Topic Review
Broken/Astronomy
Astronomy (from Greek: ἀστρονομία) is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It applies mathematics, physics, and chemistry in an effort to explain the origin of those objects and phenomena and their evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, galaxies, and comets; the phenomena also includes supernova explosions, gamma ray bursts, quasars, blazars, pulsars, and cosmic microwave background radiation. More generally, all phenomena that originate outside Earth's atmosphere are within the purview of astronomy. A branch of astronomy called cosmology is the study of the Universe as a whole. Astronomy is one of the oldest of the natural sciences. The early civilizations in recorded history, such as the Babylonians, Greeks, Indians, Egyptians, Nubians, Iranians, Chinese, Maya, and many ancient indigenous peoples of the Americas, performed methodical observations of the night sky. Historically, astronomy has included disciplines as diverse as astrometry, celestial navigation, observational astronomy, and the making of calendars, but professional astronomy is now often considered to be synonymous with astrophysics. Professional astronomy is split into observational and theoretical branches. Observational astronomy is focused on acquiring data from observations of astronomical objects, which is then analyzed using basic principles of physics. Theoretical astronomy is oriented toward the development of computer or analytical models to describe astronomical objects and phenomena. The two fields complement each other, with theoretical astronomy seeking to explain observational results and observations being used to confirm theoretical results. Astronomy is one of the few sciences in which amateurs still play an active role, especially in the discovery and observation of transient events. Amateur astronomers have made and contributed to many important astronomical discoveries, such as finding new comets.
  • 673
  • 22 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Broken/Asymptotic Safety in Quantum Gravity
Asymptotic safety (sometimes also referred to as nonperturbative renormalizability) is a concept in quantum field theory which aims at finding a consistent and predictive quantum theory of the gravitational field. Its key ingredient is a nontrivial fixed point of the theory's renormalization group flow which controls the behavior of the coupling constants in the ultraviolet (UV) regime and renders physical quantities safe from divergences. Although originally proposed by Steven Weinberg to find a theory of quantum gravity, the idea of a nontrivial fixed point providing a possible UV completion can be applied also to other field theories, in particular to perturbatively nonrenormalizable ones. In this respect, it is similar to quantum triviality. The essence of asymptotic safety is the observation that nontrivial renormalization group fixed points can be used to generalize the procedure of perturbative renormalization. In an asymptotically safe theory the couplings do not need to be small or tend to zero in the high energy limit but rather tend to finite values: they approach a nontrivial UV fixed point. The running of the coupling constants, i.e. their scale dependence described by the renormalization group (RG), is thus special in its UV limit in the sense that all their dimensionless combinations remain finite. This suffices to avoid unphysical divergences, e.g. in scattering amplitudes. The requirement of a UV fixed point restricts the form of the bare action and the values of the bare coupling constants, which become predictions of the asymptotic safety program rather than inputs. As for gravity, the standard procedure of perturbative renormalization fails since Newton's constant, the relevant expansion parameter, has negative mass dimension rendering general relativity perturbatively nonrenormalizable. This has driven the search for nonperturbative frameworks describing quantum gravity, including asymptotic safety which — in contrast to other approaches—is characterized by its use of quantum field theory methods, without depending on perturbative techniques, however. At the present time, there is accumulating evidence for a fixed point suitable for asymptotic safety, while a rigorous proof of its existence is still lacking.
  • 277
  • 19 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Bulk and Single Crystal Growth Progress of FBS
The new iron-based superconductor (FBS) has generated enormous interest in this direction, and many research activities are currently going on with various kinds of FBS. FBS was discovered in 2008 through F doped LaFeAsO, which crystallizes with a tetragonal layered ZrCuSiAs structure, and after that, many compounds have been discovered, most of which display superconductivity through suitable doping. FBS became the second high-Tc-superconducting family after cuprate superconductors and has been the subject of extensive research into their physical nature and application potential.
