Tag Archives: ultrahigh

We May Have Finally Cracked the Mystery of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays

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Artistic rendering inspired by actual images of the IceCube neutrino detectors in Antarctica.

icecube/nsf

Our focus lies in understanding the true nature of the rarest and most energetic cosmic rays, which aids in deciphering their elusive origins.

The universe continuously showers us with bursts of particles. Brian Clark, from the University of Maryland, explains that the most energetic particles are termed ultra-high energy cosmic rays, possessing more energy than particles accelerated in labs. However, they are quite rare. Researchers are still investigating their sources and the constituent particles remain largely unidentified. Clark and his team are now analyzing the composition using data from the IceCube Neutrino detector situated in Antarctica.

Previous detections of ultra-high energy cosmic rays by the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina and a telescope array in Utah have led to disagreements. Clark posits that it remains uncertain whether these rays are mainly composed of protons or if they consist of a mix of other particles. The IceCube data sheds light on this, indicating that protons account for about 70% of these rays, with the remainder composed of heavier ions like iron.

Team member Maximilian Meyer from Chiba University in Japan notes that while IceCube data complements other measurements, it primarily detects neutrinos—by-products resulting from collisions between ultra-high-energy cosmic rays and residual photons from the Big Bang. Detecting and simulating neutrinos is inherently challenging.

The characteristics of cosmic ray particles influence how the magnetic fields generated in space affect their trajectories. Thus, comprehending their structure is crucial for the challenging endeavor of tracing their origins, according to Toshihiro Fujii from Osaka Metropolitan University in Japan.

These mysterious origins have given rise to numerous astonishing enigmas, such as the Amaterasu particle cosmic rays. Interestingly, it seems to have originated from a region in space near the Milky Way that lacks clear astronomical candidates for its source.

Clark expresses optimism about solving many of these mysteries within the next decade, as new observational tools, including an upgrade to IceCube, will soon be operational. “This domain has a clear roadmap for how we can address some of these questions,” he states.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Physicists suggest that ultra-high energy cosmic rays originate from neutron star mergers

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Ultra-high energy cosmic rays are the highest energy particles in the universe, and their energy is more than one million times greater than what humans can achieve.

Professor Farrar proposes that the merger of binary neutron stars is the source of all or most ultra-high energy cosmic rays. This scenario can explain the unprecedented, mysterious range of ultra-high energy cosmic rays, as the jets of binary neutron star mergers are generated by gravity-driven dynamos and therefore are roughly the same due to the narrow range of binary neutron star masses. Image credit: Osaka Metropolitan University / L-Insight, Kyoto University / Riunosuke Takeshige.

The existence of ultra-high energy cosmic rays has been known for nearly 60 years, but astrophysicists have not been able to formulate a satisfactory explanation of the origins that explain all observations to date.

A new theory introduced by Glennnies Farrer at New York University provides a viable and testable explanation of how ultra-high energy cosmic rays are created.

“After 60 years of effort, it is possible that the origins of the mysterious highest energy particles in the universe have finally been identified,” Professor Farrar said.

“This insight provides a new tool to understand the most intense events in the universe. The two neutron stars fuse to form a black hole. This is the process responsible for creating many valuable or exotic elements, including gold, platinum, uranium, iodine, and Zenon.”

Professor Farrer proposes that ultra-high energy cosmic rays are accelerated by the turbulent magnetic runoff of the dual neutron star merger, which was ejected from the remnants of the merger, before the final black hole formation.

This process simultaneously generates powerful gravitational waves. Some have already been detected by scientists from the Ligo-Virgo collaboration.

“For the first time, this work explains two of the most mystical features of ultra-high energy cosmic rays: the harsh correlation between energy and charge, and the extraordinary energy of just a handful of very high energy events,” Professor Farrar said.

“The results of this study are two results that can provide experimental validation in future work.

(i) Very high energy cosmic rays occur as rare “R process” elements such as Xenon and Tellurium, motivating the search for such components of ultra-high energy cosmic ray data.

(ii) Very high-energy neutrinos derived from ultra-high-energy cosmic ray collisions are necessarily accompanied by gravitational waves generated by the merger of proneutron stars. ”

study It will be displayed in the journal Physical Review Letter.

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Glennys R. Farrar. 2025. Merger of dichotomous neutron stars as the source of the finest energy cosmic rays. Phys. Pastor Rett 134, 081003; doi:10.1103/physrevlett.134.081003

Source: www.sci.news

New Material with Ultra-High Hardness Competing with Diamond

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Scientists have discovered a new type of material, carbon nitride, that may rival diamond in hardness. The discovery is the result of international collaboration and decades of research, and its durability, properties such as photoluminescence and high energy density open up a wide range of industrial applications. This breakthrough, funded by an international grant and published in Advanced Materials, represents a significant advance in materials science.

Scientists have solved a decades-old mystery and uncovered a nearly indestructible material that could rival the hardest material on Earth, diamond, a study has announced.

Researchers have shown that when carbon and nitrogen precursors are exposed to extreme heat and pressure, the material known as carbon nitride becomes harder than cubic boron nitride, the second hardest material after diamond. discovered.

