11
Dec 16

Winners of the Pioneers category 2016 present their work at a major Programming event in Portugal

category: Odysseus II Project Comments Off on Winners of the Pioneers category 2016 present their work at a major Programming event in Portugal

 Carlota FERNANDES, Diogo GONCALVES and Nelson REBELO, the winners of the 2016 edition of the Odysseus II competition in the Pioneers category, accompanied by their teacher Cristina PINHO of the Sebastião e Silva Secondary School will be in the Pavilion of Knowledge (Lisbon, Portugal) in the first initiative of the Movement Portugal Code will take place in the on December 11, 2016. This presence will serve to give visibility to this amazing project. To know more about the event click here (in Portuguese).

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5
Dec 16

First Signs of Weird Quantum Property of Empty Space?

category: Neutron Stars Comments Off on First Signs of Weird Quantum Property of Empty Space?

Source: ESO Science Release eso1641

This artist’s view shows how the light coming from the surface of a strongly magnetic neutron star (left) becomes linearly polarised as it travels through the vacuum of space close to the star on its way to the observer on Earth (right). The polarisation of the observed light in the extremely strong magnetic field suggests that the empty space around the neutron star is subject to a quantum effect known as vacuum birefringence, a prediction of quantum electrodynamics (QED). This effect was predicted in the 1930s but has not been observed before. The magnetic and electric field directions of the light rays are shown by the red and blue lines. Model simulations by Roberto Taverna (University of Padua, Italy) and Denis Gonzalez Caniulef (UCL/MSSL, UK) show how these align along a preferred direction as the light passes through the region around the neutron star. As they become aligned the light becomes polarised, and this polarisation can be detected by sensitive instruments on Earth.
The polarisation of light emitted by a neutron star.
Image credit: ESO/L. Calçada

By studying the light emitted from an extraordinarily dense and strongly magnetised neutron star using ESO’s Very Large Telescope, astronomers may have found the first observational indications of a strange quantum effect, first predicted in the 1930s. The polarisation of the observed light suggests that the empty space around the neutron star is subject to a quantum effect known as vacuum birefringence.(read more)

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