Particle physics

Decades of weird experimental results appeared to support the existence of the sterile neutrino, a hypothetical particle that would solve multiple mysteries. But recent experiments have killed hope of finding these phantoms, leaving physicists to wonder what might explain their anomalies.

The winning entries in the 2025 Global Physics Photowalk contest showcase the beauty of toil and discovery.

Columnist Natalie Wolchover checks in with particle physicists more than a decade after the field entered a profound crisis.

The supercollider is now being used to explore quantum phenomena, including a “magic” form of quantum entanglement.

The amplituhedron, a shape at the heart of particle physics, appears to be deeply connected to the mathematics of paper folding.

Every elementary particle falls into one of two categories. Collectivist bosons account for the forces that move us while individualist fermions keep our atoms from collapsing.

Quantum calculations amount to sophisticated estimates. But in 1931, Hans Bethe intuited precisely how a chain of particles would behave — an insight that had far-reaching consequences.

Inside the proton, quarks and gluons shift and morph their properties in ways that physicists are still struggling to understand. Rithya Kunnawalkam Elayavalli brings to the problem a perspective unlike many of their peers.

Physicists discovered strange supersolids, constructed new kinds of superconductors, and continued to make the case that the cosmos is far weirder than anyone suspected.