#quasicrystals

[materialsscienceandengineering]

80 years after the Trinity nuclear test, scientists identify new molecule-trapping crystal formed in the blast

Matter behaves strangely under extreme conditions, and often, remnants of these behaviors are left behind even when conditions return to normal. The Trinity nuclear test in 1945 left behind such remnants, and now, 80 years after the explosion, researchers have identified another unique example of what happens when various materials are heated to temperatures exceeding 1,500 °C (2,730 °F) and put under pressures tens of thousands of times atmospheric pressure. The team describes a clathrate compound never before found among nuclear-explosion products in their new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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untitled0004 / 6.3.26 / Blender, EEVEE

Human art from a human heart! 🫀 No generative AI.

[mindblowingscience]

Rare, 'rule-breaking' quasicrystal found in chunk of 'fossilized' lightning

A type of crystal that breaks the rules of ordinary crystallography has been found in a tube of melted sand from Nebraska.

A tube of "fossilized lightning" from Nebraska's Sandhills holds a rare type of quasicrystal that had previously only been found in meteorites and at atomic bomb test sites.

Quasicrystals are materials that break the traditional rules of crystallography. Before they were first reported in 1984, scientists thought materials could either be crystalline — with symmetrical, repeating patterns — or amorphous, meaning randomly arranged and disordered. In addition, scientists believed crystals could only be symmetrical a limited number of times when rotated around an axis — two, three, four or six times.

Quasicrystals break those rules. They're put together in an ordered pattern, but that pattern does repeat. They also have rotational symmetries that no ordinary crystal can achieve. A quasicrystal with icosahedral symmetry, for example, can display five-fold symmetry around six different lines of rotation.

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[venturama]

Um quasicristal nunca antes visto foi identificado em uma área de dunas em SandHills, EUA e pode ser o primeiro surgimento do gênero por meio de fenômenos naturais.

Quasicristal raro é encontrado em "relâmpago fossilizado".

O sólido foi criado através de um tubo de "relâmpago fossilizado" e quebra as regras tradicionais da categoria. O fenômeno ocorre quando um relâmpago atinge a superfície terrestre coberta por areia e encontra, entre outros minerais, o silício e o alumínio, "fossilizando" e cristalizando os elementos em formas variadas.

Até então o fenômeno de formação simétrica havia sido identificado apenas em meteoritos e em locais de teste de bombas atômicas (com padrões cristalinos ou amorfos, desarranjados e desordenados aleatoriamente).

Acima (esq.) um quasicristal icosaédrico e as formações simétricas até então conhecidas (dir.).

Contudo, Paul Steinhardt, físico teórico da Universidade de Princeton, EUA, e Luca Bindi, geocientista da Universidade de Florença, Itália, descobriram um dodecaedro cristalizado, fundido a mais de 1700°C, com uma simetria rara de 12 faces regulares, visto que as formações simétricas identificadas em meteoritos consistiam em quasicristais icosaédricos (20 faces).

[geometrymatters]

The Unexpected Fractal Signatures in Fibonacci Chains

Fang Fang *, Raymond Aschheim and Klee Irwin

Abstract

In this paper, a new fractal signature possessing the cardioid shape in the Mandelbrot set is presented in the Fourier space of a Fibonacci chain with two lengths, L and S, where L/S = f.

The corresponding pointwise dimension is 1.7. Various modifications, such as truncation from the head or tail, scrambling the orders of the sequence and changing the ratio of the L and S, are done on the Fibonacci chain. The resulting patterns in the Fourier space show that that the fractal signature is very sensitive to changes in the Fibonacci order but not to the L/S ratio.

Introduction Quasicrystals possess exotic and sometimes anomalous properties that have interested the scientific community since their discovery by Shechtman in 198. Of particular interest in this manuscript is the self similar property of quasicrystals that links them to fractal. Historically, research on the fractal aspect of quasicrystalline properties has revolved around spectral and wave function analysis. Mathematical investigatio of the geometric structure of quasicrystals is less represented in the literature than experimental work.

