https://phys.org/physics-news/physics/ en-us The latest news on physics, materials, nanotech, science and technology. Proton beams are not only used in sophisticated nuclear physics experiments. Today, they are becoming increasingly popular in radiotherapy, where they are an irreplaceable tool for destroying cancer cells. Doctors and physicists can enhance their precision thanks to two solutions developed at the Cyclotron Center Bronowice of the Institute of Nuclear Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-proton-tool-radiotherapy-energy-treatment.html General Physics Fri, 01 May 2026 14:40:01 EDT news696857941 Water droplets might seem simple at first. But when nearing evaporation, a desperate power struggle of competing physical forces can emerge, with explosive effects. In a Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences publication, researchers have taken a closer look at the physics of charged water droplets on frictionless surfaces, observing spontaneous jets of microdroplet emissions. Their insights may open new opportunities in nanoscale fabrication and electrospray ionization. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-explosive-evaporation-possibilities-3d-chemical.html General Physics Fri, 01 May 2026 11:40:06 EDT news696849556 Researchers at the University of Oxford have demonstrated a new type of quantum interaction using a single trapped ion. By creating and controlling increasingly complex forms of "squeezing" – including a fourth-order effect known as quadsqueezing – the team has, for the first time, made previously unreachable quantum effects experimentally accessible. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-physicists-quadsqueezing-quantum-interaction.html General Physics Fri, 01 May 2026 09:20:01 EDT news696844261 An international research team has achieved an important milestone for astrophysics at GSI/FAIR in Darmstadt: In the CRYRING@ESR storage ring, scientists were able to measure nuclear reactions at extremely low energies for the first time, mirroring the conditions inside stars. This novel experimental approach lays the foundation for decoding the formation of elements in the universe with even greater precision in the future. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-nuclear-reactions-energies-pathways-astrophysics.html General Physics Thu, 30 Apr 2026 16:50:01 EDT news696782161 In thermodynamics, an "adiabatic process" is a system change that transfers no heat in or out of the system. Any and all energy change in that system are therefore accomplished by doing work on the system, work being action that moves matter over a distance. (An example is a bicycle tire pump or lifting a box from the floor.) https://phys.org/news/2026-04-sudden-quantum-jolts-adiabatic-behavior.html General Physics Thu, 30 Apr 2026 15:20:03 EDT news696766452 A team of researchers at Rice University has engineered a new version of a well-known multiferroic that exhibits orders of magnitude higher performance at room temperature than its parent material. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, describes a modified version of bismuth ferrite that shows a 10-fold increase in magnetization and 100-fold increase in magnetoelectric coupling compared to standard varieties. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-room-temperature-multiferroic-pave-energy.html General Physics Thu, 30 Apr 2026 09:40:06 EDT news696759841 The concept of spacetime, first described in Einstein's theory of general relativity, has since been widely studied by many physicists worldwide. Spacetime is described mathematically as a four-dimensional (4D) continuum in which physical events occur, which merges three-dimensional (3D) space, with one-dimensional (1D) time. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-frozen-gravity-evolution-spacetime-dynamics.html General Physics Thu, 30 Apr 2026 08:00:01 EDT news696675372 Researchers have uncovered a counterintuitive phenomenon in collision dynamics: high-speed particles bounce back from wet walls much more strongly than expected. Integrating experimental observations with advanced numerical simulations revealed that increasing the impact speed induces a morphological transition in the post-collision liquid film, shifting it from a bridge to a dome shape. Further, it clarified the relevance of cavitation to such a dramatic change and to the stronger bounce. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-high-particles-higher-collisions.html General Physics Tue, 28 Apr 2026 09:40:06 EDT news696586201 From wearable technology to industrial heat recovery, thermoelectric generators which convert waste heat into electricity have an enormous range of potential applications. So far, however, designing high-performing versions of these devices has remained a painstaking task. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-ai-slashes-harvesting-devices.html General Physics Tue, 28 Apr 2026 08:10:02 EDT news696162360 Sticking with the same people might feel safe and comfortable. But a new Northwestern University study suggests it can actually trap new ideas and behaviors inside tight echo chambers. By contrast, the research, published in Communications Physics, shows that when interactions shift away from familiar contacts—and toward new ones—activity can spread more widely. