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Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Spinons can travel solo, scientists confirm in quantum magnetism breakthrough
In a breakthrough that could transform the understanding of quantum magnetism, scientists have shown that a spinon, which was once believed to exist only in pairs, can travel alone. The discovery further enhances understanding of magnetism and could help pave the way for future technologies, including quantum computers and advanced magnetic materials. Spinons are quasiparticles that arise as quantum disturbances behaving like individual particles within magnetic systems. They emerge in low-dimensional quantum materials, particularly in one-dimensional (1D) spin chains, where electrons are arranged in a linear sequence and interact through their quantum spins. In such systems, flipping a single spin doesn't just affect one electron; it creates a ripple across the chain. This ripple can act as a discrete entity, carrying a spin value of ½. That entity is the spinon. Today, magnets are central to a wide range of technologies, including computer memory, speakers, electric motors, and medical imaging devices. The idea of spinons dates back to the early 1980s, when physicists Ludwig Faddeev and Leon Takhtajan proposed that a spin-1 excitation in certain quantum models could fractionalize into two spin-½ excitations. These were named spinons, which are considered exotic because they behave as if an indivisible quantum of spin has split into two. However, all experimental observations until now had detected spinons only in pairs, reinforcing the belief that they could not exist independently. That assumption has now been challenged. In a new theoretical study, physicists from the University of Warsaw and the University of British Columbia showed how to isolate a lone spinon using a well-known model of quantum magnetism, the Heisenberg spin-½ chain. By adding a single spin to this system, either in its ground state or in a simplified model known as the valence-bond solid (VBS), they demonstrated how a single unpaired spin can move freely through the spin chain, acting as a solitary spinon. What makes the finding more impactful is that it's not purely theoretical. A recent experiment led by C. Zhao and published in Nature Materials observed spin-½ excitations in nanographene-based antiferromagnetic chains that reflect the lone spinon behavior described in the study. This experimental validation confirms that the phenomenon can occur in real quantum materials, not just in simulations. Understanding how a single spinon can exist has far-reaching implications. Spinons are closely linked to quantum entanglement, a core principle of quantum computing and quantum information science. They're also involved in exotic states of matter like high-temperature superconductors and quantum spin liquids. By gaining better control over spinon dynamics, scientists could open new pathways for developing advanced magnetic materials and potentially qubit systems for quantum computers. 'Our research not only deepens our knowledge of magnets, but can also have far-reaching consequences in other areas of physics and technology', said Prof Krzysztof Wohlfeld of the Faculty of Physics at the University of study was published in the journal Physical Review Letters.
India Gazette
08-07-2025
- General
- India Gazette
Tibetan diaspora in Poland celebrate Dalai Lama's 90th birthday with cultural tribute in Warsaw
Warsaw [Poland], July 8 (ANI): The Tibetan diaspora in Poland commemorated the 90th birthday of the 14th Dalai Lama with a peaceful gathering and cultural programme held at Hoza 69, Warsaw, on July 6, according to reports from the Tibetan Association in Poland. The event, attended by around 15-20 people, including five to seven Polish nationals, began with a collective prayer for the long life of the Dalai Lama. Participants offered traditional white scarves, or khatas, as a symbol of respect and spiritual purity. The ceremony reflected the enduring reverence held for the Tibetan spiritual leader among the diaspora and supporters of Tibetan culture and Buddhism in Poland. Organised by the Tibetan Association in Poland, the celebration also featured the introduction of a book titled Voice for the Voiceless, authored by the Dalai Lama. The book was presented by Paulina Koniuch, a Polish student from the University of Warsaw, who emphasised the global relevance of the Dalai Lama's message of compassion and non-violence. A short documentary about Dolma Ling Nunnery in Dharamshala, India, was screened during the event, offering attendees a glimpse into the lives of Tibetan Buddhist nuns and the preservation of monastic education in exile. The term 