It is proposed that the apparent positive acceleration of the cosmological scale factor is due to the vacuum energy of an incomplete chiral phase transition in a hidden SU(2) sector. Constraints from primordial nucleosynthesis imply that the present metastable phase is in a substantially supercooled state. It is argued that massless chiral condensates can substantially enhance the possibility o...

It is demonstrated experimentally that strongly coupled plasma exhibits solid superheating. A 2D suspension of microspheres in dusty plasma, initially self-organized in a solid lattice, was heated and then cooled rapidly by turning laser heating on and off. Particles were tracked using video microscopy, allowing atomistic-scale observation during melting and solidification. During rapid heating...

We present herein an experimental study on the ice-nucleation kinetics of two recently introduced aqueous supercooling modalities—oil-sealed isobaric and isochoric supercooling. A series constant-cooling rate experiments compare apparent nucleation temperatures pure water supercooled under these modalities with conventional open-air supercooling, demonstrating that both methods significantly en...

The high-entropy configuration of equiatomic multicomponent alloys opens an effective access to the development of advanced materials. Here we report the synthesis of a new quinary refractory WMoTaNbZr high-entropy alloy under electrostatic levitation condition. It showed a high liquidus temperature of 2686 K and achieved a maximum supercooling of 640 K (0.24 TL) at molten state. The containerl...

Boreal hardwood species, including Japanese white birch (Betula platyphylla Sukat. var. japonica Hara), Japanese chestnut (Castanea crenata Sieb. et Zucc.), katsura tree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum Sieb. et Zucc.), Siebold's beech (Fagus crenata Blume), mulberry (Morus bombycis Koidz.), and Japanese rowan (Sorbus commixta Hedl.), had xylem parenchyma cells (XPCs) that adapt to subfreezing tempera...

Abstract. Ice clouds can form at low and moderate supercooling through heterogeneous ice nucleation on atmospheric particles. Typically, the requires active sites with special chemical physical properties, including surface topology roughness. This paper investigates microscopic mechanisms of how combinations confinement by lattice match induced properties lead to enhanced nucleation. We perfor...

The leaf beetle, Ophraella communa, has been introduced to control the spread of the common ragweed, Ambrosia artemisiifolia, in China. We hypothesized that the beetle, to be able to track host-range expansion into colder climates, can phenotypically adapt to cold temperatures across generations. Therefore, we questioned whether parental experience of colder temperatures increases cold toleranc...

This study investigated the effects of artificial supercooling followed by still air freezing (SSF) on the qualities of pork loin. The qualities of pork frozen by SSF were compared with the fresh control (CT, stored at 4℃ for 24 h), slow freezing (SAF, still air freezing) and rapid freezing (EIF, ethanol immersion freezing) treatments. Compared with no supercooling phenomena of SAF and EIF, the...

Insect cold tolerance depends on their ability to withstand or repair perturbations in cellular homeostasis caused by low temperature stress. Decreased oxygen availability (hypoxia) can interact with low temperature tolerance, often improving insect survival. One mechanism proposed for such responses is that whole-animal cold tolerance is set by a transition to anaerobic metabolism. Here, we pr...