  • 649
  • 14 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Bya (Unit)
A year is the orbital period of a planetary body, for example, the Earth, moving in its orbit around the Sun. Due to the Earth's axial tilt, the course of a year sees the passing of the seasons, marked by change in weather, the hours of daylight, and, consequently, vegetation and soil fertility. In temperate and subpolar regions around the planet, four seasons are generally recognized: spring, summer, autumn and winter. In tropical and subtropical regions, several geographical sectors do not present defined seasons; but in the seasonal tropics, the annual wet and dry seasons are recognized and tracked. A calendar year is an approximation of the number of days of the Earth's orbital period, as counted in a given calendar. The Gregorian calendar, or modern calendar, presents its calendar year to be either a common year of 365 days or a leap year of 366 days, as do the Julian calendars; see below. For the Gregorian calendar, the average length of the calendar year (the mean year) across the complete leap cycle of 400 years is 365.2425 days. The ISO standard ISO 80000-3, Annex C, supports the symbol a (for Latin annus) to represent a year of either 365 or 366 days. In English, the abbreviations y and yr are commonly used. In astronomy, the Julian year is a unit of time; it is defined as 365.25 days of exactly 86,400 seconds (SI base unit), totalling exactly 31,557,600 seconds in the Julian astronomical year. The word year is also used for periods loosely associated with, but not identical to, the calendar or astronomical year, such as the seasonal year, the fiscal year, the academic year, etc. Similarly, year can mean the orbital period of any planet; for example, a Martian year and a Venusian year are examples of the time a planet takes to transit one complete orbit. The term can also be used in reference to any long period or cycle, such as the Great Year.
  • 752
  • 01 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Caelum
Caelum, recognized by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), is a faint and small constellation in the southern celestial hemisphere. It was introduced by the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in the 18th century, representing a chisel, part of the sculptor's tools, in his constellation sketches.
  • 237
  • 29 Feb 2024
Topic Review
Calculation of the transition temperature of superconducting elements
Using the Roeser-Huber formalism, we establish a non-trivial relation between the crystal structure and the transition temperature, Tc, to the superconducting state. By means of this relation, we can calculate Tc for practically all superconducting elements quite accurately within a small error margin. It is shown that this works well also for polymorphic elements and elements under pressure. Furthermore, the Roeser-Huber formalism implies that all calculated data fall on a common line with the slope m1 = h2/(2πkB) = 5.061 × 10−45 m2 kg K, when plotting log(Σ((2x)-2n1-1ML-1))-1 versus 1/Tc, which can be employed as a test when predicting Tc of unknown superconductors.
  • 966
  • 21 Jun 2023
Topic Review
Camelopardalis
Camelopardalis, recognized by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), is a constellation located in the northern celestial hemisphere. Its name is derived from the Latin word for "giraffe," reflecting its association with this graceful and majestic creature.
  • 322
  • 29 Feb 2024
Topic Review
Cancer (Constellation)
Cancer, recognized as one of the twelve zodiac constellations, is situated in the northern celestial hemisphere. Named after the Latin word for crab, Cancer is associated with the Greek myth of the crab sent by Hera to distract Hercules during his battle with the Hydra.
  • 309
  • 29 Feb 2024
Topic Review
Cancer Metastasis from Physical Perspective
Tumor diseases become a huge problem when they embark on a path that advances to malignancy, such as the process of metastasis. Cancer metastasis has been thoroughly investigated from a biological perspective in the past, whereas it has still been less explored from a physical perspective. Until now, the intraluminal pathway of cancer metastasis has received the most attention, while the interaction of cancer cells with macrophages has received little attention. Apart from the biochemical characteristics, tumor treatments also rely on the tumor microenvironment, which is recognized to be immunosuppressive and, as has recently been found, mechanically stimulates cancer cells and thus alters their functions.
  • 211
  • 09 Feb 2024
Topic Review
Canes Venatici
Canes Venatici, Latin for "hunting dogs," is a small northern constellation situated between Ursa Major and Boötes. It was introduced by Johannes Hevelius in the 17th century, representing the hunting dogs of Boötes, the Herdsman. The constellation is notable for hosting several interesting celestial objects, including the famous Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) and the Sunflower Galaxy (M63).
  • 207
  • 29 Feb 2024
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