Particle physics

It has been thought of as many things: a pointlike object, an excitation of a field, a speck of pure math that has cut into reality. But never has physicists’ conception of a particle changed more than it is changing now.

We’ve created a new way to explore the fundamental constituents of the universe.

Our new series of articles explores the search for fundamental structure at the edge of science.

Renormalization has become perhaps the single most important advance in theoretical physics in 50 years.

Physicists have identified an algebraic structure underlying the messy mathematics of particle collisions. Some hope it will lead to a more elegant theory of the natural world.

Can we test speculations about how quantum physics affects black holes and the Big Bang?

Researchers say there are three possible explanations for the anomalous data. One is mundane. Two would revolutionize physics.

Collider physicists report that several measurements of particles called B mesons deviate from predictions. Alone, each oddity looks like a fluke, but their collective drift is more suggestive.

Two ways of approximating the ultra-complicated math that governs quark particles have recently come into conflict, leaving physicists unsure what their decades-old theory predicts.