Fractal-like honeycombs take the strain

Honeycomb lattices and fractal structures are found in a range of biological materials. Now, scientists in the US, the UK and France have combined the two types of pattern to create a strong and lightweight material that could be used in a range of applications, from aerospace to medicine. While the structures were made with centimetre-sized unit cells, the team believes that similar materials could be made on the nanoscale using carbon nanotubes. 

Under pressure

Hexagonal honeycomb patterns often appear in nature, where strength, rigidity and lightness are called for. The shells of armadillos, the beaks of birds and, of course, the wax cells built by bees are just a few examples of nature's honeycombs. Engineers have long known about the honeycomb's strength and low density, and the structure has been used in applications as varied as satellite components and the scaffolding for growing new heart tissue.
Now, Ashkan Vaziri and colleagues at Northeastern University, along with researchers at the University of Oxford and the Université de Lyon, have shown that fractal-like structures based on honeycombs are even more resistant to deformation than conventional honeycomb materials. 

Hierarchical structures

Fractals – in which the same patterns appear on different length scales – are also found in a variety of naturally occurring materials, including the buds on certain types of broccoli, pinecone seeds and nautilus shells. "Hierarchical structures are ubiquitous in nature and can be observed at many different scales in organic materials and biological systems," explains Vaziri. Honeycombs on their own are not fractals because their characteristic shape only occurs on one length scale. However, a hierarchical fractal structure can be built upon a hexagonal honeycomb by successively replacing each vertex of three edges with another, smaller hexagon (see the image below).
Vaziri and collaborators looked at how the mechanical properties of these hierarchical hexagonal honeycombs varied as a function of how many times the fractal order was repeated. The team used both MATLAB computer models and experimental testing to study the structural performance of the hierarchical hexagonal honeycombs. Specifically, the researchers looked at the elements of the structure that can undergo stretching, shear and bending. "Our goal is to develop novel, hierarchical structures that are far superior to the classical cellular structures in terms of their mechanical response," Vaziri told physicsworld.com.

Reaching a limit

The computer simulations focused on the elastic modulus of each structure, which measures a material's ability to resist deformation. To make a meaningful comparison between structures comprising different numbers of hexagonal hierarchies, the team adjusted the thickness of each structure to ensure that they all had the same density.
"Generally, increasing the density of the cellular structure while preserving its topology improves the mechanical properties of the structure," Vaziri explains. "To solely investigate the effect of hierarchical order on the mechanical properties of the hierarchical structure, we preserve the relative density while increasing thehierarchical order." The simulations predict that the elastic moduli of the structures increase with hierarchical order, up to a certain threshold. Furthermore, the calculations suggest that materials with desirable elastic moduli can be manufactured without having to resort to extremely high orders of hierarchy. This is good news from a practical point of view, because it would be difficult to achieve high orders of hierarchy using today's 3D printing technologies.

Making it real

The next step for Vaziri's team was to test its findings in the lab. The researchers used a 3D printer to manufacture extruded polymer shells of five honeycomb structures, each with a successively higher order of hierarchy. The thickness of the honeycomb walls was maintained at 2 mm because of limitations of the 3D printing process. To maintain a constant density, the size of the unit cells was adjusted instead of the thickness. 

Honeycombs within honeycombs: unit cells made by a 3D printer

The hexagonal edge lengths of the extruded structures ranged from 0.6 to 2.2 cm. The researchers tested the compressive response and elastic modulus of each structure, recording how each structure's resistance to deformation varied as a function of its hierarchy. The results revealed that, as predicted by the simulations, structures with a higher order of hierarchy had increasingly larger elastic moduli, to a certain limit.
Even though Vaziri and his team focused on unit cells that were on the centimetre length scale, they are confident that their findings can be applied to smaller scales. "The unit cells of the hierarchical honeycombs can be built with single- or multi-walled carbon nanotubes," Vaziri claims. Deformation-resistant structures assembled from carbon nanotubes would have widespread applications in biological engineering and materials science.
The structures are described in Physical Review Letters.

