symmetry is not possible.

One of the most unknown phenomena in modern physics is gravity. Its measurement and laws remain somewhat of an enigma. Researchers at Tohoku University have revealed important information about a new aspect of the nature of gravity by probing the smallest mass-scale.

Researchers in France and Japan have demonstrated a theoretical type of unconventional superconductivity in a uranium-based material, according to a study published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

New study finds dark matter may scatter against each other only when they hit the right energy, which could explain why galaxies from the smallest to the biggest have the shapes they do.