PHYSICAL REVIEW FOCUS 28 April 2006 http://focus.aps.org/
David Ehrenstein, American Physical Society
Introductions to the Focus stories of the past week;
Visit http://focus.aps.org for the complete stories.
GIVING LIGHT A NEW TWIST
Physicists have known for a century that a light beam can carry
angular as well as linear momentum, but about 15 years ago they
learned that this rotation comes in two distinct forms. In the
28 April PRL, researchers describe an optical device that cleanly
converts one kind of angular momentum into the other, a
demonstration that may ultimately find applications in
communication and computing.
(L. Marrucci et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 163905)
Link to the paper: http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v96/e163905
COMPLETE Focus story at http://focus.aps.org/story/v17/st15
Also from PRL (stories from AIP's Physics News Update):
HAVE PARTICLE MASSES CHANGED SINCE THE EARLY UNIVERSE?
Story at http://www.aip.org/pnu/2006/split/774-1.html
(E. Reinhold et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 151101)
NUCLEAR QUANTUM OPTICS
Story at http://www.aip.org/pnu/2006/split/774-2.html
(Thomas J. Bürvenich et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 142501)
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Copyright 2006, The American Physical Society.
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