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270 real negative results, null findings, and replication failures in Physics · Negative / Null Result Report. 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

Adaptive elliptical aperture photometry: a software package for high-cadence ground-based photometry. I. Application to rapid oscillators observed from SAAO

Dominic M. Bowman, Daniel L. Holdsworth · 2019 · arXiv

Context. Modern space telescopes are currently providing high-precision light curves for a large fraction of the sky, such that many new variable stars are being discovered. However, some stars have periodic variability with periods of order minutes and require high-cadence photometry to probe the physical mechanisms responsible. A cadence of less than a minute is often required to remove Nyquist ambiguities and confirm rapid variability which forces observers to obtain high-cadence ground-based photometry. Aims. We aim to provide a modern software package to reduce ground-based photometric ti

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Large scale flows in the solar interior: Effect of asymmetry in peak profiles

Sarbani Basu, H. M. Antia · 1999 · arXiv

Ring diagram analysis can be used to study large scale velocity fields in the outer part of the solar convection zone. All previous works assume that the peak profiles in the solar oscillation power spectrum are symmetric. However, it has now been demonstrated that the peaks are not symmetric. In this work we study how the explicit use of asymmetric peak profiles in ring-diagram analysis influences the estimated velocity fields. We find that the use of asymmetric profiles leads to significant improvement in the fits, but the estimated velocity fields are not substantially different from those

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Transiting Exoplanet Monitoring Project (TEMP). VI. The Homogeneous Refinement of System Parameters for 39 Transiting Hot Jupiters with 127 New Light Curves

Xian-Yu Wang, Yong-Hao Wang, Songhu Wang et al. · 2021 · arXiv

We present 127 new transit light curves for 39 hot Jupiter systems, obtained over the span of five years by two ground-based telescopes. A homogeneous analysis of these newly collected light curves together with archived spectroscopic, photometric, and Doppler velocimetric data using EXOFASTv2 leads to a significant improvement in the physical and orbital parameters of each system. All of our stellar radii are constrained to accuracies of better than 3\%. The planetary radii for 37 of our 39 targets are determined to accuracies of better than $5\%$. Compared to our results, the literature ecce

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Geometry Effects in Switching of Nanomagnets with Strain: Reliability, Energy Dissipation and Clock Speed in Dipole-Coupled Nanomagnetic Logic

Md Mamun Al-Rashid, Jayasimha Atulasimha, Supriyo Bandyopadhyay · 2014 · arXiv

Strain-clocked dipole-coupled nanomagnetic logic is an energy-efficient Boolean logic paradigm whose progress has been stymied by its propensity for high error rates. In an effort to mitigate this problem, we have studied the effect of nanomagnet geometry on error rates, focusing on elliptical and cylindrical geometries. We had previously reported that the out-of-plane excursion of the magnetization vector during switching creates a precessional torque that is responsible for high switching error probability in elliptical nanomagnet geometries. The absence of this torque in cylindrical magnets

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Cation mono- and co-doped anatase TiO$_2$ nanotubes: An {\em ab initio} investigation of electronic and optical properties

Mohamed M. Fadlallah, Ulrich Eckern · 2017 · arXiv

The structural, electronic, and optical properties of metal (Si, Ge, Sn, and Pb) mono- and co-doped anatase TiO$_{2}$ nanotubes are investigated, in order to elucidate their potential for photocatalytic applications. It is found that Si doped TiO$_{2}$ nanotubes are more stable than those doped with Ge, Sn, or Pb. All dopants lower the band gap, except the (Ge, Sn) co-doped structure, the decrease depending on the concentration and the type of dopant. Correspondingly, a redshift in the optical properties for all kinds of dopings is obtained. Even though a Pb mono- and co-doped TiO$_{2}$ nanotu

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Astrophysical Prior Information and Gravitational-wave Parameter Estimation

Chris Pankow, Laura Sampson, Leah Perri et al. · 2016 · arXiv

The detection of electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational waves has great promise for the investigation of many scientific questions. It has long been hoped that in addition to providing extra, non-gravitational information about the sources of these signals, the detection of an electromagnetic signal in conjunction with a gravitational wave could aid in the analysis of the gravitational signal itself. That is, knowledge of the sky location, inclination, and redshift of a binary could break degeneracies between these extrinsic, coordinate-dependent parameters and the physical parameters,

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Data-driven kinetic energy density fitting for orbital-free DFT: linear vs Gaussian process regression

Sergei Manzhos, Pavlo Golub · 2020 · arXiv

We study the dependence of kinetic energy densities (KED) on density-dependent variables that have been suggested in previous works on kinetic energy functionals (KEF) for orbital-free DFT (OF-DFT). We focus on the role of data distribution and on data and regressor selection. We compare unweighted and weighted linear and Gaussian process regressions of KED for light metals and a semiconductor. We find that good quality linear regression resulting in good energy-volume dependence is possible over density-dependent variables suggested in previous literature. This is achieved with weighted fitti

