Browse Physics

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.

In 1923, Arthur Compton convinced most skeptics that in some experiments, light can act like a stream of particles, rather than waves.

A theorist predicts that an object immersed in electromagnetic fields can move by pulling momentum out of empty space.

Niels Bohr’s famous correspondence principle–that classical and quantum physics must agree under certain conditions–is not correct the way he and many modern textbooks have stated it.

Physicists have developed a system that emits single photons on a precise schedule.

Physicists have captured a single electron cirulating in a magnetic field and observed its transitions among 5 different energy levels.

Researchers have caused ‘matter waves’ to immitate x-rays by diffracting them through ‘crystals of light’.