About the author

Katherine Kornei is a science writer based in the US

Source:http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2014/sep/10/fractal-like-honeycombs-take-the-strain

 

Dark Energy, Dark Matter

Astrophysics
Focus area: Dark Energy, Dark matter.

In the early 1990's, one thing was fairly certain about the expansion of the Universe. It might have enough energy density to stop its expansion and recollapse, it might have so little energy density that it would never stop expanding, but gravity was certain to slow the expansion as time went on. Granted, the slowing had not been observed, but, theoretically, the Universe had to slow. The Universe is full of matter and the attractive force of gravity pulls all matter together. Then came 1998 and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations of very distant supernovae that showed that, a long time ago, the Universe was actually expanding more slowly than it is today. So the expansion of the Universe has not been slowing due to gravity, as everyone thought, it has been accelerating. No one expected this, no one knew how to explain it. But something was causing it.

Eventually theorists came up with three sorts of explanations. Maybe it was a result of a long-discarded version of Einstein's theory of gravity, one that contained what was called a "cosmological constant." Maybe there was some strange kind of energy-fluid that filled space. Maybe there is something wrong with Einstein's theory of gravity and a new theory could include some kind of field that creates this cosmic acceleration. Theorists still don't know what the correct explanation is, but they have given the solution a name. It is called dark energy.

What Is Dark Energy?

More is unknown than is known. We know how much dark energy there is because we know how it affects the Universe's expansion. Other than that, it is a complete mystery. But it is an important mystery. It turns out that roughly 68% of the Universe is dark energy. Dark matter makes up about 27%. The rest - everything on Earth, everything ever observed with all of our instruments, all normal matter - adds up to less than 5% of the Universe. Come to think of it, maybe it shouldn't be called "normal" matter at all, since it is such a small fraction of the Universe.

Universe Dark Energy-1 Expanding Universe

This diagram reveals changes in the rate of expansion since the universe's birth 15 billion years ago. The more shallow the curve, the faster the rate of expansion. The curve changes noticeably about 7.5 billion years ago, when objects in the universe began flying apart as a faster rate. Astronomers theorize that the faster expansion rate is due to a mysterious, dark force that is pulling galaxies apart.

NASA/STSci/Ann Feild

One explanation for dark energy is that it is a property of space. Albert Einstein was the first person to realize that empty space is not nothing. Space has amazing properties, many of which are just beginning to be understood. The first property that Einstein discovered is that it is possible for more space to come into existence. Then one version of Einstein's gravity theory, the version that contains acosmological constant, makes a second prediction: "empty space" can possess its own energy. Because this energy is a property of space itself, it would not be diluted as space expands. As more space comes into existence, more of this energy-of-space would appear. As a result, this form of energy would cause the Universe to expand faster and faster. Unfortunately, no one understands why the cosmological constant should even be there, much less why it would have exactly the right value to cause the observed acceleration of the Universe. 

Another explanation for how space acquires energy comes from the quantum theory of matter. In this theory, "empty space" is actually full of temporary ("virtual") particles that continually form and then disappear. But when physicists tried to calculate how much energy this would give empty space, the answer came out wrong - wrong by a lot. The number came out 10¹²⁰ times too big. That's a 1 with 120 zeros after it. It's hard to get an answer that bad. So the mystery continues.

Another explanation for dark energy is that it is a new kind of dynamical energy fluid or field, something that fills all of space but something whose effect on the expansion of the Universe is the opposite of that of matter and normal energy. Some theorists have named this "quintessence," after the fifth element of the Greek philosophers. But, if quintessence is the answer, we still don't know what it is like, what it interacts with, or why it exists. So the mystery continues.

Dark Matter Core Defies Explanation

A last possibility is that Einstein's theory of gravity is not correct. That would not only affect the expansion of the Universe, but it would also affect the way that normal matter in galaxies and clusters of galaxies behaved. This fact would provide a way to decide if the solution to the dark energy problem is a new gravity theory or not: we could observe how galaxies come together in clusters. But if it does turn out that a new theory of gravity is needed, what kind of theory would it be? How could it correctly describe the motion of the bodies in the Solar System, as Einstein's theory is known to do, and still give us the different prediction for the Universe that we need? There are candidate theories, but none are compelling. So the mystery continues.

