The researchers’ work analyzed this phenomenon from a certain angle. These were the results of their experiments.
A team of researchers from the Technical University of Darmstadt (Germany) and Roskilde University (Denmark) presented important discoveries scientists related to the aging of certain elements .
After conducting their experiments, the specialists concluded that the time -understood under a particular concept- It would be reversible in materials like glass and some plastics .
To explain the relevance of their work, the German university reminds them that, In everyday life, time has only one direction. .
With this, they refer to the fact that, For example, when a glass breaks, we cannot see it spontaneously reassemble afterwards. .
However, “For physicists, this is not immediately obvious. “since the formulas that describe the movements apply regardless of the direction of time,” they say from Darmstadt in an academic article.
They cite another example: If you watch a video of a pendulum swinging without obstruction, the record would look the same if it were played backwards. .
“The daily irreversibility that we experience It only comes into play thanks to another law of nature, the second law of thermodynamics. which states that disorder in a system is constantly increasing.
This is why you can’t see a glass reassembled after it has been broken. since this would mean a reduction in this “disorder”.
However, the authors of the research found that These movements are reversible over time if observed from a certain perspective .
The results were published in the journal Natural physics and its importance lies in the fact that They challenge the understanding that existed until now of the second law. of thermodynamics.
What does it mean that “material time” is reversible?
The constant movement of a material’s particles means that over time it is faced with changes in their properties, leading to aging .
For items like glass, this process may take longer. or even billions of years, according to the Technical University of Darmstadt.
This is what we call “material time” a concept that researchers define as “time measured on a clock whose speed changes as the glass ages.”
From Darmstadt they explain it in simpler terms .
“Think of it this way: the material has an internal clock that works differently from the wall clock in the lab. Material time works at different speeds depending on how quickly the molecules rearrange themselves in the material.
Although the concept already began to be used about fifty years ago, Until now, no one had managed to measure this “material time”. according to the researchers.
But they say that This changed with his work published in Nature Physics, edited by Professor Thomas Blochowicz.
The scientist who led the research, Till Böhmer, stressed in an interview with the site from the German University “It was a big experimental challenge,” which required the use of very sensitive video cameras. to detect fluctuations in molecules.
In this sense, Blochowicz stressed that what they did “requires extremely precise measurements” and “latest generation” spots.
Statistical examination of what they obtained was carried out by researchers at Roskilde University and revealed that: “in terms of material time, the fluctuations of molecules are reversible in time” .
“That’s to say, they don’t change if material time can go backwards, like in the pendulum video which looks the same when played forwards and backwards,” they compare from Darmstadt as an example.
Böhmer made an important point when he said that Their findings do not mean that the aging of the materials themselves can be reversed. .
The results nevertheless confirm that the notion of “material time” is correct and open the way to new research topics in the field of physics .
“This leaves us with a lot of unanswered questions.” Blochowicz commented.
Among the doubts that they will seek to clarify in their next works, according to Darmstadt, are: “to what extent the observed reversibility in terms of material time is due to the reversibility of the physical laws of nature, or to what extent the tick “The internal clock differs depending on the materials.” .
The team, besides Till Böhmer and Thomas Blochowicz, consisted of Jan P. Gabriel, Lorenzo Costigliola, Jan-Niklas Kociok, Tina Hecksher and Jeppe C. Dyre.
You can read the full survey by clicking click on this link .
Below you will find he abstract (a brief summary) presented by the authors about his discoveries:
—Physical aging is the generic term used to describe irreversible processes occurring in glassy materials as a result of molecular rearrangements .
A formalism to describe these aging processes involves the notion of material time which can be thought of as time measured on a clock whose speed changes as the glass ages. However, until now, material time has not been determined experimentally.
Here we show how dynamic light scattering measurements pave the way for the future. We determine the material time of an aged sample of the glass-forming agent 1-phenyl-1-propanol after temperature jumps close to the glass transition, based on the time autocorrelation function of intensity fluctuations probed by dynamic multipoint light scattering.
It is shown that These fluctuations are stationary and reversible when considered in terms of material time. . The synthetic colloidal glass-forming clay Laponite and a chemically age-curing epoxy have also been shown to exhibit reversible fluctuations in scattered light intensity as a function of material time, and simulations of a binary ageing system that controls the energy potential confirm the reversibility as a function of material time.
In addition to demonstrating direct measures of material time, Our results identify a fundamental property of aging in very different contexts that challenges current theories. of aging.
Source: Latercera
I’m Rose Brown , a journalist and writer with over 10 years of experience in the news industry. I specialize in covering tennis-related news for Athletistic, a leading sports media website. My writing is highly regarded for its quick turnaround and accuracy, as well as my ability to tell compelling stories about the sport.