Unlocking the potential of carbon nitride

This breakthrough opens the door to multifunctional materials used for industrial purposes such as protective coatings for cars and spacecraft, heavy-duty cutting tools, solar panels, and photodetectors, experts say. states.

Materials researchers have been trying to unlock the potential of carbon nitride since the 1980s, when scientists first noticed its impressive properties, including high heat resistance.

However, despite more than 30 years of research and multiple synthetic attempts, no reliable results were reported.

International cooperation leads to success

Now, an international team of scientists led by researchers from the Center for Extreme State Science at the University of Edinburgh and experts from Germany’s Bayreuth University and Sweden’s Linköping University has finally achieved a breakthrough.

The researchers heated various forms of carbon-nitrogen precursors to temperatures of more than 1,500 degrees Celsius while exposing them to pressures ranging from 70 to 135 gigapascals (about 1 million times atmospheric pressure). Celsius.

To determine the atomic configuration of compounds under these conditions, intense X-ray beams were applied to the samples at three particle accelerators: the European Synchrotron Research Facility in France, the Deutsche Electronen Synchrotron in Germany, and the Advanced Photon Source. It was irradiated. In the US.

What new discoveries mean

Researchers have discovered that three carbon nitride compounds have the necessary building blocks for superhardness.

Remarkably, all three compounds retained their diamond-like quality upon return to ambient pressure and temperature conditions.

Further calculations and experiments suggest that this new material contains additional properties such as photoluminescence and a high energy density that allows it to store large amounts of energy in a small amount of mass.

The potential applications for these ultra-incompressible carbon nitrides are vast, researchers say, and could position them as the ultimate engineering material, rivaling diamond.

The research, published in Advanced Materials, was funded by the UKRI FLF scheme and a European research grant.

Dr Dominic Lanier, Future Leaders Fellow at the Institute for Condensed Matter Physics and Complex Systems, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, said: Materials researchers have been dreaming for the past 30 years. These materials provide a strong motivation to bridge the gap between high-pressure material synthesis and industrial applications. ”

Dr Florian Tribel, Assistant Professor at the Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology at Linköping University, said: “These materials are not only outstanding in their multifunctionality, but also in technically suitable phases, a situation that has been observed thousands of kilometers deep within the Earth’s interior. This collaboration opens new possibilities for this field. I strongly believe that it will open up new possibilities.”

Reference: “Synthesis of ultraincompressible and recoverable carbon nitride featuring CN4 tetrahedra”, Dominique Laniel, Florian Trybel, Andrey Aslandukov, Saiana Khandarkhaeva, Timofey Fedotenko, Yuqing ying, Nobuyoshi Miyajima, Ferenc Tasnádi, Alena By V. Ponomareva, Nityasagar Jena, Fariia Iasmin Akbar, Bjorn Winkler, Adrian Neri, Stella Chariton, Vitali Plakapenka, Victor Millman, Wolfgang Schnigg, Alexander N. Rudenko, Mikhail I. Katsnelson , Igor A. Abrikosov, Leonid Dubrobinsky, Natalia Dubrobinskaya, October 11, 2023, advanced materials.
DOI: 10.1002/adma.202308030

Source: scitechdaily.com

Unknown source of ultra-high energy extraterrestrial particle detected by telescope array

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An artist’s illustration of an extremely high-energy cosmic ray, named the “Amaterasu particle,” observed by the surface detector array of the Telescope Array experiment.Credit: Osaka Metropolitan University/L-INSIGHT, Kyoto University/Ryuunosuke Takeshige

A groundbreaking detection of extremely high-energy cosmic rays by a telescope array experiment points to a void in the universe and casts doubt on current theories about the origin and high-energy physics of cosmic rays. It raises questions about its source.

Discovery of an exceptional extraterrestrial particle

Researchers involved in the telescope array experiment announced that they had detected cosmic rays with unusual energy. This particle originates outside our galaxy and has an incredible energy level of more than 240 exaelectronvolts (EeV). Despite this remarkable discovery, its exact source remains elusive, as its direction of arrival does not point to any known celestial body.

The mystery of ultra-high energy cosmic rays

Cosmic rays are subatomic charged particles that come from space, and ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are a rare and extremely powerful type. These UHECRs have energies in excess of 1 EeV, which is about a million times the energy reached by man-made particle accelerators. These are thought to originate from the most energetic phenomena in the universe, such as black holes, gamma-ray bursts, and active galactic nuclei. However, its exact physics and acceleration mechanisms are still not fully understood. These high-energy cosmic rays occur infrequently, estimated at less than one particle per square kilometer per century, making their detection a rare event and requiring instruments with large collection areas. .

An artist’s illustration of ultra-high energy cosmic ray astronomy, which elucidates highly energetic phenomena as opposed to weak cosmic rays that are affected by electromagnetic fields.Credit: Osaka Metropolitan University/Kyoto University/Ryuunosuke Takeshige

A unique discovery of telescope arrays

The Telescope Array (TA) experiment, a large-scale surface detector array in Utah with an effective detection area of ​​700 square kilometers, successfully detected UHECR on May 27, 2021 at a breakthrough energy of approximately 244 EeV.

