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Browse the failure-mode index

280 real negative results, null findings, and replication failures in Physics. Search the index →

WASTE indexes published research — it does not host or republish full papers. Each entry is a metadata record compiled from open scholarly databases; the abstract is shown in full only where the paper is openly licensed, otherwise a short excerpt under fair use. Classifications are automated and approximate.

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Optimizing and controlling functions of complex networks by manipulating rich-club connections

Xiao-ke xu, Jie Zhang, Ping Li et al. · 2011 · arXiv

Traditionally, there is no evidence suggesting that there are strong ties between the rich-club property and the function of complex networks. In this study, we find that whether a very small portion of rich nodes connected to each other or not can strongly affect the frequency of occurrence of basic building blocks (motif) within networks, and therefore the function, of a heterogeneous network. Conversely whether a homogeneous network has a rich-club property or not generally has no significant effect on its structure and function. These findings open the possibility to optimize and control t

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Testing spatial curvature in an anisotropic extension of $w$CDM model with low redshift data

Vikrant Yadav, Rajpal, Pardeep et al. · 2024 · arXiv

In this letter, we report the observational constraints on a Bianchi type I anisotropic extension of $w$CDM model with spatial curvature from observational data including Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO), Cosmic chronometers (CC), Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN), Pantheon+ (PP) compilation of SNe Ia and SH0ES Cepheid host distance anchors. The anisotropy is found to be of the order $10^{-13}$, which interplay with spatial curvature to reduce $H_0$ tension by $\sim 1σ$ as found in the analyses with BAO+CC+BBN+PP combination of data, while no significant effect of anisotropy is observed with BA

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Large Electronic Anisotropy and Enhanced Chemical Activity of Highly Rippled Phosphorene

Andrey A. Kistanov, Yongqing Cai, Kun Zhou et al. · 2016 · arXiv

We investigate the electronic structure and chemical activity of rippled phosphorene induced by large compressive strains via first-principles calculation. It is found that phosphorene is extraordinarily bendable, enabling the accommodation of ripples with large curvatures. Such highly rippled phosphorene shows a strong anisotropy in electronic properties. For ripples along the armchair direction, the band gap changes from 0.84 to 0.51 eV for the compressive strain up to -20% and further compression shows no significant effect, for ripples along the zigzag direction, semiconductor to metal tra

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

The roles of adhesion, internal heat generation and elevated temperatures in normally loaded, sliding rough surfaces

Benjamin Poole, Bartosz Barzdajn, Daniele Dini et al. · 2019 · arXiv

The thermal effects of plastic and frictional heat generation and elevated temperature were examined along with the role of adhesion in the context of galling wear, using a representative crystal plasticity, normally loaded, sliding surface model. Galling frequency behaviour was predicted for 316L steel. Deformation of the surfaces was dominated by the surface geometry, with no significant effect due to variations in frictional models. Plastic and frictional heating were found to have a minimal effect on the deformation of the surface, with the rapid conduction of heat preventing any highly lo

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Double Bars, Inner Disks, and Nuclear Rings in Early-Type Disk Galaxies

Peter Erwin, Linda S. Sparke · 2002 · arXiv

We present results from an imaging survey of an unbiased sample of thirty-eight early-type (S0--Sa), low-inclination, optically barred galaxies in the field. Our goal was to find and characterize central stellar and gaseous structures: secondary bars, inner disks, and nuclear rings. Bars inside bars are surprisingly common: at least one quarter of the sample galaxies (possibly as many as 40%) are double-barred, with no preference for Hubble type or the strength of the primary bar. A typical secondary bar is ~12% of the size of its primary bar and 240--750 pc in radius. We see no significant ef

