Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Robert Garisto @robertgaristo.bsky.social · 3d

Congratulations to John Clarke, Michael Devoret, & John Martinis
Nobel in Physics "for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunneling & energy quantization in an electric circuit" in 3 PRLs
journals.aps.org/prl/abstract...
journals.aps.org/prl/abstract...
journals.aps.org/prl/abstract...

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Robert Garisto @robertgaristo.bsky.social · 25d

30% of PRL authors use End Matter after just a year! I’ve seen it improve many a Letter. #PeerReviewWeek

Robert Garisto @robertgaristo.bsky.social · Sep 10

I'd like to thank everyone who helped carefully & quickly vet this Letter & bring it to publication: authors, editors, other staff, and especially the referees.

(Received 13 August 2025; revised 25 August 2025; accepted 26 August 2025; published 10 September 2025)
journals.aps.org/prl/abstract...

Superradiant Neutrino Lasers from Radioactive Condensates

Robert Garisto @robertgaristo.bsky.social · Sep 10

Event GW250114, with signal-to-noise ratio of 80, shows

• mass & spin of the merged BH matches the Kerr spectrum

• horizon area of the final BH is greater than the sum of the horizon areas for the merging BHs, as predicted in 1971 by Stephen Hawking go.aps.org/4nkqZEr

Bottom of Fig. 5 of the PRL. It shows Probability Density vs Fractional Area Difference. The latter is greater than 0 at high credibility.

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Robert Garisto @robertgaristo.bsky.social · Sep 10

** STEPHEN HAWKING WAS RIGHT **

Using a very strong black-hole merger signal, the @LIGO-@ego_virgo-@KAGRA_PR Collaboration has shown the 2nd law of black hole mechanics, Hawking's area law (A_final > A_initial), to hold with high credibility.

PRL: go.aps.org/3VarXHA #open

Artist's concept of the inspiral, merger, and ringdown of a pair of black holes and resulting gravitational wave signal.

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Robert Garisto @robertgaristo.bsky.social · Sep 8

Speculative but intriguing proposal for a neutrino laser using superradiant ν emission from a Bose-Einstein condensate of radioactive ⁸³Rb
PRL: go.aps.org/3KaIvg4 #OpenAccess
PhysMag: go.aps.org/3V6Sp4U

A Bose-Einstein condensate of radioactive atoms could turn into a source of intense, coherent, and directional neutrino beams, according to a theoretical proposal.

Unveiling the Electrodynamic Nature of Spacetime Collisions

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Robert Garisto @robertgaristo.bsky.social · Sep 3

Gravitational field equations describing binary black holes can be recast in a form resembling coupled Maxwell’s equations for electrodynamics
PRL: go.aps.org/4g0K9g6 🧪⚛️

Gravitational field equations describing binary black holes can be recast in a form resembling coupled Maxwell's equations for electrodynamics.

Muon Experiment Calls It a Wrap

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Robert Garisto @robertgaristo.bsky.social · Sep 2

g-2 of the muon has been measured to 127 parts per billion,
a_𝜇 = 0. 001 165 920 705(148), agreeing with previous experimental results. Theory predictions now largely agree.
PRL: go.aps.org/45IL4OY #OpenAccess
PhysMag: go.aps.org/45KNYmo

The final results from the Muon g − 2 experiment agree with the latest predictions of the muon’s magnetic properties—letting down hopes that the particle would upset the standard model’s applecart.

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Robert Garisto @robertgaristo.bsky.social · Aug 22

Fun PRL about chainmail:

"In this Letter, we propose a rigidity theory for a type of interlocked material system: the torus knot tessellation."

go.aps.org/3HsuObE 🧪⚛️

Self-Reinforcing Cascades: A Spreading Model for Beliefs or Products of Varying Intensity or Quality

Robert Garisto @robertgaristo.bsky.social · Aug 22

Meet our new Lead Editor*: Rafael Fernandes @uofillinois.bsky.social
journals.aps.org/prl/edannoun...

*To avoid confusion, I'm not going anywhere. He will work with me as an advisor in my role as Chief Editor.

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Robert Garisto @robertgaristo.bsky.social · Aug 22

Will this idea spread? You all determine that.

Self-Reinforcing Cascades: A Spreading Model for Beliefs or Products of Varying Intensity or Quality
journals.aps.org/prl/abstract... #OpenAccess 🧪⚛️

Models of how things spread often assume that transmission mechanisms are fixed over time. However, social contagions---the spread of ideas, beliefs, innovations---can lose or gain in momentum as they...

Essay: Photonic Crystals as a Platform to Explore New Physics

Robert Garisto @robertgaristo.bsky.social · Aug 20

Next in PRL’s series of forward-looking Essays, Che Ting Chan highlights how photonic crystals can be used to study a wide variety of physical phenomena and technologies go.aps.org/3Jn8QHy #OpenAccess 🧪⚛️

In this PRL Essay, Che Ting Chan offers a forward-looking overview of photonic crystals and how their design flexibility, symmetry properties, and experimental accessibility position them as powerful ...