Given the very high energy of this particle, it should experience only a relatively small deflection by the foreground magnetic field, and therefore its direction of arrival should be expected to be more closely correlated with its source. Researchers point out that there is. However, our results show that the direction of arrival does not indicate an obvious source galaxy or other known objects that could be potential sources of UHECRs.

Instead, its direction of arrival points to a cavity in the large-scale structure of the universe, a region where galaxies are almost absent. Scientists believe this indicates a much larger magnetic deflection than predicted by galactic magnetic field models, an unidentified source in the local extragalactic neighborhood, or an incomplete understanding of the high-energy particle physics involved. This suggests that there is a possibility that

For more information on this discovery, see:

Reference: “Extremely high-energy cosmic rays observed by surface detector arrays”*†, RU Abbasi, MG Allen, R. Arimura, JW Belz, DR Bergman, SA Blake, BK Shin, IJ Buckland, BG Cheon, Tetsuya Fujii, Kazuya Fujisue, Kazuya Fujita, Masaki Fukushima, GD Furlich, ZR Gerber, N. Globus, Kazuto Hibino, Tatsuya Higuchi, Kazuya Honda, Daisho Ikeda, Hiroshi Ito, Akira Iwasaki, S. Jeong, HM Jeong, CH Jui, K. Kadota, F. Kakimoto, OE Kalashev, K. Kasahara, K. Kawata, I. Kharuk, E. Kido, SW Kim, HB Kim, JH Kim, JH Kim, I. Komae, Y. Kubota, MY Kuznetsov, KH Lee, BK Rubsandrjiev, JP Lundquist, JN Matthews, S. Nagataki, T. nakamara, A. Nakazawa, T. Nonaka, S. Ogio, M. Ono, H. Oshima, IH Park. , M. Potts, S. Pushilkov, JR Remington, DC Rodriguez, C. Lott, GI Rubtsov, D. Liu, H. Sagawa, N. Sakaki, T. Sako, N. Sakurai, H. Shin, JD Smith, P Sokolsky, BT Stokes, TS Stroman, K. Takahashi, M. Takeda, A. Takeda, Y. Tameda, S. Thomas, GB Thomson, PG Tyniakov, I. Tkachev, T. Tomita, SV Troitsky, Y. Tsunesada, S. Udo, FR Urban, T. Wong, K. Yamazaki, Y. Yuma, YV Zeser, Z. Zunder, November 23, 2023. science.
DOI: 10.1126/science.abo5095

Source: scitechdaily.com

Scientists are puzzled by the detection of ultra-high energy particles plummeting towards Earth, according to Science and Technology News.

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Astronomers have detected a rare and extremely energetic particle falling to Earth.

Scientists say the ray, named after the Japanese sun goddess Amaterasu, is one of the most energetic cosmic rays ever detected.

The Amaterasu particle has an energy of more than 240 exaelectron volts (EeV), making it the second particle in recorded history, after another ultra-high-energy cosmic ray, the Oh My God particle (320 EeV), detected in 1991.

The origins of the particles are unknown, but experts believe that only the most powerful astronomical phenomena, larger than an exploding star, can produce them.

Toshihiro Fujii, associate professor at Osaka Metropolitan University, Japansaid that when he first discovered this particle, he thought, “There must have been a mistake.”

“We’ve seen energy levels unprecedented in the last 30 years,” he said.

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The particle seems to come out of nowhere, further deepening the mystery for scientists.

John Matthews, a research professor in the University of Utah’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, explains that there was nothing in the area high-energy enough to cause this phenomenon.

It appeared to emerge from the Local Void, the empty space adjacent to the Milky Way.

“We should be able to point to where in the sky they came from,” Professor Matthews says.

“But in the case of the Oh My God particle and this new particle, even if we trace its trajectory back to its source, there is nothing high enough energy to produce it.

“That’s the mystery – what the hell is going on?”

Typically, when ultra-high-energy cosmic rays hit Earth’s atmosphere, they create a cascade of secondary particles and electromagnetic radiation known as a massive air shower.

Some charged particles in air showers travel faster than the speed of light and produce a type of electromagnetic radiation that can be detected with special equipment.

One of those instruments is the Telescope Array Observatory in Utah, which discovered the Amaterasu particle.

image:
Telescope Array Surface Detector in Utah.Photo: Associated Press

It is now hoped that this particle will pave the way for further research that will help uncover ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays and their origins.

Experts suggest this may indicate a much larger magnetic deflection than predicted, an unidentified source within the local void, or an incomplete understanding of high-energy particle physics.

Another Utah professor, John Beltz, said he was “throwing out crazy ideas” to try to explain the mystery.

“These events appear to be coming from completely different places in the sky. There is no one mysterious source,” he said. “It could be a flaw in the fabric of space-time, causing cosmic strings to collide.”

However, he added, “There is no conventional explanation.”

Source: news.sky.com