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2021: Year in Review
12/15/2021

2021: Year in Review

Kathy Svitil
A look back at the Institute news of 2021.
A collage of science images
Transforming Materials with Light
12/08/2021

Transforming Materials with Light

Whitney Clavin
Researchers have figured out a way to use lasers to alter materials without the creation of damaging heat.
A strong laser is seen illuminating a material in a low-temperature chamber.
New Quantum Measurement Center Launched by Sherman Fairchild Foundation Grant
12/06/2021

New Quantum Measurement Center Launched by Sherman Fairchild Foundation Grant

Ann Motrunich
A new grant enables construction of laboratories at Caltech that will integrate gravitational-wave science and quantum precision measurement.
Tabletop optics in a laboratory that steer laser light as it is used to measure vibrations in a glass disk that serves as an experimental stand-in for a mirror in the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). The experiment aims to improve LIGO mirror coatings. New coatings c twan reduce background noise in LIGO's mirrors by a factor of two, thereby increasing the volume of space that LIGO can probe by a factor of eight.
How Long Does a Neutron Live?
10/13/2021

How Long Does a Neutron Live?

Whitney Clavin
Physicists use "bottle" method to make most precise measurement yet of a neutron's lifetime.
Artistic image of a bottle with neutrons.
Extending LIGO's Reach Into the Cosmos
09/29/2021

Extending LIGO's Reach Into the Cosmos

Whitney Clavin
New mirror coatings will increase the volume of space LIGO can probe in its next run.
Pinkish mirror coating on a test disk.
New Spin on Planet Formation Mysteries
07/29/2021

New Spin on Planet Formation Mysteries

A new Keck Observatory instrument can determine the spin rates of exoplanets.
Artwork of the HR 8799 system showing a white star and four red planets.
A White Dwarf Living on the Edge
06/30/2021

A White Dwarf Living on the Edge

Whitney Clavin
The Zwicky Transient Facility has identified an extremely magnetized and rapidly rotating ultra-massive white dwarf.
Artwork of a white dwarf in comparison to Earth's moon.
LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA finds elusive mergers of black holes with neutron stars
06/29/2021

LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA finds elusive mergers of black holes with neutron stars

The gravitational network confirms first known collision of a black hole and neutron star.
Artwork of a neutron star–black hole merger
CIBER-2 Takes Its First Flight
06/07/2021

CIBER-2 Takes Its First Flight

The instrument to measure a cosmic infrared glow will take multiple short flights aboard a sounding rocket.
Richard Feder-Staehle, Chi Nguyen, and Rick Evavold of the CIBER-2 team working on the CIBER-2 payload.
Magnetism Drives Metals to Insulators in New Experiment
06/04/2021

Magnetism Drives Metals to Insulators in New Experiment

Whitney Clavin
New study provides tools to probe novel spintronic devices.
An illustration of domains divided by a domain wall.
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