Browse Physics

David Wineland and Serge Haroche, who studied photons and atoms in new ways, have won the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics.

The 1947 discovery of a small discrepancy in hydrogen’s atomic spectrum came at just the right time to push quantum theory forward.

Variations in density in an ultracold gas reveal sound waves of quantum origin.

A new thought experiment makes it clearer than ever that photons aren’t simply particles or waves.

In the Aharonov-Bohm effect, proposed in 1959, quantum particles are affected in measurable ways by the classical electromagnetic potential, previously regarded as a purely mathematical construct. The electromagnetic field is too far from the particles to have any direct influence.

Two objects made of the exotic materials known as topological insulators could repel one another through the quantum-mechanical forces that cause most other solids to attract, theorists predict.

A new laser-based technique can directly probe the coupling of electrons in photosynthetic proteins and other complex systems.

The quantum jiggling that molecules experience even at the lowest temperatures–motion associated with the uncertainty principle–is not as tiny as researchers assumed and may be detected in the scattering of light through a liquid.

A pair of vibrating membranes could be cooled to their quantum mechanical ground state using current technology, and they could show a variety of quantum behaviors, according to calculations.

Electrons can act like light waves in many ways, but according to recent experiments, their wave-like effects don’t always correspond with light. The unexpected behavior occurs because electrons feel each other’s presence, while photons do not.

In the near future, a vibrating bar could be made small enough and cold enough to violate Newton’s laws and behave quantum mechanically, according to calculations.

A proposed experiment would test the theory that vibrating objects are slowed by interactions with the virtual particles that inhabit empty space.

Davisson and Germer showed in 1927 that electrons scatter from a crystal the way x rays do, proving that particles of matter can act like waves.

Experiments reveal particles that are neither fermions nor bosons–the two categories that encompass all other known particles.

In 1935 Einstein and his co-authors claimed to show that quantum mechanics led to logical contradictions. The objections exposed the theory’s strangest predictions.

The quantum state of atoms known as a Bose-Einstein condensate can be a tool for probing quantum effects in empty space.

“Uncrackable” quantum cryptography can thwart spies even if today’s quantum theory is replaced by something better–as long as it remains impossible to send messages faster than light.

A magnetic field can control the flow of heat across a loop of wire, according to calculations, thanks to interference between quantum waves.

Researchers caught a single particle of light in two places at once.

Researchers coaxed an electron to orbit an atomic nucleus like a tiny planet.