Chaos, as a research area, investigates the behavior of deterministic nonlinear dynamical systems that exhibit sensitive dependence on initial conditions, leading to aperiodic, seemingly random evolution in phase space despite underlying determinism. It encompasses the study of strange attractors, bifurcation structures, Lyapunov exponents, fractal dimensions, and invariant measures, with applications across physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, and economics. Research in chaos focuses on rigorous characterization of chaotic regimes, routes to chaos (such as period-doubling and intermittency), control and synchronization of chaotic systems, and numerical and analytical methods for modeling, predicting, and quantifying complex spatiotemporal dynamics.
Whether the dust borne on the violent winds of a tornado or the sugar grains in a swirled cup of coffee, the behavior of particles carried along in turbulence is subject to some similarities—all of them difficult to predict ...
General Physics
May 26, 2026
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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 ...
General Physics
May 19, 2026
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Theoretical physicists in the US have discovered a "speed limit" on the time taken for quantum information to spread through larger systems. Publishing their results in Physical Review Letters, Amit Vikram and colleagues ...
An AI model informed by calculations from a quantum computer can better predict the behavior of a complex physical system over the long term than current best models that use only conventional computers, according to a new ...
Soft Matter
Apr 17, 2026
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In quantum physics, objects can exist in multiple states at the same time—a phenomenon known as quantum superposition, where a particle does not have a single definite value of position or momentum until it is measured. A ...
General Physics
Apr 14, 2026
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In a tank on the bottom floor of a University of Chicago research laboratory, scientists summon "The Blob" into existence by firing water jets to create an artfully choreographed series of rings.
General Physics
Apr 14, 2026
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Researchers from the Monash University School of Physics and Astronomy have flipped a long-held assumption in optics, showing that deliberately introducing controlled disorder into ultra-thin optical devices can dramatically ...
Optics & Photonics
Apr 10, 2026
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Rivers are rarely the calm, orderly streams we imagine on maps. Over time, their winding paths—called meanders—shift, bend, and occasionally snap off in sudden "cutoff" events that shorten loops and reshape the landscape. ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 1, 2026
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You may not be able to hear it, but all solid materials make a sound. In fact, atoms—bound in lattices of chemical bonds—are never silent nor still: Under the placid surface of each and every object in our surroundings, a ...
Condensed Matter
Mar 24, 2026
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With AI, it's now possible for researchers to predict the three-dimensional structures of proteins directly from their amino-acid sequences. But what biologists really want to predict, says Columbia biophysicist Hashim Al-Hashimi, ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Mar 21, 2026
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