What's up in

Theoretical physics

Latest Articles

Where Gravity Is Weak and Naked Singularities Are Verboten

June 20, 2017

Recent calculations tie together two conjectures about gravity, potentially revealing new truths about its elusive quantum nature.

Roberto Peccei and Helen Quinn, Driving Around Stanford in a Clunky Jeep

June 15, 2017

The two physicists who introduced Peccei-Quinn symmetry came up with their idea on and around Stanford University’s campus 40 years ago.

The Quantum Thermodynamics Revolution

May 2, 2017

As physicists extend the 19th-century laws of thermodynamics to the quantum realm, they’re rewriting the relationships among energy, entropy and information.

Physicists Attack Math’s $1,000,000 Question

April 4, 2017

Physicists are attempting to map the distribution of the prime numbers to the energy levels of a particular quantum system.

Quantum Questions Inspire New Math

March 30, 2017

In order to fully understand the quantum world, we may have to develop a new realm of mathematics.

Inside the Knotty World of ‘Anyon’ Particles

February 28, 2017

A new class of quantum particle is about to emerge from the tangled considerations of quantum statistics.

Physicists Uncover Geometric ‘Theory Space’

February 23, 2017

A decades-old method called the “bootstrap” is enabling new discoveries about the geometry underlying all quantum theories.

Grand Unification Dream Kept at Bay

December 15, 2016

Physicists have failed to find disintegrating protons, throwing into limbo the beloved theory that the forces of nature were unified at the beginning of time.

The Math That’s Too Difficult for Physics

November 18, 2016

How do physicists reconstruct what really happened in a particle collision? Through calculations that are so challenging that, in some cases, they simply can’t be done. Yet.

Get highlights of the most important news delivered to your email inbox