Category: Physics in the News

On April 14, 2023, five Physics & Astronomy graduate students and one CU-ICAR graduate student conducting research at the Clemson Nanomaterials Institute (CNI) presented six papers at the annual SC EPSCoR conference in Summerville, SC. Basanta Ghimire, Evan Watkins, Nawraj Sapkota, Peshal Karki, and Janak Basel each presented their work at this year’s conference. In addition to the student presentations, Research Assistant Professor, Sriparna Bhattacharya also chaired one of the conference sessions.

The SC EPSCoR Program, joined by SC NASA EPSCoR, invited faculty, post-doctoral fellows, graduate students, undergraduate students, and STEM professionals to this year’s state conference. Conference presentations built on the themes of the last five years, promoting collaboration among South Carolina colleges and universities.

What does quantum mechanics have to do with a movie from the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Evidently, quite a bit. But do they get quantum mechanics right? Well it’s a comic book movie, so I’ll let you go watch it in lieu of ruining any plot lines. However, the movie has given one of our faculty members, Sumanta Tewari, the opportunity to explain to the public what quantum mechanics is all about. Check it out here.

Work by Clemson faculty has been featured on APOD. The Auroral Zone Upwelling Rocket Experiment (AZURE) aims to understand how the energy from the solar wind is transferred to our atmosphere and gives rise to the aurora. In the process, this experiment generates spectacular views as seen on the APOD post. You can read more about the experiment here and here. Let’s congratulate our colleagues on a successful experiment!

There has been quite a flurry of excitement about quantum mechanics in the news. First there is the paper reported in MIT Review claiming an experiment that “suggests” objective reality does not exist. Massimiliano Proietti at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh and colleagues recreated what is known as the Wigner’s Friend thought experiment in the lab. These authors suggest that, ” that one or more of the assumptions—the idea that there is a reality we can agree on, the idea that we have freedom of choice, or the idea of locality—must be wrong.”

Not to be outdone by proving that an objective reality doesn’t exist, another group of researchers claim to have used a quantum computer to reverse the arrow of time. The authors write that, “Using this algorithm on an IBM quantum computer enables us to experimentally demonstrate a backward time dynamics for an electron scattered on a two-level impurity.” If you are wondering where the semester went, perhaps we can turn back time after all. Or maybe that isn’t objectively true, it just seems like it.