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POPSAt Ten, Dark Energy "Most Profound Problem" in Physics A decade later, a new suite of experiments may pin down the properties of dark energy and solve what some experts are calling "the most profound problem" in modern physics. "This is game-changing science," Michael Turner, a cosmologist at the University of Chicago, told a packed auditorium during the Decade of Dark Energy Symposium held last week at STScI. "We've gone from establishing the phenomenon to probing the underlying cause," he said. "We're not anywhere near the point where it's time to give dark energy a rest."
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POPSHigh-flying Electrons May Provide New Test Of Quantum Theory "The experiment, outlined in a new paper,* would not only mean more accurate identifications of elements in everything from stars to environmental pollutants but also could put the modern theory of the atom to the most stringent tests yet." "NIST researchers Joseph Tan and colleagues hope to implement this approach experimentally in their Electron Beam Ion Trap Facility. The idea would be to strip an atom of all its electrons, cool it and inject a single electron in a high-flying orbit. Then the researchers would use a sensitive measurement device known as a frequency comb to measure the light absorbed by this Rydberg atom. The result could be an ultraprecise frequency measurement that would yield an improved value for the Rydberg constant. Such a measurement would be so sensitive that it could reveal anomalies in quantum electrodynamics, the modern theory of the atom."
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POPSSupermassive black hole says sayonara "In their study, Stefanie Komossa and her colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany, examined the spectrum of light from a quasar, a brilliant beacon with the unwieldy name SDSS J092712.65+294344.0. Quasars, which lie at the center of galaxies, are fueled by black holes. An analysis of the quasar spectrum reveals a pattern of light emission that matches that expected from a supermassive black hole shot out of the galaxy’s center, the team reports in the May 10 Astrophysical Journal Letters."
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