What's Hot In Physics> 2010
Year: 2010
The Top Ten lists in Physics feature papers published during the last two years (excluding review articles) that were most cited in current journal articles indexed by Clarivate during a recent two-month period. Papers are ranked according to the latest bimonthly citation count. The articles below are accompanied by expert discussion and analysis (including comments from the papers’ authors) written by one of four veteran scientist-journalists and longtime ScienceWatch.com contributors.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010
Theorists Provide Smashing Predictions for the LHC
by Simon Mitton
With CERN’s Large Hadron Collider now in operation
after initial delays, theorists have been kept busy with predictions
about the nature of the particle collisions carried out at the
facility. The action of subatomic particles known as partons has
attracted particular scrutiny, as these particles do not conform to
classical behavior in collisions. A report on so-called parton
distribution functions, or PDFs, has found wide utility as theorists
attempt to predict the rate of various collision processes.View Article
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2010
Magnificent Seventh Release Of Sloan Sky Survey Data
by Simon Mitton
Reports from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
(SDSS) continue to occupy the upper rungs of the most-cited papers in
the main field of physics. Currently, the Seventh Data Release, along
with the preceding Sixth edition, are attracting citations at a rapid
clip. The SDSS store of data on galaxies, quasars, stars, supernovae,
and other phenomena—all of it freely available online and open
to anyone—embodies a new kind of science.View Article
JULY/AUGUST 2010
First Results from the Fermi Large Area Telescope
by Simon Mitton
Reports from the Large Area Telescope (LAT) component on
the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope have begun to register among the
most-cited recent papers in physics. The LAT scans for pulsars,
supernova remnants, gamma-ray bursts, and other phenomena. LAT data
are publically available online, almost in real time, allowing
astronomers to see if their target objects are emitting gamma rays.
The initial “quick look” report from LAT promises much
more data to come.View Article
MAY/JUNE 2010
Polymer Solar Cells Near 100% Quantum Efficiency
by Simon Mitton
Recent materials research has succeeded in producing
polymer solar cells with an internal quantum efficiency of nearly
100%--in other words, nearly every absorbed photon is converted into a
charge carrier. To accomplish this, the team of researchers employed
layered device structure. This achievement marks a significant step in
bringing polymer solar cells closer to wide application and mass
production.View Article
MARCH/APRIL 2010
Physicists WIMP Out in Search for Dark Matter
by Simon Mitton
A current Hot Paper in Physics describes the
XENON10 experiment at Italy’s Gran Sasso National
Laboratory, an underground facility where scientists have been
working to detect evidence of dark matter, an elusive material
being sought in order to fill in crucial parts of the cosmological
puzzle. The XENON10 search for weakly interacting massive
particles, or WIMPS, failed to detect definitive evidence, but the
search for dark matter goes on.View Article
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2010
New, Improved Data for Supernova Cosmology
by Simon Mitton
Among the cosmology reports crowding the current
Physics Top Ten is a report presenting a new compilation of
distance measurements for Type 1a supernovae and their parent
galaxies. By combining old data with new, the report corrects the
inevitable errors and biases caused by information being collected
from disparate sources and time periods, thereby sharpening the
picture of how fast the universe has expanded at various points in
its history.View Article
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