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Quantum Physics
There's no upper limit to how massive galaxies or black holes can be, but the most massive known star is only ~260 solar masses. Here's why.
Despite the Sun's high core temperatures, atomic nuclei repel each other too strongly to fuse together. Good thing for quantum physics!
By improving quantum error correction, quantum computations are now faster than ever. But parallel universes? That's utter nonsense here.
From a hot, dense, uniform state in its earliest moments, our entire known Universe arose. These unavoidable steps made it all possible.
We have very specific predictions for how particles ought to decay. When we look at B-mesons all together, something vital doesn't add up.
One of the fundamental constants of nature, the fine-structure constant, determines so much about our Universe. Here's why it matters.
Our classical intuition is no good in a quantum Universe. To make sense of it, we need to learn, and apply, an entirely novel set of rules.
Humans, when we consider space travel, recognize the need for gravity. Without our planet, is artificial or antigravity even possible?
The secret sauce is the real world.
LHC scientists just showed that spooky quantum entanglement applies to the highest-energy, shortest-lived particles of all: top quarks.
Do we actually live in a deterministic Universe, despite quantum physics? An alternative, non-spooky interpretation has now been ruled out.
No matter how good our measurement devices get, certain quantum properties always possess an inherent uncertainty. Can we figure out why?
DUNE is designed to detect the Universe's most antisocial particle: the neutrino.
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Don’t fall into the determinism trap. Everything is, in fact, random, says chemist Lee Cronin:
A recent paper in the journal Physical Review Letters claims to prove that a "kugelblitz" is not possible.
Often viewed as a purely theoretical, calculational tool only, direct observation of the Lamb Shift proved their very real existence.
From the explosions themselves to their unique and vibrant colors, the fireworks displays we adore require quantum physics.
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Nobel Prize winning physicist Frank Wilczek reflects on Einstein’s greatest contribution.
From forming bound states to normal scattering, many possibilities abound for matter-antimatter interactions. So why do they annihilate?
Is gravity weaker over distances of billions of light-years?
It's 2024, and we still only know of the fundamental particles of the Standard Model: nothing more. But these 8 unanswered questions remain.
Predicted way back in the 1960s, the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012 completed the Standard Model. Here's why it remains fascinating.
CERN's Large Hadron Collider is the most powerful particle accelerator ever. To go even further, we'll have to overcome something big.
With new W-boson, top quark, and Higgs boson measurements, the LHC contradicts earlier Fermilab results. The Standard Model still holds.
IceCube scientists have detected high-energy tau neutrinos from deep space, suggesting that neutrino transformations occur not only in lab experiments but also over cosmic distances.
Glueballs are an unusual, unconfirmed Standard Model prediction, suggesting bound states of gluons alone exist. We just found our first one.
Discover how Quantum Bayesianism challenges traditional quantum mechanics by focusing on the role of the observer in creating quantum reality.
No matter how good our measurement devices get, certain quantum properties always possess an inherent uncertainty. Can we figure out why?
The "first cause" problem may forever remain unsolved, as it doesn’t fit with the way we do science.
Some physicists are besot with the multiverse, but if we can't detect these other universes, how seriously should we take them?