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physics
quantum physics
Massive Black Holes Shown to Act Like Quantum Particles
Physicists are using quantum math to understand what happens when black holes collide. In a surprise, they’ve shown that a single particle can describe a collision’s entire gravitational wave.
particle physics
A New Tool for Finding Dark Matter Digs Up Nothing
Physicists are devising clever new ways to exploit the extreme sensitivity of gravitational wave detectors like LIGO. But so far, they’ve seen no signs of exotica.
The Joy of Why
Deep Curiosity Inspires The Joy of Why Podcast
The noted mathematician and author Steven Strogatz explains how the conversations with experts in his new Quanta Magazine podcast address his lifelong fascination with timeless mysteries.
atomic physics
An Antimatter Experiment Shows Surprises Near Absolute Zero
An experiment conducted on hybrid matter-antimatter atoms has defied researchers’ expectations.
astrophysics
Tiny Galaxies Reveal Secrets of Supermassive Black Holes
Dwarf galaxies weren’t supposed to have big black holes. Their surprise discovery has revealed clues about how the universe’s biggest black holes could have formed.
particle physics
A Deepening Crisis Forces Physicists to Rethink Structure of Nature’s Laws
Physicists are reexamining a longstanding assumption: that big stuff consists of smaller stuff.
astronomy
Four Years On, New Experiment Sees No Sign of ‘Cosmic Dawn’
When astronomers tried to confirm a signal from the birth of the first stars after the Big Bang, they saw nothing.
Q&A
In Search of Cracks in Albert Einstein’s Theory of Gravity
Celia Escamilla-Rivera is combining large data sets with supercomputers to test general relativity against its little-known competitors.
particle physics
The Mysterious Forces Inside the Nucleus Grow a Little Less Strange
The strong force holds protons and neutrons together, but the theory behind it is largely inscrutable. Two new approaches show how it works.