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Comparative study of force-based classical density functional theory

Florian Sammüller, Sophie Hermann, Matthias Schmidt · 2022 · arXiv

We reexamine results obtained with the recently proposed density functional theory framework based on forces (force-DFT) [Tschopp et al., Phys. Rev. E 106, 014115 (2022)]. We compare inhomogeneous density profiles for hard sphere fluids to results from both standard density functional theory and from computer simulations. Test situations include the equilibrium hard sphere fluid adsorbed against a planar hard wall and the dynamical relaxation of hard spheres in a switched harmonic potential. The comparison to grand canonical Monte Carlo simulation profiles shows that equilibrium force-DFT alon

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Merging and splitting of clusters in the electromagnetic calorimeter of the KLOE detector

Jaroslaw Zdebik · 2008 · arXiv

The work was carried out in the framework of the KLOE collaboration studying the decays of the phi meson produced in the DAFNE accelerator in the collisions of electron and positron. The main aim of this thesis was investigation of the influence of the merging and splitting of clusters in decays with the high multiplicity of gamma quanta, which are at most biased by these effects. For this aim we implemented the full geometry and realistic material composition of the barrel electromagnetic calorimeter in FLUKA package. The prepared Monte Carlo based simulation program permits to achieve a fast

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Interacting bubble clouds and their sonochemical production

Laura Stricker, Benjamin Dollet, David Fernandez Rivas et al. · 2013 · arXiv

Acoustically driven air pockets trapped in artificial crevices on a sur- face can emit bubbles which organize in (interacting) bubble clusters. With increasing driving power Fernandez Rivas et al. [Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2010] observed three different behaviors: clusters close to the very pits out of which they had been created, clusters pointing toward each other, and merging clusters. The latter behavior is highly undesired for technological purposes as it is associated with a reduction of the radical production and an enhancement of the erosion of the reactor walls. The dependence on the co

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Grid-based calculations of redshift-space matter fluctuations from perturbation theory: UV sensitivity and convergence at the field level

Atsushi Taruya, Takahiro Nishimichi, Donghui Jeong · 2021 · arXiv

Perturbation theory (PT) has been used to interpret the observed nonlinear large-scale structure statistics at the quasi-linear regime. To facilitate the PT-based analysis, we have presented the GridSPT algorithm, a grid-based method to compute the nonlinear density and velocity fields in standard perturbation theory (SPT) from a given linear power spectrum. Here, we further put forward the approach by taking the redshift-space distortions into account. With the new implementation, we have, for the first time, generated the redshift-space density field to the fifth order and computed the next-

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Control of Surgical Gesture under Lingual Electro-Tactile Stimulation

Fabien Robineau, Frédéric Boy, Jean-Pierre Orliaguet et al. · 2006 · arXiv

Performing minimal-invasive surgical punctures require guiding a needle toward an intracorporeal clinically-defined target. As this technique does not involve cutting the body open, a visualization system is employed to provide the surgeon with indirect visual spatial information about the intracorporeal positions of the tool. One may consider that such systems reduce the ergonomics of the situation as they generate a decorrelation between the actual movement of the needle and the displayed information about this movement. The present study aims at assessing the guidance of an intracorporeal p

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Puzzling Ultra-Diffuse Galaxy Evolution (PUDGE). I. The existence of a Nube-like galaxy in IllustrisTNG

Nataša Pavlov, Ana Mitrašinović · 2025 · arXiv

The recent discovery of the most extended ultra-diffuse galaxy (UDG), Nube, has raised yet another question about the validity of the cold dark matter (CDM) model. The studies using cosmological and zoom-in simulations, which assume CDM, failed to replicate galaxies with the structural properties of Nube. However, the simulation box or the examined population of UDGs may be too narrow to fully capture the range of effects that can lead to the formation of such extraordinary galaxies. In this work we present a case study of a Nube-like galaxy from TNG100, the most extended simulated UDG examine

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Results and forecasts on cosmic inflation from weak lensing

Agnès Ferté, Kevin Hong · 2023 · arXiv

We highlight the role of weak lensing measurements from current and upcoming stage-IV imaging surveys in the search for cosmic inflation, specifically in measuring the scalar spectral index $n_s$. To do so, we combine the Dark Energy Survey 3 years of observation weak lensing and clustering data with BICEP/Keck, Planck and Sloan Digital Sky Survey data in $rΛ$CDM where $r$ is the tensor-to-scalar ratio. While there is no significant improvement in constraining power, we obtain a 1$σ$ shift on $n_s$. Additionally, we forecast a weak lensing and clustering data vector from the 10-year Legacy Sur

