Person
Physicist who, with Hans Euler, predicted magnetically induced vacuum birefringence in 1935.
Timothy Koeth's team reports in PNAS Nexus that Germany's last test reactor needed far more uranium and heavy water than the Nazi program had. Its reading of surviving uranium cubes and wartime documents challenges Werner Heisenberg's account.
Reality
Radio polarization from Murriyang and X-ray polarization from IXPE both stay locked to the magnetic field of 1E 1547.0-5408, which is what quantum electrodynamics predicts and what no accelerator has shown.
Reality
Observations of magnetar 1E 1547.0-5408 point to vacuum birefringence, the effect Heisenberg predicted in the 1930s. The team calls it a possible first detection, not a confirmed one.
Reality
Astronomers report the first detection of vacuum birefringence, predicted in the 1930s. Outside commentators say the result stands or falls on one assumption about the star's geometry.
Reality
A US-led team reads up to 80% X-ray polarization from magnetar 1E 1547.0-5408 as QED vacuum birefringence. An Italian-led group says alternative explanations are not excluded.
Reality