In this paper, a new framework for analyzing the fractal nature of quasicrystals is introduced.

Specifically, the fractal properties of a one-dimensional Fibonacci chain and its variations are studied in the complex Fourier space. The results may also be found in two and three dimensional

Full paper on mdpi.com

[didanawisgi]

“Many of the ways the golden ratio (as well as its rational form, the Fibonacci sequence) appears in nature are well-known –  a quick list of examples includes flower petals, seed heads, pine cones, shells, spiral galaxies, hurricanes, faces, DNA molecules and many more. None of this is new. It would be news to many people, however, that the golden ratio makes many precise (100% accuracy) and near-precise (accuracy of and near 99.99…%) appearances in values related to astronomical bodies that are often surprising and interesting. For example it appears, notably, in black hole physics: the golden ratio is precisely the point where a black hole’s modified heat changes from positive to negative, and it is part of the equation for the lower bound on black hole entropy. The golden ratio even relates to the loop quantum gravity parameter to black hole entropy. The three formulas respectively can be seen in this graphic:

Therefore, the golden ratio may be the fundamental constant of nature.”

[quasifractalatomicgeometry]

The Easiest Way to Understand Higher Dimensions

This video from Numberphile (which is an awesome YouTube channel for all you Math, Physics and Geometry geeks) is a brilliant way of visualising higher spatial dimensions beyond the realm of our 3D existence.

Essentially, when visualising higher dimensions, you need to consider how geometry plays into the ability to fold into higher dimensional space. For example, there are five Platonic Solids (six if you count the Utah Teapot) in 3D, which are all constructed from 2D shapes that can be arranged and folded into the 3rd dimension to form a perfect 3D shape. As you move up through higher dimensions only certain shapes have the ability to fold into higher dimensions. This is all because some shapes in the previous dimension (e.g. shapes from 4D going into 5D) are unable to make perfect shapes in the next dimension, thus rendering that shape incompatible to be represented in higher dimensions.

Any shapes whose angle between two faces exceeds 120 degrees will not be able to fold up into a higher dimension, because the shallow angle will be unable to accommodate a projection or fold into the next dimension of space.

We can see this projecting in real life by analysing Quasicrystal structures. Quasicrystals are a perfect example of higher dimensional symmetry projecting down into our 3 dimensional reality. We can visualise downward projection using our familiar 3D space. So, imagine sun shining on your 3D form. Your form will block sunlight in whichever direction the light is travelling and therefore project a shadow, which is a 2D r representation of your 3D form. It's basically the same principle when thinking of higher dimensional shapes projecting into 3D space. Therefore, structures projected into our 3D space in Quasicrystals can only be shapes/geometry that can exist in those higher dimensions.

If you're still confused, don't worry, it's a lot to get your head around trying to abstract your thinking beyond the three dimensions that you perceive, as to us, it appears that is all there is.

But alas, higher dimensions are very real, we've already done experiments in 2018 that show Quantum Hall Effects coming from the 4th Dimension (the 4th spatial dimension, not time).

So yeah, watch the video and try and wrap your head around all those extra dimensions, which are around you all the time, you just can never perceive them with your human senses!

[thebiochemistblr]

As in our last post, our ring with the same motif as the bracelet! 😁 🔬 Nobel Prize winer, Shechtman discovered the quasicrystals by analysing its diffraction patterns (as put into this model). This quasicrystal have a decagonal symmetry, implying a solid structure ordered and non periodic. Shechtman, D. et al. Phys. Rev. Lett.53, 1951 (1984) 🔬 Like our ring? 👉🏻visit our shapeways store for more #quasicrystals models! #shapeways #3dprinting #fashion #3d #design #jewelry #productdesign #jewelrydesign #creativity #3dprinted #jewellery #3dprint #fashionjewelry #3dmodel #mycreativezone #accessories #charm #shap3dbyme #nerd #sciencejewlery #science #biology #jewelry #labchic #sciencegift #chemistry #brainsandbeauty #nerdgifts