'Dalai Lama' means 'Ocean of Wisdom' in Mongolian. In Tibetan Buddhism, Dalai Lamas are regarded as incarnations of Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion. After the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1949, the 14th Dalai Lama assumed full political authority in 1950 but was forced to flee to India in 1959 following the failed Tibetan uprising. Since then, he has lived in exile in Dharamshala, continuing to promote peace, interfaith dialogue, and the preservation of Tibetan identity. Celebrations marking his birthday were held not only in Poland but across Tibetan communities worldwide. The Tibetan diaspora expressed hope that the spiritual and cultural legacy of the Dalai Lama will continue through a future recognised reincarnation. (ANI)
Daily Mirror
23-06-2025
- General
- Daily Mirror
Eerie discovery at Egyptian burial site with chilling messages on coffins
�A burial site in Egypt has been uncovered by archaeologists which is believed to have been used by people from working and middle class backgrounds instead of the elite When people think about Egyptian discoveries, they often conjure images of pharaohs and high-ranking officials, their tombs lavishly decorated with precious artefacts, ornate coffins, and detailed cartouches revealing the identity of the interred. However, a recent find consisting of dozens of 2,000 year old burials near the Saqqara necropolis has shed light on the lives of ordinary folk from that era. As reported by Science Alert, it's believed this discovery represents the final resting place of individuals from working and middle-class backgrounds, rather than the societal elite. During a September 2018 excavation, Polish Egyptologist Kamil Kuraszkiewicz from the University of Warsaw and his team were working in an area situated between the world's oldest pyramid, Djoser, and a location known as the dry moat. The dry moat is essentially a regular ditch, approximately 20 metres deep and 40 metres wide, encircling the 4,600 year old structure, reports the Mirror US. "Most of the mummies we discovered last season were very modest," Kuraszkiewicz told the Polish Press Agency. "They were only subjected to basic embalming treatments, wrapped in bandages and placed directly in pits dug in the sand." This significant find follows decades of work by Polish archaeologists in Egypt, who have been instrumental in excavating the expansive "city of the dead" to uncover its hidden secrets. The Saqqara necropolis, the ancient burial ground for the capital of Memphis and various Royal families over thousands of years, offers a unique window into the funerary customs of ancient Egyptians. However, the site poses significant challenges to archaeologists, including numerous bodies not interred in tombs, deteriorating wooden coffins, and centuries of looting. Despite the site's degradation, one coffin still bore enough decoration to discern some details. A necklace was depicted on the lid of the casket, positioned where the mummy's neck would have been. Further down, imitation hieroglyphs were found, but to the scientists' disappointment, they did not reveal the identity of the casket's occupant. These symbols were deemed utterly nonsensical, providing little insight. Nevertheless, this discovery provides a haunting glimpse into how someone was significant enough to warrant an attempt at replicating elements of the elite's burial process. Despite these burials being simpler and more modest compared to the opulent tombs discovered in other parts of the necropolis, the mummies reveal that common folk shared similar funerary customs with the affluent. It seems artists attempted to emulate the burial rites of the wealthy, even if they didn't fully comprehend them, in an effort to bestow dignity upon the deceased. Kuraszkiewicz shed light on the discovery, stating: "Apparently, the artisan who painted it could not read, and perhaps he tried to recreate something that he had seen before. In any case, some of the painted shapes are not hieroglyphic signs, and the whole does not form a coherent text." The Warsaw-based researcher described the coffin as "Beautifully clumsy", revealing two depictions of Anubis - the jackal-headed guardian of the Egyptian underworld - at its foot. What caught their attention was the unusual blue colour used for both figures, as typically, these mythological creatures are depicted in black. The team couldn't pinpoint why the artist chose blue, speculating that they might have been unfamiliar with artistic norms or it could be a nod to the deity's precious hair. Unfortunately, there wasn't much else to go on, as the coffin had been plundered long ago and the burial mask, which would have offered additional crucial clues, was missing.
