Chirality yields colossal photocurrent

The Weyl semimetal Tantalum Arsenide has a colossal bulk photovoltaic effect – an intrinsic, or non-linear, generation of current from light more than ten times larger than ever previously achieved, according to researchers from Boston College, the University of California Los Angeles, and Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne. Credit: Kenneth Burch/Boston College Read more here. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-019-0297-4

AG Draconis, a mystery older than the Republic

Interacting variable stars, to which symbiotic binary stars belong, are  among the most exciting objects that a variety of variable stars offer. Physical mechanisms related to transfer and accretion of matter cause observable activity by manifesting increases of brightness (about 2 – 5 mag) and significant changes in the spectra of these objects. The brightenings of symbiotic systems have been recorded since the early 20th…