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Today’s physics news: Cassini prepares to take a new Pale Blue Dot image of Earth; physicists find a ‘new and mysterious’ particle
June 19, 2013 10:06 -
Today’s physics news: Europe’s Herschel telescope switched off, as ExoMars missions set for 2016 launch
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Student teacher: Learning to teach is harder than doing three PhDs
June 17, 2013 15:06
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Dileep V. Sathe:
Dear Beth, I am glad to know that you are interested in physics. So I am telling -
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I want to state right off the bat that I come from the extreme opposite end of t -
Helen Mason:
Find out more about the Sun, solar flares, Coronal Mass Ejections, CMEs and thei
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What about gravitational waves?
A more far reaching discovery may be that of the real link between Special Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, which should also be a signpost to quantum gravity.
What about the cold fusion results from Bologna? No one belives them yet?
A Theoretical Discovery that Revolutionizes
Nanostructure and Semiconductor-based Industries
Despite the profound, long term implications of the discoveries of the Hicks Boson, an alien life, an Earth-like planet, or of more understanding of dark matter, there are indications from China that the discovery to be particularly celebrated in 2011 could well be that of the “highly accurate, ab-initio predictive calculations of the electronic, optical, and related properties of nanostructures and of semiconductors” [1] – as first published in the Journal of Condensed of Physics: Condensed Matter Vol. 10, No. 25, 5645 (June, 1998). Indeed, the implications of this discovery are immediate and very far-reaching in an era of nanotechnology and semiconductor-based industries. The discovery has led to the correct description of the electronic properties of many semiconductors and of carbon nanotubes [2-4]. The predictions made in 2001 [5], using the discovery, were experimentally verified in 2003 [6]. Similarly, the theoretical predictions of properties of cubic InN [7] in 2004 were verified experimentally in 2006 [8]. The theoretical reproduction, from ab-initio calculations, of the measured optical properties of wurtzite InN [9] provided an added indication of the potential applications of the discovery.
In 2008, the key final explanation of the discovery was made: It consists of solving the system of equations describing density functional theory (DFT) and local density approximation (LDA) as explicitly required by the very derivation of DFT and LDA [11]. The myriads of DFT and LDA calculation reports that do not solve the required system of equations, from 1964 to present, have led to the beliefs that DFT cannot describe semiconductors correctly, particularly their band gaps and all other properties that depend on the gap or the relative separations between unoccupied bands (conduction) and the upper, occupied ones (valence). This situation led to a growing plethora of schemes purporting to correct DFT or LDA or to go beyond them altogether. Most of these schemes lack predictive capacity, partly because of ad hoc parameters (some of which change from material to material) and other adjustments that they entail.
With the above discovery, theory can and does finally inform, and correctly so, the design and fabrication of nanostructure and semiconductor-based devices. The importance of the discovery stems in part from the fact that quantum effects ubiquitous and non-negligible at the nanoscale. Accurate, predictive calculations of properties of nanostructures and of semiconductors have started to be utilized in China to inform and to guide the very design and fabrication of devices in a way that liberates industries from the tedious, time-consuming, and very expensive trials-and-errors approach that was unavoidable before this discovery which is dubbed the Bagayoko, Zhao, and Williams (BZW) method.
[1]. “Ab-Initio Calculations of the Electronic Structure and Optical Properties of Ferroelectric Tetragonal BaTiO3.” D. Bagayoko, G. L. Zhao, J. D. Fan, and J. T. Wang, Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, Vol. 10, No. 25, 5645 (June, 1998).
[2]. “Local-Density-Functional Prediction of Electronic Properties of GaN, Si, C, and RuO2,” G. L. Zhao, D. Bagayoko, and T. D. Williams. Physical Review B60, 1563, 1999.
[3]. “Effective Masses of Charge Carriers in Selected Symmorphic and Nonsymmorphic Carbon
Nanotubes.” G. L. Zhao, D. Bagayoko, and L. Yang, Phys. Rev. B 69, 245416, June 2004.
[4] “Structural, Elastic, and Electronic Properties of Carbon Nanotubes Under Uniaxial Strain,” A. Pullen, G. L. Zhao, D. Bagayoko, and L. Yang. Physical Review B 71, 205410 (2005). (Mr. Pullen is a former Timbuktu Academy Scholar currently completing his Ph.D. in Physics at Caltech.).
[5]. “Predicted Electronic Properties of Cubic Silicon Nitride (c-Si3N4), D. Bagayoko and G. L. Zhao.
Physica C 364-365, Pages 261-264, 2001.
[6]. R. G. Egdell, V. E. Henrich, R. Bowdler, and T. Sekine, J. Appl. Phys 94, 6611, 2003.
[7]. “Predictions of Electronic, Structural, and Elastic Properties of Cubic InN.” Diola Bagayoko,
Lashounda Franklin, and G. L. Zhao, Journal of Applied Physics 96, 4297-4301, 2004.
[8]. J. Schörmann,D. J. As,K. Lischka, P. Schley, R. Goldhahn, S. F. Li, W. Löffler,M. Hetterich, and H. Kalt, Appl. Phys. Lett. 89, 261903, 2006.
[9]. H. Jin, G. L. Zhao, and D. Bagayoko, J. Appl. Phys 101, 033123, 2007.
[10]. Comment on “Band gap bowing and electron localization of GaXIn1-XN” [J. Appl. Phys., vol. 100, page 093717 (2006)]. D. Bagayoko, L. Franklin, G. L. Zhao, and H. Jin, J. Appl. Phys. 103, 096101 (2008).
[11]. W. Kohn and L. J. Sham, Phys. Rev. 140, A1133 (1965) and W. Kohn, Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 71, No. 5, 1253 (1999). The latter reference is the Nobel Lecture of Professor Walter Kohn, available at http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1998/kohn-lecture.pdf
Magnetic monopoles?
Thought Experiment
Any “where” or any “place” outside of TIME (time/space) by its very definition has no TIME. If one could somehow look into a TIME/SPACE dimension from a perspective of NO TIME, all events would be happening at once. Inside your NO TIME universe there is only the moment of NOW, and events observed from that perspective would take place in YOUR MOMENT OF “NOW.”
Nuts to the Big Bang
Has it occurred to anyone that an outwards, spherical in shape explosion, or the Big Bang singularity is not the most obvious model?
Would not two jets of particles (of any size and/or composition) ejected outwards in opposite directions, i.e. the streams of matter at the center of galaxies, answer a few of the questions posed, but not answered by the Big Bang Theory?
Such as: Why is the universe so uniform on a large scale? What was the origin of density fluctuations in some areas of the universe? And what caused the critical rate of expansion so the universe would not re-collapse seconds after the singularity?
We’re all too cool to believe in aliens … aren’t we … life only happened on this one miserable planet … just because there are about a trillion planets out there … unless we find one that is earth-like … then no way life could exist …
Statistically speaking … I think we would all be rushing to embrace alien life as very probable … but once again we are too cool and level headed for any such nonsense. After all we are scientist.