Fractals, as physical systems, are structures or patterns in nature and materials that exhibit self-similarity or scale invariance over a range of length scales, often characterized by a non-integer (fractal) dimension. They arise in diverse contexts such as aggregation processes, porous media, fracture surfaces, dendritic growth, and critical phenomena. Physical fractals are analyzed using tools like box-counting, correlation functions, and scaling laws to quantify their geometry and its impact on transport, mechanical, or dynamical properties. In experiments and simulations, fractal geometry provides a framework for understanding anomalous diffusion, percolation, roughness, and critical scaling behavior in complex physical systems.
Researchers at Cardiff University have presented two studies at the 2026 International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML 2026) that address fundamental challenges in modern AI: understanding the complex geometry and relationships ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Sep 1, 2026
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A team of scientists from Princeton University has measured the energies of electrons in a new class of quantum materials and has found them to follow a fractal pattern. Fractals are self-repeating patterns that occur on ...
Condensed Matter
Feb 26, 2025
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485
For decades, cosmologists have wondered if the large-scale structure of the universe is a fractal: if it looks the same no matter the scale. And the answer is: no, not really. But in some ways, yes. Look, it's complicated.
Astronomy
Dec 24, 2024
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When a magnet is heated up, it reaches a critical point where it loses magnetization. Called "criticality," this point of high complexity is reached when a physical object is transitioning smoothly from one phase into the ...
General Physics
Jun 10, 2024
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Researchers at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN), a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility at DOE's Brookhaven National Laboratory, and Northrop Grumman, a multinational aerospace and ...
Nanophysics
Sep 8, 2023
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130
It has been known that nanoparticles, for example, exhibit quite different properties from the bulk samples of the same materials. Yet nobody knows why. Ehime University researchers discovered a control method of the fractal ...
Nanomaterials
Feb 28, 2022
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