Theoretical physics

A black hole formula worked out in the 1970s remains the most concrete clue physicists have about the threads of the space-time fabric.

These three imagined scenarios lead many physicists to doubt that space-time is fundamental.

This special issue of Quanta Magazine explores the ultimate scientific quest: the search for the fundamental nature of reality.

The largest-ever 3D map of the cosmos hints that the dark energy that’s fueling the universe’s expansion may be weakening. One community of theoretical physicists expected as much.

Experiments that test physics and philosophy "as a single whole" may be our only route to surefire knowledge about the universe.

One of the quantum fields that fills the universe is special because its default value seems poised to eventually change, changing everything.

Perhaps dark matter is made of an entirely different kind of particle than the ones physicists have been searching for. New experiments are springing up to look for these ultra-lightweight phantoms.

Using machine learning, string theorists are finally showing how microscopic configurations of extra dimensions translate into sets of elementary particles — though not yet those of our universe.

Physicists and cosmologists will have a new probe of primordial processes when Europe launches the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) next decade.