Latest news with #SQUID
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
A Magnet Floating in a Superconductive Chamber Could Change Physics Forever
Here's what you'll learn when you read this story: Dark matter is thought to make up a little over a quarter of the universe, but it has never actually been detected. Researchers repurposed an experiment originally intended to detect gravity, which involved a floating magnet in a superconductive trap, predicting that gravity exerted by dark matter would interact with the magnet. The experiment is now being upgraded from a gravity detector to a dark matter detector, so expect version 2.0 soon. What we think of as 'the unknown' isn't always some hypothetical wormhole or alternate dimension. A lot of times, the 'unknown' is something real, but whose existence is impossible to prove even with the most advanced technology. We're talking about dark matter, which remains infamously elusive. From huge, hypersensitive underground detectors to the search for bizarre signatures in comic rays, it seems we have tried everything within our current capacity to directly observe even one particle of dark matter. But we do know a few things about this mystery matter—namely, that it exerts gravity, and therefore (supposedly) has mass. When gravitational forces exerted by bodies in space are beyond what is expected, dark matter is the explanation (but never the evidence). Maybe, however, dark matter could make its presence known another way. Astroparticle physicist Christopher Tunnell, of Rice University in Houston, saw an alternative method of detecting ultralight dark matter by repurposing what was originally a precise method of measuring gravity. This method uses a magnet floating in a chamber made of superconductive material. When cooled enough to transition to a state in which they can conduct electricity without resistance, superconductors expel magnetic fields and therefore repel magnets. This explains why a magnet in the middle of a superconductive trap will float right in the middle. It is being repelled in every direction, and there is nowhere else it can possibly go. Tunnell and his research team predicted that dark matter could be detected this way because of its quantum nature, meaning that it is thought to behave as both a particle and a wave. Dark matter can only interact with baryonic (normal) matter through gravity. If any dark matter came close to the levitating magnet—whether it behaved like a particle meandering around or a wave flowing through—the force of gravity it exerted should give the magnet an almost negligible shake. A quantum device known as a SQUID (Superconducting Quantum Interference Device) was used to detect any shifting of magnetic fields that would happen if gravity from an unseen source interacted with the magnet. 'We detect the motion of the particle using a superconducting pick-up loop at the top of the trap,' Tunnell said in a study recently published in Physical Review Letters. 'The motion of the magnet induces a change in flux in the loop, causing a superconducting current to run in the circuit.' Spoiler alert: dark matter has not been detected with this method so far. But it has potential. Tunnell plans to update the experiment and optimize it specifically for detecting dark matter instead of gravity. Some of the changes that could make it more sensitive include maximizing sensitivity to mass while reducing noise, using a heavier magnet, reducing vibrations in the trap, and upgrading the SQUID so it can more accurately detect changes in the magnetic field. This new proposed experiment will be named POLONAISE, after a Polish dance Tunnell and a colleague were doing to keep warm at an outdoor climate protest. 'Our result highlights the promise of this quantum sensing technology in the hunt for dark matter,' he said. 'We hope that it fuels initiatives in advancing experimental designs of magnetically levitated setups for astroparticle physics.' You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
West Australian
05-05-2025
- Business
- West Australian
Venus locks in $52,500 grant for Murchison copper drilling program
Venus Metals subsidiary Redscope Enterprises has locked in a $52,500 WA Government Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS) co-funded grant towards drilling costs to test its Pincher copper-zinc project, which is part of the company's Youanmi base metals project in Western Australia's Murchison region. The grant for the maximum amount applied for of $52,500 will cover 50 per cent of the co-funded diamond drilling costs and up to $5000 in drill rig mobilisation costs. Venus plans to plunge the drill bit into a previous reverse circulation hole drilled to a depth of 150 metres as a pre-collar. A follow-up diamond tail will test a conductor of 5000 siemens at 400m depth. Drilling costs are reduced because the pre-collar hole tested the first 150m of a much deeper hole. The company's diamond drilling program is expected to begin in June. Venus will take the opportunity to obtain core samples for metallurgical testwork planned on its zinc mineralisation identified within two holes and will complete downhole electromagnetic surveying. The EIS initiative was launched in 2009 to encourage exploration in WA and to trigger private sector resource exploration for new mineral and energy discoveries. Venus conducted ground gravity surveys on its ground across the prospective northern extension of its Pincher North Dome base metal find, which is considered to be a volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) system. The company encountered several gravity anomalies in the system, which contains copper, zinc and lead mineralisation. Subsequent moving loop electromagnetic survey lines were flown across the gravity anomalies using a Jessy Deeps SQUID sensor at low base frequency to achieve a maximum investigative depth. The SQUID sensor is an ultra-sensitive receiver for ground transient electromagnetic measurements with supposed unrivalled sensitivity. It can record data up to 10 times longer or three times deeper than conventional coil receivers. Management says a broad late-time response was evident on one line and modelled at 400m depth as a flat-lying, high-conductance plate at 5000 siemens, a unit of conductive measurement to determine how well a material allows electricity to flow through it. It believes the modelled plate is significant and is champing at the bit to test it in the upcoming co-funded drill program. Previous solid results at Pincher include gold hits at the Linda Gossan prospect, where the company has a 50 per cent interest through a joint venture in the regional gold rights, intersecting 9m at 15.6 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from surface, including a 3m hit of 35.2g/t from 1m. Venus is in the enviable position of holding 55 million shares in gold explorer Rox Resources. Those shares are currently valued at near $17M. Venus last week revealed a high-tech collaboration with leading science research organisation CSIRO to ramp up the hunt for more gold in WA's richly endowed Sandstone region. The company has inked a deal through the CSIRO's Kick-Start program, securing a $47,426 voucher to fund a six-month research project to home in on gold and copper alteration zones at the Bellchambers deposit, within its Sandstone gold deposit. Venus plans to use a combination of hyperspectral satellite imagery, downhole scanning and handheld spectrometers to rigorously map the deposit's mineral system with highly detailed 3D accuracy. Sitting 23 kilometres southwest of the historic Sandstone gold-rush township and 70km from Rox Resources' Youanmi gold mine, Bellchambers has a modest but promising gold resource of 722,000 tonnes grading 1.31g/t gold for 30,500 ounces. The company is conducting a 2000m reverse circulation drilling campaign that will plunge 26 holes into the prospective ground to test for gold outside the known resource and around the Bellchambers deposit. All the reverse circulation chips and core samples will feed directly into the CSIRO's project to refine its advanced minerals mapping. The CSIRO collaboration comprises next-generation hyperspectral satellite sensors that can scan the Earth's surface in unprecedented detail, creating mineral maps that dovetail with subsurface data from Venus' drilling program. By integrating HyLogger-3TM downhole imagery and surface spectrometry, the project aims to generate a holistic view of the mineralising system, potentially kicking-up new gold-copper zones across the 125 square kilometre tenement. Wisely, Venus has targeted the available government funding to help it pursue a coveted potential, new copper-zinc deposit in WA. Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact:
