We report here experimental evidence of the reflection of a large fraction of a beam of low energy antiprotons by an aluminum wall. This derives from the analysis of a set of annihilations of antiprotons that come to rest in rarefied helium gas after hitting the end wall of the apparatus. A Monte Carlo simulation of the antiproton path in aluminum indicates that the observed reflection occurs primarily via a multiple Rutherford-style scattering on Al nuclei, at least in the energy range 1-10 keV where the phenomenon is most visible in the analyzed data. These results contradict the common belief according to which the interactions between matter and antimatter are dominated by the reciprocally destructive phenomenon of annihilation.
We observed quantum reflection of ultracold atoms from the attractive potential of a solid surface. Extremely dilute Bose-Einstein condensates of ^{23}Na, with peak density 10^{11}-10^{12}atoms/cm^3, confined in a weak gravito-magnetic trap were normally incident on a silicon surface. Reflection probabilities of up to 20 % were observed for incident velocities of 1-8 mm/s. The velocity dependence agrees qualitatively with the prediction for quantum reflection from the attractive Casimir-Polder potential. Atoms confined in a harmonic trap divided in half by a solid surface exhibited extended lifetime due to quantum reflection from the surface, implying a reflection probability above 50 %.
Deep underground in Kolar Gold Fields, in southern India, an experiment to detect proton decay had been carried out since the end of 1980. Analysis of data yielded the following results; (l) the life time of proton is about 1 x 1031 years, (2) it decays into wide spectrum of decay modes, p -> e+ + pai0, p ->anti-nutrino + K+ and so on, and (3) the life time and the distribution of decay modes are close to the predictions of SU(5) SUSY GUT. Four events representing possibly neutron oscillation are also seen.
Radiation reaction is the influence of the electromagnetic field emitted by a charged particle on the dynamics of the particle itself. Here we report experimental radiation emission spectra from ultrarelativistic positrons in silicon in a regime where both quantum and radiation-reaction effects dominate the dynamics of the positrons. We found that each positron emits multiple photons with energy comparable to its own energy, revealing the importance of quantum photon recoil. Moreover, the shape of the emission spectra indicates that photon emissions occur in a nonlinear regime where positrons absorb several quanta from the crystal field. Our theoretical analysis shows that only a full quantum theory of radiation reaction is capable of explaining the experimental results, with radiation-reaction effects arising from the recoils undergone by the positrons during multiple photon emissions. This experiment is the first fundamental test of quantum electrodynamics in a new regime where the dynamics of charged particles is determined not only by the external electromagnetic fields but also by the radiation-field generated by the charges themselves. Future experiments carried out in the same line will be able to, in principle, also shed light on the fundamental question about the structure of the electromagnetic field close to elementary charges.
Type-II nodal line semimetal (NLS) is a new quantum state hosting one-dimensional closed loops formed by the crossing of two bands which have the same sign in their slopes along the radial direction of the loop. According to the theoretical prediction, Mg3Bi2 is an ideal candidate for studying the type-II NLS by tuning its spin-orbit coupling (SOC). In this paper, high quality Mg3Bi2 films are grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). By in-situ angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), a pair of surface resonance bands (SRBs) around Gamma point is clearly seen. It shows that Mg3Bi2 films grown by MBE is Mg(1)-terminated by comparing the ARPES data with the first principles calculations results. And, the temperature dependent weak anti-localization (WAL) effect in Mg3Bi2 films is observed under low magnetic field, which shows a clear two dimensional (2D) e-e scattering characteristics by fitting with the Hikami-Larkin-Nagaoka (HLN) model. Combining with ARPES, magneto-transport measurements and the first principles calculations, this work proves that Mg3Bi2 is a semimetal with topological surface states TSSs, which paves the way for Mg3Bi2 as an ideal materials platform for studying the exotic features of type-II nodal line semimetals (NLSs) and the topological phase transition by tuning its SOC.
For most of their existence stars are fueled by the fusion of hydrogen into helium proceeding via two theoretically well understood processes, namely the $pp$ chain and the CNO cycle. Neutrinos emitted along such fusion processes in the solar core are the only direct probe of the deep interior of the star. A complete spectroscopy of neutrinos from the {it pp} chain, producing about 99% of the solar energy, has already been performed cite{bib:Nature-2018}. Here, we report the direct observation, with a high statistical significance, of neutrinos produced in the CNO cycle in the Sun. This is the first experimental evidence of this process obtained with the unprecedentedly radio-pure large-volume liquid-scintillator Borexino detector located at the underground Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy. The main difficulty of this experimental effort is to identify the excess of the few counts per day per 100 tonnes of target due to CNO neutrino interactions above the backgrounds. A novel method to constrain the rate of bi contaminating the scintillator relies on the thermal stabilisation of the detector achieved over the past 5 years. In the CNO cycle, the hydrogen fusion is catalyzed by the carbon (C) - nitrogen (N) - oxygen (O) and thus its rate, as well as the flux of emitted CNO neutrinos, directly depends on the abundance of these elements in solar core. Therefore, this result paves the way to a direct measurement of the solar metallicity by CNO neutrinos. While this result quantifies the relative contribution of the CNO fusion in the Sun to be of the order of 1%, this process is dominant in the energy production of massive stars. The occurrence of the primary mechanism for the stellar conversion of hydrogen into helium in the Universe has been proven.