Exotic quantum particles—less magnetic field required

Exotic quantum particles and phenomena are like the world's most daring elite athletes. Like the free solo climbers who scale impossibly steep cliff faces without a rope or harness, only the most extreme conditions will entice ...

Light may unlock a new quantum dance for electrons in graphene

A team of researchers has devised a simple way to tune a hallmark quantum effect in graphene—the material formed from a single layer of carbon atoms—by bathing it in light. Their theoretical work, which was published ...

LHCb unveils new particles

On 28 June, the LHCb collaboration reported the observation of three new "exotic" particles and the confirmation of the existence of a fourth one in data from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). These particles seem to be formed ...

Physicist explains significance of Higgs boson discovery

In July, physicists were ecstatic in announcing preliminary results pointing to the discovery of the long-sought Higgs boson particle. The Higgs boson is a tiny subatomic particle that apparently weighs about 130 times as ...