Particle astrophysics is a research area at the interface of particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology that investigates fundamental particles and their interactions using astrophysical sources and environments. It focuses on high-energy messengers such as cosmic rays, gamma rays, neutrinos, and, increasingly, gravitational waves to probe processes in extreme settings like supernovae, active galactic nuclei, compact object mergers, and the early universe. The field seeks to constrain particle properties, test physics beyond the Standard Model, study dark matter and dark energy candidates, and elucidate acceleration and propagation mechanisms through multi-messenger observations and advanced detection techniques.
Ultra-high energy cosmic rays, which emerge in extreme astrophysical environments—like the roiling environments near black holes and neutron stars—have far more energy than the energetic particles that emerge from our ...
Astronomy
Dec 10, 2024
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An interdisciplinary collaboration between condensed-matter, quantum-optics and particle physicists has the potential to crack the search for low-mass dark matter. The proposed quantum detector builds on EQUS studies of elementary ...
General Physics
Dec 6, 2024
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130
Dark matter made out of axions may have the power to make space-time ring like a bell, but only if it is able to steal energy from black holes, according to new research.
Astronomy
Nov 25, 2024
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In an underground lab in a mountainous region of Italy that contains the coldest temperatures known to exist in the universe, teams of international scientists are to trying to solve one of the biggest mysteries in particle ...
General Physics
Nov 22, 2024
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Fine tuning an experimental setup improved a detector's sensitivity to neutrinos and perhaps eventually dark matter—two difficult-to-measure forms of matter which hold great importance for understanding particle physics ...
General Physics
Nov 4, 2024
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The Physics of the Accelerating Universe Survey (PAUS), an international collaboration across 14 institutions, has covered a sky area of 50 square degrees, similar to approximately 250 full moons.
Astronomy
Sep 28, 2024
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55
A new study published in Physical Review Letters (PRL) proposes using gravitational wave detectors like LIGO to search for scalar field dark matter.
In experiments at the Brookhaven National Lab in the US, an international team of physicists has detected the heaviest "anti-nuclei" ever seen. The tiny, short-lived objects are composed of exotic antimatter particles.
General Physics
Aug 25, 2024
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274
Researchers at KU Leuven, the University of Colorado, Boulder, the Flatiron Institute, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison recently set out to answer a long-standing research question, specifically whether charged particles ...
The early universe was 250,000 times hotter than the core of our sun. That's far too hot to form the protons and neutrons that make up everyday matter. Scientists recreate the conditions of the early universe in particle ...
General Physics
Jul 29, 2024
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