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News
Graphene p-n junction is unveiled (Jun 29)
http://physicsweb.org/article/news/11/6/19
Physicists in the US are the first to have created a locally-gated p-n
junction in graphene, which is a 2D sheet of carbon just one atom thick.
The charge density in the device is controlled by applying voltages to
electrodes that are attached to the surface of the material. The
fabrication technique could open the door to practical graphene
transistors that could be much smaller and more efficient that
todayâEUR(TM)s silicon-based devices (Sciencexpress DOI:
10.1126/science.1144657).
"Cosmic forgetfulness" shrouds time before the Big Bang (Jul 1)
http://physicsweb.org/article/news/11/7/1
Not all physicists think time started with the Big Bang -- it could have
just been a transition from a collapsing to an expanding universe. But
now Martin Bojowald of Pennsylvania State University in the US has
studied a model of "loop quantum gravity" to show that even if such a
pre-Big Bang universe did exist, it would be impossible to grasp certain
aspects of it (Nature Physics advance online publication).
Astrophysicists draw up wish list (Jun 29)
http://physicsweb.org/article/news/11/6/20
Astroparticle physicists in Europe have identified six key challenges
that they face and the new facilities that they need to meet their
research aims. Their plans for the next ten years have been outlined in
The Astroparticle Physics Roadmap Phase 1 published by ApPEC and ASPERA,
which are consortia of national agencies that pay for astroparticle
physics research in Europe.
Icy stars reveal the secret of their patterns (Jul 2)
http://physicsweb.org/article/news/11/7/2
Some physicists gaze at the stars in the sky, but Victor Tsai of Harvard
University and John Wettlaufer of Yale University in the US gaze at the
stars on frozen lakes. Such star patterns often surround holes in ice,
but the origin of their shape has always been a mystery. Now, by
modelling their formation, the researchers have discovered that the
shape is governed by the properties of the snow that covers the ice
(Phys. Rev. E 75 066105).
Axions ruled out by PVLAS (Jul 2)
http://physicsweb.org/article/news/11/7/3
The existence of a hypothetical particle called the axion has been put
into further doubt now that the team that first claimed its discovery
has failed to reproduce their results. Physicists working on the PVLAS
experiment in Italy say that the tiny rotation in the polarization of
laser light that they reported last year does not support the existence
of axions, but rather is an artefact related to how the experiment had
been performed (arXiv:0706.3419v1).
Scuffed spheres rise to the top (Jul 4)
http://physicsweb.org/article/news/11/7/4
Shake a can of mixed nuts and you will often find that all the largest
nuts âEUR" usually Brazil nuts âEUR" move to the top of the can, despite
being the heaviest items in the container. But in other situations,
where a container has objects of different sizes and densities, the
opposite can happen and the biggest items move to the bottom. Now,
however, physicists in the US have found that by shaking a can with a
mixture of particles for a long enough time, you can cause a sharp
transition between the two effects (arXiv:0706.3390v1).
Magic cluster rules for hydrogen storage (Jul 5)
http://physicsweb.org/article/news/11/7/5
It has long been known that when two different kinds of atoms clump
together, some of the resulting clusters are more stable than others.
Physicists in the US and Germany have now devised a rule that predicts
the ratios of aluminium and hydrogen atoms that will form such stable
clusters. They also say that the clusters could be packed together to
form a new type of material that can store hydrogen for use as an energy
source (Phys. Rev. Lett. 98 256802).
Copper rods "swarm" like fish (Jul 5)
http://physicsweb.org/article/news/11/7/6
"Swarming" is often seen in the animal kingdom, for example when schools
of fish rapidly change direction to evade a predator. Now physicists in
India and the US have made collections of tiny copper rods swarm by
vibrating them between two plates. The researchers claim that their
experiment shows how simple small-scale interactions can give rise to
large-scale changes in behaviour and could provide a better
understanding of swarming in living organisms (Science 317 105).
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Photon Counting with Silicon APD
Hamamatsu Photonics introduce the new multi-pixel photon counter (MPPC), the S10362-11 series, for photon counting applications. The device features brand new technology utilizing a Geiger-mode avalanche photodiode structure for ultra-low-level light detection and is supplied in a compact 5 mm package.
url: http://sales.hamamatsu.com/en/products/solid-state-division/si-photodiode-series/mppc.php
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RECRUITMENT OPPORTUNITIES
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Science & Technology Facilities Council
NEW POSTS IN THE ISIS DETECTOR GROUP
http://physicsweb.org/jobs/employer/373135333707151C001607011601
SensL
ANALOGUE ENGINEER
http://physicsweb.org/jobs/jobdetail/7586
University of California, Riverside
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH POSITION – INTERNATIONAL MUON IONIZATION COOLING EXPERIMENT (MICE)
http://physicsweb.org/jobs/jobdetail/7595
University of California, Riverside
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH POSITION – NEUTRINO FACTORY AND MUON COLLIDER SIMULATION FELLOW
http://physicsweb.org/jobs/jobdetail/7575
University of California at Berkeley
POSTDOCTORAL POSITION IN NEUTRINO PHYSICS
http://physicsweb.org/jobs/jobdetail/7584
Université de Montréal
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR EXPERIMENTAL PLASMA PHYSICS
http://physicsweb.org/jobs/jobdetail/7544
Oerlikon Components
Talented Individuals Required
http://physicsweb.org/jobs/jobdetail/7481
Your PhysicsWeb Newsalert has now changed to a weekly product so you can get the full run down of the weeks news in one go with a list of current vacancies around the globe.
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