A Crucial Particle Physics Computer Program Risks Obsolescence
Recently, I watched a fellow particle physicist talk about a calculation he had pushed to a new height of precision. His tool? A 1980s-era computer program…
Browsing Tag
particle physics
Physicists Rewrite a Quantum Rule That Clashes With Our Universe
“There are some configurations of the future that don’t correspond to anything in the past,” Cotler said. “There’s nothing in the past that would evolve into…
How the Physics of Nothing Underlies Everything
Most of the quantum fields that fill our universe have one, and only one, preferred state, in which they’ll remain for eternity. Most, but not all.True and…
Where Do High-Energy Cosmic Rays Come From? A Star’s Last Gasp
Gamma rays from this supernova remnant have been seen by telescopes since 2007, but exceptionally energetic light wasn’t detected until 2020, when it was…
Particle Physicists Puzzle Over a New Duality
Once found, these inscrutable rules have helped particle physicists calculate scattering amplitudes at much higher levels of precision than they could…
Particle Hunters Can Spend a Lifetime Searching for Answers
IceCube is an example of how big science, and particularly particle physics, now often works on generational time scales. Getting from the idea of IceCube to…
The Unwritten Laws of Physics for Black Women
She decided to study physics. It was, in a way, good timing—a Black American woman had just become the first of her kind to earn a physics PhD, back in…
An Antimatter Experiment Shows Surprises Near Absolute Zero
The project was designed to see if spectroscopy in a helium bath was possible at all—a proof of concept for future experiments that would use even more…
A Newly Measured Particle Could Break Known Physics
Physicists have found that an elementary particle called the W boson appears to be 0.1 percent too heavy—a tiny discrepancy that could foreshadow a huge…
A New Tool for Finding Dark Matter Digs Up Nothing
Even the strongest gravitational waves that pass through the planet, created by the distant collisions of black holes, only stretch and compress each mile of…