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

The Outer Cut-Off of the Giant Planet Population and the 6pc-Survey

D. Apai, M. R. Meyer, P. Hinz et al. · 2007 · arXiv

We present results from two high-contrast imaging surveys that exploit a novel technique, L-band angular differential imaging. Our first survey targeted 21 young stars in the Beta Pic and Tuc-Hor moving groups with VLT/NACO reaching typical sensitivities of 20 AU. The statistical analysis of the null result demonstrates that the giant planet population is truncated at 30 AU or less (90% confidence level). Our second, on-going MMT/Clio survey utilizes the unique sensitivity achieved in the L-band for old planets to probe all M-dwarf stars within 6 pc. The proximity of these targe

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

An elusive vector dark matter

Chuan-Ren Chen, Yu-Kuang Chu, Ho-Chin Tsai · 2015 · Physics Letters B

Even though the sensitivity of direct dark matter search experiments reaches the level of about 10−45 cm2, no confident signal of dark matter has been observed. We point out that, if dark matter is a vector boson, the null result in direct dark matter search experiments may be due to the destructive effects in dark-matter–nucleon elastic scattering. We illustrate the scenario using a modified Higgs portal model that includes exotic quarks. The significant cancellation can occur for a certain mass gap between new heavy quark and dark matter. As a result, the spin-independent dark-matter–nucleon

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Constraining meV axion dark matter with ALMA observations of the galactic center magnetar SGR 1745–2900

Javier De Miguel, Evanthia Hatziminaoglou, Frédéric Poidevin et al. · 2026 · Physics Letters B

We report a mm-wave search for axion dark matter from SGR 1745–2900, based on 4.8 h of ALMA observations. No candidate features are found between 133.99–135.78, 135.91–137.70, 145.99–147.78, and 147.99–149.78 GHz, corresponding to 0.55–0.62 meV. Interpreting this null result within a state-of-the-art stellar framework, we derive sensitivity to the axion–photon coupling at the level of gγ≳2×10−11 GeV−1 under a standard Navarro–Frenk–White profile; down to gγ≳2×10−13 GeV−1 upon accounting for a dense dark-matter spike around Sagittarius A*, probing the quantum chromodynamics axion parameter spac

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Internal Cumulants for Femtoscopy with Fixed Charged Multiplicity

H. C. Eggers, B. Buschbeck · 2013 · Advances in High Energy Physics

A detailed understanding of all effects and influences on higher-order correlations is essential. At low charged multiplicity, the effect of a non-Poissonian multiplicity distribution can significantly distort correlations. Evidently, the reference samples with respect to which correlations are measured should yield a null result in the absence of correlations. We show how the careful specification of desired properties necessarily leads to an average-of-multinomials reference sample. The resulting internal cumulants and their averaging over several multiplicities fulfill all requirements of c

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Search for ultralight axion dark matter in a side-band analysis of a ${}^{199}$Hg free-spin precession signal

C. Abel, N. J. Ayres, G. Ban, G. Bison, K. Bodek, V. Bondar, E. Chanel, C. B. Crawford, M. Daum, B. Dechenaux, S. Emmenegger, P. Flaux, W. C. Griffith, P. G. Harris, Y. Kermaidic, K. Kirch, S. Komposch, P. A. Koss, J. Krempel, B. Lauss, T. Lefort, Prajwal MohanMurthy, Oscar Naviliat Cuncic, D. Pais, F. M. Piegsa, Guillaume Pignol, M. Rawlik, D. Ries, Stephanie Roccia, D. Rozpedzik, Philipp Schmidt-Wellenburg, N. Severijns, Y. V. Stadnik, J. A. Thorne, A. Weis, E. Wursten, Jacek Zejma, Geza Zsigmond · 2023 · SciPost Physics

Ultra-low-mass axions are a viable dark matter candidate and may form a coherently oscillating classical field. Nuclear spins in experiments on Earth might couple to this oscillating axion dark-matter field, when propagating on Earth's trajectory through our Galaxy. This spin coupling resembles an oscillating pseudo-magnetic field which modulates the spin precession of nuclear spins. Here we report on the null result of a demonstration experiment searching for a frequency modulation of the free spin-precession signal of \magHg in a 1 $\mu$T magnetic field. Our search covers the axion mass rang

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