Browse Physics

According to new calculations, thin films of transition-metal oxides could be promising materials for high-efficiency solar cells.

A solid’s surface tension is usually difficult to separate from its bulk elasticity, but a new technique determines this property by measuring the contact angle of small droplets on a soft surface.

Complex networks of disk bearings rotating in unison have an easier time maintaining this synchronization when the mass and radius of each bearing obeys a simple relationship.

Time-reversing the signals generated by a nonlinear element could form the basis of a new secure communications protocol in the midst of chaotic waves.

Convective mixing of fluids goes faster when the container is tilted—a finding that may impact the choosing of geological sites for carbon dioxide storage.

A new theory attempts to explain the exceptionally long life of air nanobubbles on wet surfaces.

Defining a “temperature” for granular materials would allow them to be described with an equation of state.

In a crystal with an undulating lattice deformation, geometric phase-shift effects allow better control of x-ray propagation.

Metamaterials offer a way to enhance light-induced forces in waveguide-based optomechanical devices.

A new scheme exploiting the orbital rather than the spin degree of freedom allows for studying the Kondo effect without disturbing it.

Lasers produce a beam of neutrons intense enough for practical experiments, extending the reach of neutron sources to small-scale laboratories.

The H.E.S.S. Collaboration has put bounds on the flux of very-high-energy gamma rays that could be produced by annihilations of dark matter particles.

A precise mass measurement of an exotic zinc isotope gives new insight into the composition of the crust of neutron stars, the possible birthplace of heavy elements.

Experiments show how the ripples in corrugated dirt roads can form and grow.

Theoretical calculations describe the behavior of a large quantum circuit by taking advantage of certain symmetrical relationships between superconducting elements.

Contrary to the common view, the gravitational lensing from cosmic voids causes a brightening—not a dimming—of background objects, according to new calculations.

Two different mechanisms give a protein its required flexibility.

Adding impurities to a topological superfluid—a predicted state of matter believed to host Majorana particles—may be the best way to prove it exists.

A torus of trapped cold atoms could be used as a rotation sensor.

Manganese defects in zinc oxide have been identified as a class of electrically controllable qubits.