Robert Garisto @robertgaristo.bsky.social · Aug 8

AI is used to quickly assemble ~2000 atoms without defects. As a fun demonstration of the technique, the authors created a #CatVideo about Schrödinger's cat—each pixel is an atom.
PRL: go.aps.org/40Sx1ne
PhysMag: go.aps.org/4fyNPps

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Robert Garisto @robertgaristo.bsky.social · Aug 7

Photonic torons with 3D topology transitions and tunable spin monopoles
PRL: go.aps.org/4l9fLRH #CoolVideo 🧪⚛️

Direct Constraints on Strongly Interacting Dark Matter from the James Webb Space Telescope

Robert Garisto @robertgaristo.bsky.social · Jul 31

New twist: Using the JWST for direct* detection of dark matter

* within the detector, not via a process such as annihilation in the distance
journals.aps.org/prl/abstract... 🧪⚛️

Researchers have analyzed ``blank'' calibration images, seeking signs of dark matter moving through the telescope.

Observation of Residual Entanglement in Entanglement Purification

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Robert Garisto @robertgaristo.bsky.social · Jul 30

Observation of Residual Entanglement in Entanglement Purification
go.aps.org/4fkflqA 🧪⚛️

An experimental implementation of entanglement purification protocols with nonidentical input mixed states confirms the existence of residual entanglement in different error models.

Robert Garisto @robertgaristo.bsky.social · Jul 21

#PRLjournalclub
Please join us on Thursday, July 24th, 9p EDT for a live discussion with the authors of:
"Establishing a New Benchmark in Quantum Computational Advantage with 105-qubit Zuchongzhi 3.0 Processor"
go.aps.org/44UlYeg
Free Registration: go.aps.org/45aKKYV

Essay: Using Machine Learning for Antibiotic Discovery

Robert Garisto @robertgaristo.bsky.social · Jul 15

PRL's latest forward-looking Essay: Using Machine Learning for Antibiotic Discovery journals.aps.org/prl/abstract... 🧪⚛️

In this new forward-looking PRL Essay, C\'esar de la Fuente and James J. Collins explore the ways in which machine learning and artificial intelligence can substantially accelerate the discovery of ne...

Search for Extremely-High-Energy Neutrinos and First Constraints on the Ultrahigh-Energy Cosmic-Ray Proton Fraction with IceCube

Robert Garisto @robertgaristo.bsky.social · Jul 15

Here are PRL's metrics journals.aps.org/prl/about
•PRL is large, so not buffeted by its highest-cited papers
•A PRL is cited almost once a minute
•PRL is 60x more influential than the average journal
•PRL's Google h5 index is 50 more than the next physics journal scholar.google.com/citations?vi...)

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Robert Garisto @robertgaristo.bsky.social · Jul 15

IceCube finds no neutrinos above 10 PeV in 12.6 yrs of data
• In 2.9σ tension with the ~200 PeV KM3NeT neutrino event
• Disfavors the proton-only hypothesis for ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays
PRL: go.aps.org/40mhziS
PhysMag: go.aps.org/4lOm6mg 🧪⚛️

Failing to see any high-energy neutrinos allowed researchers to calculate an upper limit on the fraction of high-energy cosmic rays that are protons.

Origin of the Most Recently Ejected OB Runaway Star from the R136 Cluster

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Robert Garisto @robertgaristo.bsky.social · Jul 11

Explanation for runaway stars from the young R136 cluster using data from the Gaia spacecraft: interaction interaction 50K years ago of five stars in a binary & a triplet
PRL: go.aps.org/455uNlN
PhysMag: go.aps.org/4eGI2NY 🧪⚛️

A detailed analysis of a stellar cluster has led to a possible explanation for several fast-moving runaway stars around the cluster.

Observation of Fermi Acceleration with Cold Atoms

Robert Garisto @robertgaristo.bsky.social · Jul 9

Particle astrophysics, plasma physics, and cold atoms:
A mechanism for accelerating charged particles in astrophysical plasmas has been reproduced with cold atoms in an optical trap
PRL: go.aps.org/4nMBr91
Focus: go.aps.org/4lJOm9O 🧪⚛️

A mechanism for accelerating charged particles in astrophysical plasmas has been reproduced with cold atoms in an optical trap.

Observation of Strong Nonreciprocal Thermal Emission

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Robert Garisto @robertgaristo.bsky.social · Jul 1

Using a bubble chamber, world-leading constraints are placed on the absorption of hypothetical fermionic dark matter, including the first limits on spin-dependent absorptive interactions go.aps.org/4eszJVQ

Robert Garisto @robertgaristo.bsky.social · Jun 30

A metamaterial absorbs & emits very different amounts of light (at the same frequency), strongly breaking Kirchhoff’s law. Such devices could lead to more efficient thermophotovoltaic cells.
PRL: journals.aps.org/prl/abstract...
PhysMag: physics.aps.org/articles/v18... 🧪⚛️

A newly designed structure exhibits the largest-recorded emissivity--absorptivity difference, a property that could prove useful in energy-harvesting and cloaking devices.