We have obtained new opportunities in observing the conditions inside the conduit of an active volcano by applying a Power Effective Assemblable Muon telescope (PEAM). Cosmic-ray muon radiography (CMRG) can measure the density structure inside the volcano with higher resolution than that available with a conventional seismic analysis. The experimental result shows the first direct observation of a degassing process in the conduit, and proposes a new, unknown problem in the field of volcanology. Here we describe the principle of CMRG, the fundamental physics in magma degassing and convection, and the present status of muon radiography of volcanoes.
The rapid development of research on optical frequency measurement based on femtosecond combs has stimulated the field of frequency metrology, especially research on high-performance optical frequency standards. The International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM) has recommended four optical and one microwave frequency standards as "the secondary representations of the second" for future redefinition of the second. We introduce the history of the definition of the secondary, the development of the femtosecond frequency combs, and the progress of recent optical clocks.
While photons are the fastest and robust carrier of quantum information, they cannot be stopped. Quantum memory for photons is thus needed for implementing complicated tasks of quantum information processing (QIP). Here, we successfully stored parametric down conversion photons, which are widely utilized in QIP, in the cold atomic ensembles and retrieved them with electromagnetically induce transparency. Preservation of nonclassicality was clearly confirmed for the retrieved light fields.
AdS/CFT correspondence, which explains RHIC data theoretically, is a powerful tool to understand the dynamics of strongly coupled gauge theories. The correspondence has been applied to condensed matter physics toward understanding strongly correlated electron materials. Quite recently, a gravitational model of a superconductor was constructed via AdS/CFT correspondence. I review how characteristic phenomena such as the energy gap in superconductor is derived from this model.
Ice crystal growth is strongly inhibited by the adsorption of antifreeze glycoprotein on ice/water interfaces. Growth experiments were carried out to clarify the adsorption states of AFGP and growth prohibition mechanism. A new model for the AFGP adsorption "two-steps reversible adsorption prohibition" was proposed to understand the experimental results.
Lattice regularization and numerical simulation based on lattice are powerful nonpertubative tools for quantum field theory. While lattice regularization for supersymmetric theories has been regarded very difficult, recent developments in the formulation now allow numerical simulations. In this article, we explain how the difficulties of lattice supersymmetry is resolved. We also illustrate some results from our recent simulations.