Browse Physics

Researchers confirmed that dust contamination is the main cause of sudden beam failure in high energy electron experiments. They also saw flashes of the dust in video recordings of the beam.

Relic neutrinos from the big bang have come from a region of the universe much nearer than the famous cosmic microwaves, even though they are older.

A “statistical” theory shows how a photonic structure could insulate a warm object more effectively than the pure vacuum of a thermos.

Computational work illustrates how multi-walled carbon nanotubes can create diamond nanocrystals.

Researchers detected the recoil motion of a bead when fluorescent molecules on its surface began emitting photons.

Researchers have measured the overlap time of an entangled pair of photons by treating them like ordinary laser pulses.

A new technique provides a 3-D view of the organized motion of swimming bacteria.

According to a new theory, the extreme hardness of new layered materials comes from the strength of chemical bonds that are oriented perpendicular to the deforming force, rather than parallel, as might be expected.

A proposed structure blocks sound waves in one direction but lets them pass in the other direction by first doubling their frequency.

Real-world events always proceed in the direction of increasing entropy, even though the laws of physics don’t require it. The reason we never see events that reduce entropy is that they cannot leave behind any evidence of having happened, according to a new theory.

Ultrahigh energy photons striking matter can transform into rho mesons through an interaction that involves many nuclei simultaneously, a phenomenon that may affect the detection signatures of high-energy particles from space.

Chains of spheres representing polymers can arrange themselves into a crystal, which turns out to be the highest entropy structure, according to computer simulations.

Neutrinos arriving from a nearby supernova could be used to determine the precise moment when gravitational waves should appear, which may help researchers pick out the so-far-undetectable waves.

Richard Feynman invented the cartoon-like pictures of particle interactions that are essential to particle physicists and published the first one in 1949.

Focused vibrations can cause a liquid drop on a surface to erupt into a vertical jet, a phenomenon that may lead to improved biomedical devices and inkjet printers.

A tilted, rotating magnetic field causes magnetizable beads in a fluid to assemble into chains that efficiently stir the mixture–a scheme that might be used in chemical processing of tiny volumes.

Gamma rays and energetic electrons detected on a Japanese mountaintop confirm that thunderstorms are efficient electron accelerators.

Colliding protons can remain intact but still generate new particles, according to results from Fermilab. A similarly clean process could produce the elusive Higgs particle at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider.

A fraction of the soot particles produced in a flame can have a more rod-like, rather than bush-like structure, contradicting the conventional theory, which is relevant for industrial products and the atmosphere.

Computer simulations explain how proteins can slide along strands of DNA looking for a target sequence without getting stuck.