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-ideas-physics-based.html General Physics Mon, 27 Apr 2026 16:30:01 EDT news696522781 Researchers from Skoltech and the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics have developed an approach that helps optimize the parameters of a laser-plasma source of attosecond pulses—ultrashort flashes of light used in physics experiments. Instead of relying on a large number of time-consuming calculations, the team trained a neural network to quickly identify promising settings and thereby speed up the optimization of the sophisticated laboratory equipment. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-neural-network-tuning-attosecond-pulses.html General Physics Mon, 27 Apr 2026 15:00:04 EDT news696513061 A scientist from Tokyo Metropolitan University has proposed using safety monitoring at synchrotron facilities to study the properties of dark photons, hypothetical particles proposed to explain dark matter. Calculations show that the X-ray source at these sites and a Geiger-Muller counter behind safety shielding could be used to propose limits on how strongly dark photons interact with normal photons. The experiment would not involve a dedicated facility and could run alongside other experiments. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-synchrotron-safety-dark-photons.html General Physics Mon, 27 Apr 2026 13:40:05 EDT news696506941 A detector buried deep in Antarctic ice has captured the first experimental evidence of a predicted but never-before-seen phenomenon: radio pulses generated when high-energy cosmic rays slam into the ice sheet and trigger particle cascades inside it. Through results published in Physical Review Letters, astronomers of the Askaryan Radio Array (ARA) Collaboration have validated a key technique, which they hope will eventually allow them to detect some of the rarest and most energetic particles in the universe. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-deep-antarctic-ice-cosmic-strange.html General Physics Sun, 26 Apr 2026 10:00:01 EDT news696072009 For some time, researchers have assumed that solid materials could gain more useful properties by making their microscopic components more active. Now, a team led by Jack Binysh at the University of Amsterdam has found that this idea doesn't always hold. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-response-materials.html General Physics Sat, 25 Apr 2026 13:00:03 EDT news695900124 Some innovations in physics come from entirely new technologies, others from fresh theoretical insights. Others still take shape by bringing together existing tools in new ways, working out how to combine them to outperform other solutions. The branch of particle physics that studies weakly interacting particles—such as neutrinos and some types of dark-matter candidates—could use innovative detection approaches: technological challenges in this research area quickly become practical as well as economic, as increases in detector volume and spatial resolution improve the sensitivity to the processes producing the particles of interest. Similarly, demanding targets on instrument capability apply to the calorimeters used in collider experiments. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-neutrinos-caught-camera-prototype-elementary.html General Physics Fri, 24 Apr 2026 18:20:01 EDT news696257942 A study by University of Wollongong (UOW) physicist Dr. Enbang Li has demonstrated that gravity can subtly influence the behavior of light, a breakthrough that could underpin future technologies for monitoring groundwater, tracking glacier melt, locating mineral deposits and detecting underground changes linked to volcanic activity and carbon storage. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-gravity-subtle-effect-groundwater-volcano.html General Physics Fri, 24 Apr 2026 12:00:03 EDT news696246841 The detection and study of isotopes, atoms of the same element that have different numbers of neutrons, could expand the scope of physics research and enable new scientific discoveries. So far, rare isotopes have been primarily detected using a technique known as accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS), which accelerates atoms, to then measure their mass and charge. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-approach-ultra-rare-sextillion-isotopes.html General Physics Fri, 24 Apr 2026 10:40:07 EDT news696241546 When you throw a ball in the air, the equations of classical physics will tell you exactly what path the ball will take as it falls, and when and where it will land. But if you were to squeeze that same ball down to the size of an atom or smaller, it would behave in ways beyond anything that classical physics can predict. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-classical-physics-quantum-weirdness.html General Physics Wed, 22 Apr 2026 14:40:06 EDT news696077161 One of the biggest open questions in particle physics today is how the Higgs boson interacts with itself. This "self-coupling" could help explain the evolution of the early universe and the mechanism that gives mass to elementary particles. To try to shed light on this fundamental interaction, the ATLAS Collaboration has recently studied one of the "golden" decay channels of a pair of Higgs bosons, where one Higgs boson decays into two photons and the other into a pair of bottom quarks. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-atlas-limits-higgs-boson-interaction.html General Physics Wed, 22 Apr 2026 13:20:01 EDT news696076082 A tiny discrepancy in particle physics has loomed for decades as an exciting possible crack in one of science's most successful theories, hinting at unknown forces or quantum objects. Now, an international team led by a Penn State physicist has published the most precise study yet to reveal the discrepancy was a fluke in calculation, not nature. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-particle-thought-physics-reveals.html General Physics Wed, 22 Apr 2026 11:00:06 EDT news696065647 Only about 5% of the universe is composed of normal matter that we can directly observe, while the remaining 95% is widely believed to consist of dark matter and dark energy. Paradoxically, however, the nature of these dark components remains unknown. Is this due to limitations in our observational capabilities, or does it reflect a more fundamental incompleteness in the classical laws of physics that have long underpinned our understanding of the universe? https://phys.org/news/2026-04-decoherence-gravity-dark-energy-quantum.html General Physics Wed, 22 Apr 2026 07:30:01 EDT news696002430 Buried within the Antarctic ice are more than 5,000 light sensors that work together to detect some of the highest energy particles in the universe. These tiny particles, called neutrinos, provide insight into the extreme cosmic events that created them as well as phenomena that challenge traditional physics. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-qa-icecube-observatory-elusive-cosmic.html General Physics Tue, 21 Apr 2026 21:00:01 EDT news695992172 Tens of kilometers above Earth's surface, high-energy particles from outer space constantly strike the atmosphere, creating showers of energetic secondary particles that rain down from the sky. Approximately one of these particles passes through your head every second, but the "cosmic rays" that produce them are still not fully understood. In a recent paper posted to the arXiv preprint server, the ATLAS Collaboration describes how its first measurement of proton–oxygen collisions at the LHC could help us learn more about them. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-atlas-cosmic-ray-laboratory-protonoxygen.html General Physics Tue, 21 Apr 2026 14:40:03 EDT news695990881 Researchers from Bar-Ilan University have successfully recreated key features of black hole physics in a laboratory setting using an innovative optical system that mimics how black holes behave after violent cosmic events such as collisions or mergers. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-laser-black-holes-extreme-physics.html General Physics Tue, 21 Apr 2026 10:20:03 EDT news695984701 The cosmological constant is the mathematical description of the energy that drives the ever-accelerating expansion of the cosmos. It's also the source of one of the most enduring and confounding problems in modern physics. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-mathematical-universe-cosmological-constant-problem.html General Physics Mon, 20 Apr 2026 18:40:01 EDT news695907962 An international research team of the A1 Collaboration at the Mainz Microtron (MAMI) of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) has succeeded in determining the binding energy of the hypertriton with unprecedented precision. This experiment provides crucial new insights into the interaction between hyperons and nucleons—an aspect of the strong nuclear force that has so far remained insufficiently understood. The results show that the hypertriton is significantly more strongly bound than many earlier experiments suggested. The journal Physical Review Letters has recently published the study. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-hypertriton-tightly-bound-sharpening-picture.html General Physics Mon, 20 Apr 2026 15:50:02 EDT news695914561 Recent findings from research we have been carrying out at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at Cern in Geneva suggest that we might be closing in on signs of undiscovered physics. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-lhc-decay-anomaly-reveals-standard.html General Physics Mon, 20 Apr 2026 14:30:01 EDT news695913603 Few concepts in physics are as familiar, yet as enigmatic, as time. In Einstein's theory of relativity, time is not absolute: its passage depends on motion and gravity. But when combined with quantum physics, this relativistic form of time becomes even more counterintuitive. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-quantum-lab-clock-young.html General Physics Mon, 20 Apr 2026 11:00:12 EDT news695634001 The rapid increase in electric vehicle adoption in recent years has highlighted a crucial issue: the energy conversion efficiency of electric motors. In electric motors, iron loss or magnetic hysteresis loss is a primary source of energy dissipation, arising from the repeated reversal of magnetic fields within the motor core, made of soft magnetic materials. Moreover, electric motors typically operate in high-temperature environments, where thermal effects can lead to partial demagnetization, further complicating energy-loss mechanisms. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-maze-magnetic-patterns-evolve-materials.html General Physics Mon, 20 Apr 2026 10:40:03 EDT news695894941 Picture two materials sandwiched together. The boundary between them may appear flat, but, in reality, it is full of tiny bumps and dents. Suddenly, the materials are hit with a shockwave. If that wave hits a bump in the material interface, it slows down. If it hits a dent, it accelerates forward. This imbalance creates fast, narrow jets of material—called the Richtmyer-Meshkov (RM) instability. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-tiny-voids-fusion-stable-powerful.html General Physics Sun, 19 Apr 2026 14:00:03 EDT news695572592