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Spatial resolution improvement of PICOSEC Micromegas precise timing detectors

F. M. Brunbauer, R. Aleksan, Y. Angelis et al. · 2026 · arXiv

The combination of a Cherenkov radiator with a semi-transparent photocathode and a Micromegas based amplification stage allows PICOSEC Micromegas detectors to achieve a time resolution of better than 15ps. While tileable prototypes with 10x10 channels feature 1x1 cm^2 readout pads, finer readout granularity can be used to improve the spatial resolution. We report on the study of high readout granularity PICOSEC Micromegas prototypes which achieve around 0.5mm spatial resolution with 3.5mm large pads. No significant improvement was found when readout pad size was further reduced to 2.2mm. The t

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Symmetric Operation of the Resonant Exchange Qubit

Filip K. Malinowski, Frederico Martins, Peter D. Nissen et al. · 2017 · arXiv

We operate a resonant exchange qubit in a highly symmetric triple-dot configuration using IQ-modulated RF pulses. At the resulting three-dimensional sweet spot the qubit splitting is an order of magnitude less sensitive to all relevant control voltages, compared to the conventional operating point, but we observe no significant improvement in the quality of Rabi oscillations. For weak driving this is consistent with Overhauser field fluctuations modulating the qubit splitting. For strong driving we infer that effective voltage noise modulates the coupling strength between RF drive and the qubi

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Photonic glass for high contrast structural color

Guoliang Shang, Lukas Maiwald, Hagen Renner et al. · 2018 · arXiv

Non-iridescent structural colors based on disordered arrangement of monodisperse spherical particles, also called photonic glass, show low color saturation due to gradual transition in reflectivity. No significant improvement is usually expected from particles optimization, as the Mie resonances are broad for small dielectric particles with moderate refractive index. Moreover, the short range order of a photonic glass alone is also insufficient to cause sharp spectral features. We show here, that the combination of a well-chosen particle geometry with the short range order of a photonic glass

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Search for cyclotron absorptions from magnetars in the quiescence with XMM-Newton

Mykola Malygin, Dmytro Iakubovskyi · 2010 · arXiv

In this work, we perform the detailed analysis of absorption features in spectra of magnetar candidates observed by XMM-Newton satellite. No significant line-like feature has been found. This negative result may indicate the possible presence of smoothing out the absorption features mechanisms.

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Absence of Power-Law Mid-Infrared Conductivity in Gravitational Crystals

Brandon W. Langley, Garrett Vanacore, Philip W. Phillips · 2015 · arXiv

We compute conductivities of strongly-interacting and non-uniform charge densities dual to inhomogeneous anti-de Sitter--black hole spacetimes. Backreacting bulk scalars with periodic boundary profiles, we construct generalizations of Reissner-Nordström-AdS that interpolate between those used in two previous studies --- one that reports power-law scaling for the boundary optical conductivity and one that does not. We find no evidence for power-law scaling of the conductivity, thereby corroborating the previous negative result that gravitational crystals are insufficient to generate the power-l

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Reconciling the positive DAMA annual modulation signal with the negative results of the CDMS II experiment

R. Foot · 2004 · arXiv

We examine the recent CDMS II results in the context of the mirror matter interpretation of the DAMA/NaI experiment.We find that the favoured mirror matter interpretation of the DAMA/NaI experiment -- a $He'/H'$ dominated halo with a small $O'$ component is fully consistent with the null results reported by CDMS II. While the CDMS II experiment is quite sensitive to a heavy $Fe'$ component, and may yet find a positive result, a more decisive test of mirror matter-type dark matter would require a lower threshold experiment using light target elements.

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

The Orientation of Spin Vectors of Galaxies in the Ursa Major Filament

Cheongho Han · 1994 · arXiv

Spin vectors of 60 galaxies in the ``Ursa Major Filament'' are obtained from CCD images and spectroscopic determinations of the directions of rotation. These data are used to remove the four-fold degeneracy introduced by the project ed images of galaxies, making possible the complete reconstruction of the galaxy spin vectors. Several possible organizations of spin vectors are investigated by means of statistical analyses of the three-dimensional spin vector maps. The results indicate that there exists no significant alignment of galaxy spin vectors with respect to the supergalactic plane, the

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Nothing's plenty: The significance of null results in physics education research

Luke D. Conlin, Eric Kuo, Nicole R. Hallinen · 2018 · arXiv

A central aim of physics education research is to understand the processes of learning and use that understanding to inform instruction. To this end, researchers often conduct studies to measure the effect of classroom interventions on student learning outcomes. Many of these intervention studies have provided an empirical foundation of reformed teaching techniques, such as active engagement. However, many times there is not sufficient evidence to conclude that the intervention had the intended effect, and these null results often end up in the file drawer. In this paper, we argue that null re

