Browse Physics

The first results from the space-borne Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer confirm an unexplained excess of high-energy positrons in Earth-bound cosmic rays.

The IceCube neutrino telescope reports its most extensive search for neutrinos produced by dark matter annihilations in the Sun.

A new model shows that the nonuniform heating of ions in the solar wind may be explained by resonant interactions with a particular type of plasma wave.

Much can be learned about hypothetical particles called axions by studying the evolution of massive stars.

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.

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

Cosmic gamma-ray bursts turn out to be polarized, which rules out the breaking of a fundamental symmetry down to the lowest limits ever observed.

Glitches in the rotation of pulsars cannot be explained by the conventional model of superfluid neutrons beneath the star’s crust.

Three major drawbacks to the ΛCDM dark matter model of the universe may be ameliorated if a proposed particle couples to dark matter and to neutrinos.

A new way of topologically labeling the pasta phases thought to exist in neutron stars could help researchers sort out how the phases contribute to star cooling.

A theoretical model of sunspots shows that their occasional disappearance may be due to a combination of fluctuations in the Sun’s polar magnetic field and outer layer flows.

New calculations of core-collapse supernovae show how bizarre nuclear structures—called pasta—develop in the dense core of a dying star.

Proposed measurements of arrays of pulsars could reveal the secrets of how supermassive black holes form, behave, and evolve.

A proposed explanation for puzzling features on the Moon involving small-scale magnetic fields has now been verified with a scaled-down version in the lab.

Quantum repeaters, devices that have been proposed for transporting encrypted information, could help collect light from distant telescopes in large area arrays.

A laboratory analog of solar plasma offers a new tool in the search for the origin of coronal heating.

Changes in the diffusion constant of cosmic rays due to self-induced turbulence may explain unexpected features in the cosmic-ray spectrum.

Experimental measurements with an x-ray laser test models of how ions behave in plasmas, like those found in stars and laser fusion research.

Observations of the way light scatters from large astrophysical bodies provides independent confirmation of the standard model of cosmology.