Theoretical physics

Time is all around us: in the language we use, in the memories we revisit and in our predictions of the future. But what exactly is it? The physicist and Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek joins Steve Strogatz to discuss the fundamental hallmarks of time.

An idea derived from string theory suggests that dark matter is hiding in a (relatively) large extra dimension. The theory makes testable predictions that physicists are investigating now.

Eugenio Calabi, who died on September 25, conceived of novel geometric objects that later became fundamental to string theory.

A new magnum opus posits the existence of a hidden mathematical link akin to the connection between electricity and magnetism.

Modular forms are one of the most beautiful and mysterious objects in mathematics. What are they?

Inside of a black hole, the two theoretical pillars of 20th-century physics appear to clash. Now a group of young physicists think they have resolved the conflict by appealing to the central pillar of the new century — the physics of quantum information.

The puzzling behavior of black hole interiors has led researchers to propose a new physical law: the second law of quantum complexity.

Several areas of physics suggest reasons to think that unobservable universes with different natural laws could lie beyond ours. The theoretical physicist David Kaplan talks with Steven Strogatz about the mysteries that a multiverse would solve.

A new phase of matter called a “time crystal” plays with our expectations of thermodynamics. The physicist Vedika Khemani talks with Steven Strogatz about its surprising quantum behavior.