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

What if we find nothing? Bayesian analysis of the statistical information of null results in future exoplanet habitability and biosignature surveys

Daniel Angerhausen, Amedeo Balbi, Andjelka B. Kovačević et al. · 2025 · arXiv

Future telescopes will survey temperate, terrestrial exoplanets to estimate the frequency of habitable ($η_{\text{Hab}}$) or inhabited ($η_{\text{Life}}$) planets. This study aims to determine the minimum number of planets ($N$) required to draw statistically significant conclusions, particularly in the case of a null result (i.e., no detections). Using a Bayesian framework, we analyzed surveys of up to $N=100$ planets to infer the frequency of a binary observable feature ($η_{\text{obs}}$) after null results. Posterior best fits and upper limits were derived for various survey sizes and compa

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Can WIMP Spin Dependent Couplings explain DAMA data, in light of Null Results from Other Experiments?

Christopher Savage, Paolo Gondolo, Katherine Freese · 2004 · arXiv

We examine whether the annual modulation found by the DAMA dark matter experiment can be explained by Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), in light of new null results from other experiments. CDMS II has already ruled out most WIMP-nucleus spin-independent couplings as an explanation for DAMA data. Hence we here focus on spin-dependent (axial vector; SD) couplings of WIMPs to nuclei. We expand upon previous work by (i) considering the general case of coupling to both protons and neutrons and (ii) incorporating bounds from all existing experiments. We note the surprising fact that CMDS

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Arago (1810): the first experimental result against the ether

Rafael Ferraro, Daniel M. Sforza · 2004 · arXiv

95 years before Special Relativity was born, Arago attempted to detect the absolute motion of the Earth by measuring the deflection of starlight passing through a prism fixed to the Earth. The null result of this experiment gave rise to the Fresnel's hypothesis of an ether partly dragged by a moving substance. In the context of Einstein's Relativity, the sole frame which is privileged in Arago's experiment is the proper frame of the prism, and the null result only says that Snell's law is valid in that frame. We revisit the history of this premature first evidence against the ether theory and

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Neutrino dispersion relation changes due to radiative corrections as the origin of faster-than-light-in-vacuum propagation in a medium

Karl Svozil · 2011 · arXiv

Radiative corrections to the dispersion of neutrinos in nonstandard vacuum may give rise to "boosts" in their speed. This could explain recent experimental evidence by the OPERA collaboration, as well as the null result indicated by the supernova 1987A (SN 1987A) measurements of neutrino and photon arrival times.

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Comment on "Is the nonlinear Meissner effect unobservable?"

Anand Bhattacharya, Igor Zutic, Oriol T. Valls et al. · 1998 · arXiv

In a recent Letter (Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, p.5640 (1998), cond-mat/9808249 v3), it was suggested that nonlocal effects may prevent observation of the nonlinear Meissner effect in YBCO. We argue that this claim is incorrect with regards to measurements of the nonlinear transverse magnetic moment, and that the most likely reason for a null result lies elsewhere.

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Michelson-Morley experiment within the quantum mechanics framework

D. L. Khokhlov · 2008 · arXiv

It is revisited the Michelson-Morley experiment within the quantum mechanics framework. One can define the wave function of photon in the whole space at a given moment of time. The phase difference between the source and receiver is a distance between the source and receiver at the time of reception hence it does not depend on the velocity of the frame. Then one can explain the null result of the Michelson-Morley experiment within the quantum mechanics framework.

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

New conceptions on the light wave theory in a moving frame of reference

Daniel Lima Nascimento · 2013 · arXiv

A reanalisis of the effect of a moving frame of reference is done, showing that the null result of the Michelson-Morley's experimente of 1887 on the possibility of detecting the variation of the velocity of light with respect to a moving observer, na observer at the Earth, was already implied in these equations; thereforewith no need of new ad hoc hypotheses to explain it in the classical framework. In fact, it will be shown that behind those equations is hidden the fascinating phenomenon of the absolute motion.

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

An observational constraint on gravitational lensing by objects of mass 10^(9.5) - 10^(10.9) Mo

Pedro Augusto, Peter N. Wilkinson · 2000 · arXiv

A radio-based search for strong gravitational lensing, with image separations in the range 160-300 milliarcsec (mas), has yielded a null result for a sample of 1665 sources (Augusto, Wilkinson & Browne 1998) whose mean redshift is estimated to be ~1.3. The lensing rate for this previously-unexplored separation range, <1:555 at the 95% confidence level, is less than on arcsecond-scales - as expected from models of lensing galaxy populations. Lensing on 160-300 mas scales is expected to arise predominantly from spiral galaxies at a rate dependent on the disk-halo mass ratio and the evolving numb

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