The thing that is needed to decide between dark energy possibilities - a property of space, a new dynamic fluid, or a new theory of gravity - is more data, better data.

What Is Dark Matter?

By fitting a theoretical model of the composition of the Universe to the combined set of cosmological observations, scientists have come up with the composition that we described above, ~68% dark energy, ~27% dark matter, ~5% normal matter. What is dark matter?

Abell 2744: Pandora's Cluster Revealed

We are much more certain what dark matter is not than we are what it is. First, it is dark, meaning that it is not in the form of stars and planets that we see. Observations show that there is far too little visible matter in the Universe to make up the 27% required by the observations. Second, it is not in the form of dark clouds of normal matter, matter made up of particles called baryons. We know this because we would be able to detect baryonic clouds by their absorption of radiation passing through them. Third, dark matter is not antimatter, because we do not see the unique gamma rays that are produced when antimatter annihilates with matter. Finally, we can rule out large galaxy-sized black holes on the basis of how many gravitational lenses we see. High concentrations of matter bend light passing near them from objects further away, but we do not see enough lensing events to suggest that such objects to make up the required 25% dark matter contribution.

However, at this point, there are still a few dark matter possibilities that are viable. Baryonic matter could still make up the dark matter if it were all tied up in brown dwarfs or in small, dense chunks of heavy elements. These possibilities are known as massive compact halo objects, or "MACHOs". But the most common view is that dark matter is not baryonic at all, but that it is made up of other, more exotic particles like axions or WIMPS (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles)

Recent Discoveries

April 3, 2014	Fermi Data Tantalize with New Clues to Dark Matter
November 30, 2012	'Dark Core' May Not be so Dark After All
April 12, 2012	DLSCL J0916.2+2951: Discovery of the Musket Ball Cluster
April 2, 2012	Fermi Observations of Dwarf Galaxies Provide New Insights on Dark Matter
March 14, 2012	Mapping the Dark Matter in Abell 383
March 2, 2012	Dark Matter Core Defies Explanation
January 10, 2012	El Gordo
January 10, 2012	Farthest Protocluster of Galaxies Ever Seen

Source: http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-is-dark-energy/

A Galaxy That Doesn’t Look Far, Far Away

H.O./Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

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A clear, detailed image of the Messier 33 galaxy has been captured by theV.L.T. Survey Telescope in Chile. Messier 33, the second-closest large galaxy to the Milky Way, is packed with bright star clusters and clouds of gas and dust. 

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/12/science/a-galaxy-that-doesn-t-look-far-far-away.html?ref=space&_r=0

Electrons in magnetic field reveal surprises

The best glimpse yet of electrons moving in a magnetic field has revealed that the particles' behaviour differs strongly from what is predicted by classical physics but is consistent with quantum-mechanical theory. Instead of rotating uniformly at a particular frequency, an international team of researchers has found that electrons in a magnetic field are capable of rotating at three different frequencies, depending on their quantum properties.

Cyclonic movements

Little is known about the behaviour of electrons in a magnetic field and scientists are keen to improve our understanding of the physical processes that are involved. Free-electron Landau states are a form of quantized state adopted by electrons moving through a magnetic field. All charged particles interact with electromagnetic fields via the Lorentz force. This interaction causes electrons in a magnetic field to move in a corkscrew pattern. "Landau states can be envisaged as vortices occurring naturally in the presence of magnetic fields. The magnetic field plays the same role for electrons as the Earth's rotation plays for the creation of cyclones, but on a much smaller scale," says Peter Schattschneider of the Institute of Solid State Physics at the Vienna University of Technology, who is part of an international team that includes researchers from France, Japan and the US that has now devised a way to reconstruct these states.

According to classical physics, electrons should rotate about the magnetic-field direction with a single frequency, called the "cyclotron frequency". But in their experiments, the researchers found that, contrary to what was predicted, they were able to induce a multitude of rotation frequencies in their moving electrons, namely the cyclotron frequency, zero frequency and the Larmor frequency (which is half the cyclotron frequency).