Budapest Times
07-06-2025
- Science
- Budapest Times
One starry, starry night
How little I know about space and space agencies is embarrassing. Mind you, this lack of knowledge hasn't kept me awake at night and until recently, I'd kept my ignorance well hidden. Even from myself. I had no clue how much I didn't know until Łukasz Wyrzykowski gently corrected me. [For those of you who like to know how to pronounce the seemingly unpronounceable, say: Woo-cash Vi-zhi-kov-ski.] NASA isn't the North American Space Agency as I had thought but the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. I had been trying to make the point that while I knew something about NASA, I had never even heard of ESA – the European Space Agency. Seems I knew little about anything. I know Gaia as the personification of Earth – Mother Earth; but in Wyrzykowski's world, Gaia is the name of ESA's star surveying spacecraft that was up there, somewhere, for more than 10 years: From 27 July 2014 to 15 January 2025, Gaia has made more than three trillion observations of two billion stars and other objects throughout our Milky Way galaxy and beyond, mapping their motions, luminosity, temperature and composition. While the Hubble Space Telescope takes cool photos, the Gaia spacecraft was all about video. Hours and hours and hours of it. Tons of data that is still being sifted through and examined for anomalies, like the odd family of stars desperate to leave home or a mysterious planet and a brown dwarf or an infant exoplanet that's only 20 million years old. It's a completely new world for me. Wyrzykowski was speaking to a small group on retreat in the Tatras. He opened his presentation with an image of Vincent van Gogh's painting The Starry Night. Completed in June 1889 it shows van Gogh not just as an artist but also as an observer of the sky. It's now possible to go back to 1889 and see the same sky van Gogh saw through his bedroom window in the asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. What he painted wasn't an image of the sky on one night, though, but rather a collage of images of the same sky over time. Being far from the madding crowd, with nowhere to go but up or down, there was plenty of time to chat with the other speakers. My session on grateful living had gone down well and I was eager to learn more of what the others had to say. In particular, I was curious to know how (and why) anyone would become an astronomer. As a young lad in what he refers to as 'an obscure town in Poland' Wyrzykowski was curious about what was going on up there in the sky. Encouraged by his father to follow his dream, he attended the University of Warsaw where he completed a Master's in Astronomy and a PhD in Astrophysics. Stints at the universities of Tel Aviv, Manchester, and Cambridge rounded off his education and he is now a Full Professor at the Astronomical Observatory at the University of Warsaw and is also on staff at the Astrophysics Division of Poland's National Centre for Nuclear Research (NCBJ), also in Warsaw. Each year, some 30 students enrol in the undergraduate programme. Five years later, four might walk away with a Master's. It's intense, but with a 4:1 pupil-teacher ratio, it amounts to individual tutoring. Whether those four end up in astronomy is partly down to them and partly to circumstance – being in the right place at the right time to avail of the right opportunity. Whatever happens, they're well-qualified for jobs in areas like statistics, programming, and physics. The lucky ones, ones like Wyrzykowski, get to do what they love, to live their passion. This pleased me. My friend's son is really into history – his is a tangible interest, evident by the way he speaks about what's going on in the world today and how what is happening has been shaped by what went on 80 or 100 years ago. He lights up when he talks about obscure wars, pivotal elections, and historical events that shaped our world. But he's going to study engineering, he said, taking a pragmatic approach to employability. No, I screamed in my head. Don't do it. Study what you love and everything else will come right. Wyrzykowski's mission is similar. So many young people in obscure towns and villages around the world don't know there is a path out there that will take them to the stars – literally. So many companies don't realise the untapped potential that space offers. Yes, an economic return on investment exists – the geo return. Space serves many economic and societal uses beyond spaceflight itself, including weather forecasting, food, agriculture, disaster mitigation and management, climate change, energy, transport, insurance, and security…the applications of space are seemingly endless. The cynical part of me wondered why the world is spending millions on space when we seem hellbent on destroying the planet we're living on. The curious side of me won out. There is so much we don't know. Earlier this year, Wyrzykowski founded the European Astronomical Society of Small Telescopes (EASST) – a non-profit organisation dedicated to bringing astronomy closer to people. He wants to focus our attention on the sky and inspire us to 'explore the universe and actively participate in global research'. Each one of us. You. Me. Small companies. Big companies. Start-ups. Schools. Universities. Anyone and everyone. As Wyrzykowski says, imagination is the