https://phys.org/physics-news/physics/ en-us The latest news on physics, materials, nanotech, science and technology. Dark matter is an elusive form of matter that almost never emits, absorbs or reflects light, while only weakly interacting with regular matter. These properties make it very difficult to detect using conventional experimental techniques and instruments. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-intrinsic-quantum-effects-axion-dark.html General Physics Fri, 22 May 2026 08:10:02 EDT news698581195 Black holes are regions in space where gravity is so strong that nothing, even light, can escape. Einstein's theory of general relativity breaks down inside black holes, either by the presence of a so-called "curvature singularity" or "Cauchy horizon." https://phys.org/news/2026-05-black-holes-singularities-hawking-combine.html General Physics Thu, 21 May 2026 13:36:19 EDT news698589340 A team from Vienna and Frankfurt has found a formula describing a strange phenomenon: Space and time can form a kind of "crystal" that may turn into a black hole. The results are described in Physical Review Letters. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-crystals-space-phenomenon-collapse-tiny.html General Physics Thu, 21 May 2026 12:00:03 EDT news698578142 Standardizing calculations of the helium byproducts generated in advanced fission and fusion energy system materials can increase reactor safety and longevity, according to a study led by University of Michigan Engineering with collaborators at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and its management contractor UT-Battelle. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-helium-fission-fusion-materials.html General Physics Wed, 20 May 2026 17:40:05 EDT news698508541 An international team of scientists has developed a new analysis of how sound waves behave, revealing surprising effects that have largely been overlooked for decades. In the new paper in Scientific Reports, which was led by researchers from City St George's, University of London, the team explored how sound waves move through air and how those movements might be perceived visually. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-visualizing-scientists-reveal-hidden-behaviors.html General Physics Tue, 19 May 2026 15:40:02 EDT news698415841 While neutrinos are some of the most abundant particles in the universe, they remain among the least understood. One of the biggest puzzles is their mass: although experiments have shown that neutrinos must have some mass, pinning down exactly how much has proven extraordinarily difficult. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-tritium-infused-graphene-sharpen-neutrino.html General Physics Tue, 19 May 2026 10:40:03 EDT news698400557 The middle of the twentieth century was a period of significant scientific advancement, particularly in the realm of physics. Within this rapidly changing landscape, academic disciplines emerged and evolved to keep pace with scientific discoveries. The new subdiscipline of solid-state physics gained prominence in the United States, but it was later subsumed by the broader category of condensed matter physics. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-busseiron-formation-discipline-japanese-physics.html General Physics Tue, 19 May 2026 07:00:09 EDT news698384882 Water molecules do not simply swirl around in complete disorder; they can form certain preferred structures. This scientific fact is often presented in entirely unscientific ways. For example, when people speak of an alleged "memory of water" or of "water clusters" as a possible explanation for homeopathy, among other things. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-entropy-ions.html General Physics Mon, 18 May 2026 18:30:01 EDT news698344201 For many undergraduate students, exploring the complexities of physics for the first time, from wading through advanced mathematics, to absorbing information in a large lecture format, can be a daunting endeavor—one that dissuades many students from continuing their studies. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-physics-derail-students-track.html General Physics Mon, 18 May 2026 12:00:05 EDT news698321163 Artificial intelligence and machine learning are shaping major design and research decisions for the planned Electron-Ion Collider (EIC), a next-generation nuclear physics research facility that will collide electrons with protons or nuclei to probe matter's structure. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-ai-electron-ion-collider.html General Physics Mon, 18 May 2026 11:40:09 EDT news698320142 Neurons, the uber-connected nerve cells that act as a main switchboard for the brain, are central to some incredibly complicated processes. They make it possible to think, walk, speak, and breathe. They even have built-in backup batteries to use in emergencies. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-neuron-complicated-cell-simple-mission.html General Physics Mon, 18 May 2026 09:26:12 EDT news698315086 Every four years, the men's World Cup delivers some certainties. The pitch dimensions are tightly regulated, offside is signaled with a flag, and referees end the match with a blast of a whistle. But one key piece of equipment is changed on purpose: the ball. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-world-cup-ball-fly-dip.html General Physics Sun, 17 May 2026 11:00:02 EDT news697903711 If you could take an apple and break it into smaller and smaller parts, you would find molecules, then atoms, followed by subatomic particles like protons and the quarks and gluons that make them up. You might think you hit the bottom, but, according to string theorists, if you keep going to even smaller scales—about a billion billion times smaller than a proton—you will find more: tiny vibrating strings. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-theory-uniquely-derived-basic-assumptions.html General Physics Thu, 14 May 2026 12:26:29 EDT news697980361 Trying to solve quantum gravity is frustrating. We have made tremendous progress in quantum theory, but it seems that every time we find a new quantum technique, there's a reason it doesn't quite work with gravity. Take, for example, the case of quantum fluctuations and renormalization. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-quantum-gravity-cosmological-constant-similar.html General Physics Wed, 13 May 2026 20:00:04 EDT news697890478 Sitting in a restaurant, you reach for the ketchup bottle, eyeing the basket of fries in front of you. You give the bottle a shake, then a tap. For a moment, nothing happens—the ketchup clings stubbornly to the glass. Then, all at once, it lets go and rushes out, sometimes in a steady stream, sometimes in a messy surge that threatens to flood the basket. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-tiny-big-effects-particle-interactions.html General Physics Wed, 13 May 2026 13:03:41 EDT news697896181 When physicists fire beams of fast electrons at materials, they often need to know exactly how much energy those electrons will lose as they travel through. Through new research published in Physical Review Letters, a team led by Ke Jiang at Shenzhen Technology University in China has found that porous, mostly empty foam materials can stop high-current electron beams far more effectively than denser materials—overturning many previous assumptions about how these beams interact with solid materials. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-foam-overturns-assumptions-electron.html General Physics Wed, 13 May 2026 12:00:01 EDT news697886187 In the spring of 2025, baseball fans were treated to a surprise when the New York Yankees began the season with a unique style of bat. Termed "torpedo bats," these new designs tapered slightly toward the end, so the widest points of the bats were closer to the "sweet spot"—the optimal place to hit to send the ball flying. In theory, this shape was more ergonomic, giving the Yankees an advantage at the plate. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-torpedo-shift-baseball-sweet-acoustic.html General Physics Wed, 13 May 2026 11:30:02 EDT news697794026 In Olympic weightlifting, a single kilogram plate can be the difference between gold and silver. As much as possible, elite athletes must use everything they can to their advantage. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-barbell-olympic-lifters.html General Physics Wed, 13 May 2026 11:20:01 EDT news697794058 The largest-ever survey of physicists from around the world—released today—shows a distinct lack of consensus across many of physics's most important questions, from the nature of black holes and dark matter, to the still-incomplete unification of Einstein's theory of gravity with quantum mechanics. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-largest-survey-physicists-standard-cosmology.html General Physics Tue, 12 May 2026 19:20:06 EDT news697817041 Researchers at The University of Osaka, in collaboration with Ritsumeikan University, have demonstrated that growing europium-doped gallium nitride (Eu-doped GaN) on a semipolar crystal plane dramatically improves red light emission. The team found that this approach selectively promotes the formation of highly efficient Eu luminescent centers, resulting in red emission intensity more than 3.6 times higher than that of conventionally grown polar-plane material. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-brighter-red-micro-full-display.html General Physics Tue, 12 May 2026 15:20:09 EDT news697814044 Matter behaves strangely under extreme conditions, and often, remnants of these behaviors are left behind even when conditions return to normal. The Trinity nuclear test in 1945 left behind such remnants, and now, 80 years after the explosion, researchers have identified another unique example of what happens when various materials are heated to temperatures exceeding 1,500 °C (2,730 °F) and put under pressures tens of thousands of times atmospheric pressure. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-years-trinity-nuclear-scientists-molecule.html General Physics Tue, 12 May 2026 12:50:01 EDT news697805584 Dark matter particles could be mediators of the interaction between electrons and atomic nuclei, as shown by a study conducted by junior group leader, Dr. Konstantin Gaul, Dr. Lei Cong, and Professor Dr. Dmitry Budker, of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), Helmholtz Institute Mainz (HIM) and the PRISMA++ Cluster of Excellence. Their work, published last week in Physical Review Letters, presents new constraints on previously unexplored candidates for dark matter and, more generally, some hypothetical particles that are not included in the Standard Model of particle physics (SM). https://phys.org/news/2026-05-unexplored-interactions-electrons-atomic-nuclei.html General Physics Mon, 11 May 2026 19:40:01 EDT news697736521 Theories of quantum mechanics predict that some particles can exist in superpositions, which essentially means that they can be in more than one state at once. When a particle's state is measured, however, this superposition appears to "collapse" into a single outcome; a phenomenon often referred to as the "measurement problem." https://phys.org/news/2026-05-quantum-collapse-theory-xenonnt-dark.html General Physics Thu, 07 May 2026 08:00:06 EDT news697277569 A new model to predict how language changes over time has been developed by a statistical physicist at the University of Portsmouth. The model is a step towards understanding the "statistical physics of language," a scientific theory which borrows ideas from the physics of interacting particles to explain how words, accents, and dialects spread, shift, and disappear across regions and generations, and how they might change in future. The research is published in the journal Physical Review E. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-small-big-trends-physics-language.html General Physics Tue, 05 May 2026 18:40:03 EDT news697203721 Electronic nematicity is a phase of some crystalline solids in which electrons' collective properties, such as charge or spin densities, organize themselves into ordered patterns, lowering the crystal's rotational symmetry. This phase is found across a wide range of diverse materials, making nematicity crucial to understanding emergent solid-state phenomena, such as unconventional superconductivity and magnetism. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-elastic-nematic-crystals-disordered.html General Physics Tue, 05 May 2026 13:30:01 EDT news697205041 The mechanism that can cause a rapidly expanding plasma—the superhot state of matter harnessed in fusion energy systems—to spontaneously generate its own magnetic fields was identified through a new set of simulations. This improves our understanding of naturally occurring plasmas in our universe and advances the development of fusion systems based on an approach called direct-drive inertial fusion. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-lasers-rapidly-magnetize-fusion-plasmas.html General Physics Tue, 05 May 2026 11:20:07 EDT news697193762 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