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.
Dark energy—a mysterious force pushing the universe apart at an ever-increasing rate—was discovered 26 years ago, and ever since, scientists have been searching for a new and exotic particle causing the expansion.
General Physics
Jun 26, 2024
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In a study published in The Astrophysical Journal, Prof. Zhou Xia from the Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory (XAO) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and collaborators have, for the first time, derived the dispersion relation ...
General Physics
Jun 11, 2024
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Depictions of the Roman goddess of wisdom Minerva show her in flowing robes, wearing a noble war helmet and holding an owl. In contrast, the MINERvA experiment features a huge particle detector with the names of collaborating ...
General Physics
May 21, 2024
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Approximately 80% of the matter in the universe is predicted to be so-called "dark matter," which does not emit, reflect, or absorb light and thus cannot be directly detected using conventional experimental techniques.
In a new study published inNature Physics, scientists at the MAJORANA Collaboration have tested the stringency of charge conservation and Pauli's exclusion principles using underground detectors. Alessio Porcelli has published ...
Researchers at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica have found seven signals that could potentially indicate tau neutrinos—which are famously hard to detect—from astrophysical objects.
Operating at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) since 2022, the FASER experiment is designed to search for extremely weakly interacting particles. Such particles are predicted by many theories beyond the Standard Model that ...
General Physics
Apr 8, 2024
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Ever since its discovery, dark matter has remained invisible to scientists despite the launch of multiple ultra-sensitive particle detector experiments around the world over several decades.
General Physics
Mar 27, 2024
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Several thousand sensors distributed over a square kilometer near the South Pole are tasked with answering one of the large outstanding questions in physics: does quantum gravity exist? The sensors monitor neutrinos—particles ...
General Physics
Mar 26, 2024
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High-energy neutrinos are extremely rare particles that have so far proved very difficult to detect. Fluxes of these rare particles were first detected by the IceCube Collaboration back in 2013.