only limit. How many of us look up at night? With so much light pollution, can we even see what's out there? Are we losing (or have we already lost) our ability to be in awe of something? Anything? High up in the Tatras, Wyrzykowski watched the night sky, hoping for a clear view. When it was dark enough, he brought us outside and with a laser, gave us a tour of the stars. He talked about the Milky Way, stars, planets, satellites, and black holes. He spoke in terms of light years. He answered our questions. He gave us the science, but more importantly, he reignited my ability to wonder. Later, Wyrzykowski mentioned the AX-4 mission to the International Space Station, which, at the time of writing, is set to launch on 10 June. The crew of four led by commander Peggy Whitson from Axiom and piloted by Shubhanshu Shukla of the Indian Space Research Organisation, includes two mission specialists: Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski, a European Space Agency project astronaut from Poland, and Tibor Kapu representing the Hungarian Space Office. [Kapu was one of four Hungarians selected from 247 applicants for the Hungarian to Orbit (HUNOR) Astronaut Program. And now, his day has come.] A week ago, this news wouldn't have been news. Not for me. I might have scanned a headline and moved on. I had no real sense of what astronomers do or even why space is something to get excited about. Now, I'm ready to get a bar of Stühmer Moment space chocolate, check out the programme at the Svábhegyi Csillagvizsgáló [am gutted to hear that the Budapest Planetarium is closed permanently], follow the AX-4 crew on their 14-day mission, and be ready to book my train to Warsaw when Wyrzykowski's van Gogh exhibition opens. Instead of dusting around the telescope upstairs, I'll be looking through it, looking to the starry, starry sky for inspiration and to recapture the feeling of awe birthed in the Tatras, fuelled by the passion of a professional who is dedicated to his craft and determined to convert the world to his cause. Mary Murphy is a freelance writer, speaker, copyeditor, blogger, and communications trainer. Read more at | |
Daily Mirror
29-05-2025
- Science
- Daily Mirror
'Disturbing' 2,000-year-old dolls discovered on top of pyramid by archaeologists
The discovery of the Bolinas figurines, a type of puppet-like artefact, could provide new insights into an ancient society A pair of intrepid archaeologists from the University of Warsaw made a groundbreaking discovery at the San Isidro site in El Salvador - five ancient clay figurines perched atop a dilapidated pyramid. This find, detailed in the journal Antiquity, features rare Bolinas artefacts, akin to puppet-like curios, which are incredibly scarce and were previously unearthed at the early Maya Tak'alik Ab'aj in Guatemala. The figurines date back over two millennia and offer tantalising prospects for shedding light on an olden Mesoamerican civilisation. Carbon-14 analyses confirmed that these pieces hail from between 410 and 380 B.C.E. These recently unearthed treasures, with mouths agape and ranging from mere inches to a sizeable foot in height, possess an interesting design. The larger ones even have removable heads with apertures suited for strings at their necks and craniums. Theorising upon their usage, scientists surmise that inserting string through these openings would allow the figures to be animated, much like rudimentary marionettes, reports the Express. Jan Szymaski revealed his impressions of these historical icons in an interview with ScienceLink's Lizzie Wade, saying: "They are clay actors. When you hold them in your hand, sometimes they even look creepy because of their vivid expressions. "Very little is known about the identities and ethnolinguistic affiliations of the creators of ancient settlements that predate the arrival of Europeans in the early 16th century. This gets worse the further back in time we look. This finding is only the second such a group found in situ, and the first to feature a male figure." El Salvador's pre-Columbian past remains shrouded in mystery, especially when contrasted with its Central American neighbours. The country's dense population coupled with countless years of volcanic activity have obscured and even destroyed many potential archaeological sites. It has been found that artefacts resembling those at San Isidro were also uncovered in parts of Guatemala and other areas in El Salvador as well as Nicaragua, Panama, and Costa Rica; this indicates a possible network between the inhabitants of San Isidro and distant cultures. The site of San Isidro consists mainly of clay formations, built by an unknown civilisation, and has not yet been fully investigated. Researchers stumbled upon the Bolinas figurines amid the remains at the peak of the site's biggest pyramid-shaped structure. Researchers are now hypothesising that these versatile Bolinas figurines could've had a significant role in "rituals that would involve recreation of some actual events or mythical events," as explained by Szymaski in a conversation with Benjamin Taub from IFL Science. Szymaski added: "This discovery contradicts the prevailing notion about El Salvador's cultural backwardness or isolation in ancient times, "It reveals the existence of vibrant and far-reaching communities capable of exchanging ideas with remarkably distant places."
