news 2018

Why is water densest at around 4 degrees Celsius' Why does ice float? Why does heavy water have a different melting point compared to normal water? Why do snowflakes have a six-fold symmetry? A collaborative study of researchers from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, the University of Göttingen and the University of Vienna and just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, provides physical insights into these questions by marrying data-driven machine learning techniques and quantum mechanics.

[ Florian Aigner "Topological materials" are very interesting for technology, but difficult to study. TU Wien (Vienna) and the University of Science and Technology in China are presenting new approaches. Electrons are not just little spheres, bouncing through a material like a rubber ball. The laws of quantum physics tell us that electrons behave like waves.

By Hermann Schranzhofer, Andreas Heinz The working group "Energy efficient buildings" at the Institute of Thermal Engineering has been working in this area for about 20 years. The scope ranges from the development of individual building technology components to the design and optimization of complex overall energy systems for the heating and cooling of buildings and entire residential areas.

By Birgit Baustädter TU Graz operates two beamlines at the 'Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste' research facility in which structures and properties of materials can be investigated at the tiniest scale. The circular route around the storage ring at the centre of the Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste research facility high in the mountains above the Italian harbour city of Trieste is 280 metres long.

[ Florian Aigner "Frequency combs" are optimally suited for chemical sensors. A revolutionary technology developed at TU Wien (Vienna) now produces these laser frequencies in a much easier and more robust way. Most lasers have only one color. All the photons it emits have exactly the same wavelength.

Innsbruck quantum physicists have constructed a diode for magnetic fields and then tested it in the laboratory. The device, developed by the research groups led by the theorist Oriol Romero-Isart and the experimental physicist Gerhard Kirchmair, could open up a number of new applications. Electric diodes are essential electronic components that conduct electricity in one direction but prevent conduction in the opposite one.

Research team at TU Graz discovers atomic-level processes which can provide new approaches to improving material properties. Aluminium alloys have unique material properties and are indispensable materials in aircraft manufacturing and space technology. With the help of high-resolution electron tomography, researchers at TU Graz have for the first time been able to decode mechanisms crucial for understanding these properties.

When quantum particles swirl about, they still obey universal laws. Different quantum systems can show the same behaviour - this has been demonstrated by two different experiments at TU Wien and Heidelberg University. Some things are so complicated that it is completely impossible to precisely calculate them.

Novel complex quantum entanglement generated in the laboratory for the first time For future technologies such as quantum computers and quantum encryption, the experimental mastery of complex quantum systems is inevitable. Scientists from the University of Vienna and the Austrian Academy of Sciences have succeeded in making another leap.

How to create nanocages, i.e., robust and stable objects with regular voids and tunable properties' Short segments of DNA molecules are perfect candidates for the controllable design of novel complex structures. Physicists from the University of Vienna, the Technical University of Vienna, the Jülich Research Center in Germany and Cornell University in the U.S.A., investigated methodologies to synthesize DNA-based dendrimers in the lab and to predict their behavior using detailed computer simulations.

An international group of researchers has achieved the world's first multi-qubit demonstration of a quantum chemistry calculation performed on a system of trapped ions, one of the leading hardware platforms in the race to develop a universal quantum computer. The research, led by Cornelius Hempel and Thomas Monz, explores a promising pathway for developing effective ways to model chemical bonds and reactions using quantum computers.

A new conjecture causes excitement in the string theory community. Timm Wrase of the Vienna University of Technology has now published much-discussed results on recent new developments. In string theory, a paradigm shift could be imminent. In June, a team of string theorists from Harvard and Caltech published a conjecture which sounded revolutionary: String theory is said to be fundamentally incompatible with our current understanding of "dark energy" - but only with "dark energy" can we explain the accelerated expansion of our current universe.

Researchers from TU Graz have described for the first time the dynamics which takes place within a trillionth of a second after photoexcitation of a single atom inside a superfluid helium nanodroplet. Additional at the end of the text In his research, Markus Koch, Associate Professor at the Institute of Experimental Physics of Graz University of Technology (TU Graz), concentrates on processes in molecules and clusters which take place on time scales of picoseconds (10 -12 seconds) and femtoseconds (10 -15 seconds).

A new, extremely promising microscopy technique called "Nanomechanical scanning absorption microscopy" has been developed at TU Wien, in which sound is measured instead of light. Individual molecules cannot be photographed - if you wish to visualise objects that are smaller than the wavelength of light, you'll need a few special tricks up your sleeve.

With the help of sophisticated experiments and calculations by the Vienna University of Technology, it has now become possible to measure the duration of the famous photoelectric effect. It was one of the crucial experiments in quantum physics: when light falls on certain materials, electrons are released from the surface.

Under certain conditions, an atom can cause other atoms to emit a flash of light. At TU Wien (Vienna), this quantum effect has now been measured. The effect has been predicted theoretically decades ago - but it is very hard to provide experimental evidence for it: "Superradiance" is the phenomenon of one atom giving off energy in the form of light and causing a large number of other atoms in its immediate vicinity to emit energy as well at the same time.

Atomically thin crystals will play an ever greater role in future - but how can their crystallisation process be controlled? A new method is now opening up new possibilities. They are among the thinnest structures on earth: "two dimensional materials" are crystals which consist of only one or a few layers of atoms.

Dyes that are also of great interest for organic electronics have recently been prepared and crystallised at TU Wien. All that is required is just water, albeit under highly unusual conditions. They not only impress due to their radiant and intense colour, they also have an important technological significance: organic dyes are a class of materials with extremely special properties.

A high-precision experiment led by TU Wien has set its sights on pinpointing the so-far hypothetical "symmetron fields" using the PF2 ultra-cold neutron source at the Institut Laue-Langevin in France. For the existence of symmetrons could provide an explanation for the mysterious dark energy. One thing is certain: there's something out there we don't yet know.

TU Wien has succeeded in shaping terahertz beams with extremely high precision. All that is needed for this is a simple plastic screen from a 3D printer. Terahertz radiation can be used for a wide variety of applications and is used today for airport security checks just as much as it is for material analysis in the lab.