Vortex beams

The team did not observe the electrons' Landau states directly. Rather, the researchers used a transmission electron microscope to create so-called electron vortex beams, which can be shaped so that their rotational behaviours closely resemble Landau states. "In an electron vortex beam, electrons are swirling around a common centre similar to air molecules in a tornado. Typically, this bunch of whirling electrons is also moving along its axis of rotation, thereby moving along a spiral path," says Schattschneider.

The team used the microscope's focusing lenses to reconfigure the electron vortex beams so that these matched the size of the Landau states. Schattschneider compares the task of determining the rotation of the electrons to figuring out how many times a thin wire is wound around a rod. "When looking at the wire directly, it is extremely difficult to count the number of windings. But when it is stretched along the direction of the rod, the wire takes the form of a well-spaced spiral, for which it is easy to count the revolutions," he says. "This is precisely what we did with the Landau states: we 'elongated' them to vortex beams. That way we could measure [their frequencies] with very high accuracy."

"This is a very exciting finding, and it will contribute to a better understanding of the fundamental quantum features of electrons in magnetic fields," says Franco Nori of the RIKEN Centre for Emergent Matter Science in Japan, who led the research. In addition to showing that the rotational dynamics of the electrons are more complex and intriguing than was once believed, the new findings could have practical implications for technology, according to the researchers.

Jo Verbeeck of the University of Antwerpen in Belgium believes that the quantum effects of electrons revealed in the new study are "thought-provoking". "What is interesting now is that the authors succeeded in taking these Landau states into free space, away from the material in which they normally manifest themselves, in order to better study the peculiarity of their motion," says Verbeeck, who was not involved in the study.

"We hope that this will lead to new insights and a better understanding of the delicate interaction between magnetic fields and matter, which might one day give rise to new and better technologies such as sensors and memmory devices," Schattschneider says.

The research is published in Nature Communications.

About the author

Ker Than is a science writer based in San Francisco, US. He tweets at @kerthan

SOURCE: Physicsworld.com

NASA's Chandra Observatory searches for trigger of nearby supernova

Source: NASA

Summary: 

New data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory offer a glimpse into the environment of a star before it exploded earlier this year, and insight into what triggered one of the closest supernovas witnessed in decades.

The data gathered on the Jan. 21 explosion, a Type Ia supernova, allowed scientists to rule out one possible cause. These supernovas may be triggered when a white dwarf takes on too much mass from its companion star, immersing it in a cloud of gas that produces a significant source of X-rays after the explosion.

Astronomers used NASA's Swift and Chandra telescopes to search the nearby Messier 82 galaxy, the location of the explosion, for such an X-ray source. However, no source was found, revealing the region around the site of the supernova is relatively devoid of material.

"While it may sound a bit odd, we actually learned a great deal about this supernova by detecting absolutely nothing," said Raffaella Margutti of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who led the study. "Now we can essentially rule out that the explosion was caused by a white dwarf continuously pulling material from a companion star."

This supernova, SN 2014J, could instead have been caused by the merger of two white dwarf stars, an event that should result in little or no X-rays after the explosion. Further observations could rule out or confirm other possible triggers.

"Being able to eliminate one of the main possible explanations for what caused SN 2014J to explode is a big step," said CfA's Atish Kamble, a co-author of the study. "The next step is to narrow things down even further."

Type Ia supernovas are used as cosmic distance-markers, and have played a key role in the discovery of the universe's accelerated expansion. At about 12 million light-years from Earth, SN 2014J and its host galaxy are close -- from a cosmic perspective. This offers scientists a chance to observe details that would be too hard to detect in more distant supernovas.

"It's crucial that we understand exactly how these stars explode because so much is riding on our observations of them for cosmology," said co-author Jerod Parrent also from CfA. "SN 2014J might be a chance of a lifetime to study one of these supernovas in detail as it happens."

The study of SN 2014J is similar to a study led by Margutti about another supernova, SN 2011fe, in the nearby galaxy M101.

This study was conducted by CfA's Supernova Forensics Team, led by Alicia Soderberg. The results were published online and in the July 20 print issue of The Astrophysical Journal.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, controls Chandra's science and flight operations.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/08/140816153437.htm

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