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Particle physics.

Forests might serve as enormous neutrino detectors 

Trees could act as antennas that pick up radio waves of ultra-high energy neutrinos interactions, one physicist proposes.

Scientists finally detected oxygen-28. Its instability surprised them

There’s a new measurement of muon magnetism. what it means isn’t clear, more stories in particle physics.

‘Ghost Particle’ chronicles the neutrino’s discovery and what’s left to learn

Author James Riordon discusses his new book, why neutrinos are so important and how physicists are on the verge of making big discoveries about them.

Muons unveiled new details about a void in Egypt’s Great Pyramid

The subatomic particles revealed the dimensions of the void, discovered in 2016, and helped researchers know where to stick a camera inside.

The standard model of particle physics passed one of its strictest tests yet

An experiment with a single electron, trapped for months on end, produced one of the most precise tests yet of the standard model of particle physics.

50 years ago, physicists found the speed of light

In the 1970s, scientists set a new maximum speed limit for light. Fifty years later, they continue putting light through its paces.

Carlos Argüelles hunts for particles beyond the standard model

Carlos Argüelles overcame hardship and discrimination to pursue a passion for physics.

How ghostly neutrinos could explain the universe’s matter mystery

If neutrinos behave differently from their antimatter counterparts, it could help explain why our cosmos is full of stuff.

50 years ago, physicists got a whiff of what glues together protons

In 1972, particle smashups hinted at the gluon, which we now know not only holds together the innards of the proton, but also makes up more than a third of its mass.

Protons contain intrinsic charm quarks, a new study suggests

The massive quarks — counterintuitively heavier than the proton itself — might carry about 0.6 percent of a proton’s momentum.

Physicists spotted rare W boson trios at the Large Hadron Collider

By measuring how often triplets of particles called W bosons appear, scientists can check physics’ standard model for any cracks.

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Department of Physics

Particle physics, experimental.

The experimental  High Energy Physics group  is active in a range of experiments studying the fundamental constituents of matter. The work includes accelerator-based experiments, studies using nuclear reactors, and the detection of new particles from astrophysical sources. This research takes place within the  Enrico Fermi Institute  and in many cases is joint with faculty in other departments. Faculty also work in close collaboration with researchers at  CERN , the  Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory  and  Argonne National Laboratory . The University of Chicago manages the latter two laboratories for the Department of Energy. Current research in high-energy physics includes studies of p-p interactions using the LHC at CERN; searches for weakly interacting and/or long-lived particles at dedicated experiments near accelerators like the LHC; development of new technologies, sensor concepts, collider facilities, and accelerator concepts for future high-energy experiments; searches for supersymmetric particles, dark sectors, and other unobserved forms of matter; precision tests of electroweak theory through measurements of the properties of the top quark and the W and Z bosons; searches for dark matter, both in collider experiments and from astrophysical sources; study of neutrino oscillations; studies of the highest energy cosmic rays; high-precision measurement of CP violation in K decays and high-sensitivity search for rare K decays. - View the experimental particle physics faculty .

Theoretical

The Particle Theory Group, part of the  Enrico Fermi Institute  and associated with the Kadanoff Center for Theoretical Physics,  and the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics carries out research on a wide range of theoretical topics in formal and phenomenological particle physics, including field theory, string theory, supersymmetry, the standard model and beyond, cosmology, and mathematical physics. Among the many research topics are string theory and unification, duality in gauge theory and string theory, solitons and topological structures, D-branes, non-commutative geometry, the AdS/CFT correspondence, inflationary cosmology, the cosmological constant problem, CP violation, B physics, baryogenesis, supersymmetric model building, precision electroweak measurements, low-energy supersymmetry, heavy quark physics, confinement in QCD, quantum theory of black holes, large extra dimensions, fermion mass hierarchy, and integrable systems. There are strong ties to the  Fermilab Theoretical Physics Group , the  Argonne Theoretical High Energy Group , and the  High Energy Experiment group at Chicago . Detailed information about the Particle Theory Group can be found here .  -  View the theoretical particle physics faculty . 

Experimental Particle Physics Faculty

Edward blucher.

Professor. Co-Spokesperson, DUNE Collaboration; Director, Enrico Fermi Institute.

For more information about Professor Blucher, please visit his webpage .

Juan Collar

Professor; experimental astrophysics.

For more information about Professor Collar, please visit his webpage .

David DeMille

For more information about Professor DeMille, please visit his webpage .

Karri DiPetrillo

Assistant Professor

For more information about Professor DiPetrillo, please visit her webpage .

Bonnie Fleming

Professor; Deputy Director and Chief Research Officer, Fermilab

For more information about Professor Fleming, please visit her webpage .

Henry Frisch

For more information about Professor Frisch, please visit his webpage .

Luca Grandi

Associate Professor.

For more information about Professor Grandi, please visit his webpage .

Young-Kee Kim

Professor; APS President-Elect.

For more information about Professor Kim, please visit her webpage .

David Miller

For more information about Professor Miller, please visit his webpage .

Mark Oreglia

For more information about Professor Oreglia, please visit his webpage .

James Pilcher

Professor Emeritus.

For more information about Professor Pilcher, please visit his webpage .

Paolo Privitera

For more information about Professor Privitera, please visit his webpage .

David Schmitz

For more information about Professor Schmitz, please visit his webpage .

Melvyn Shochet

For more information about Professor Shochet, please visit his webpage .

For more information about Professor Wah, please visit his webpage .

Theoretical Particle Physics Faculty

Marcela carena.

Professor (Part-time); Head of the Theory Division, Fermilab.

For more information about Professor Carena, please visit her webpage .

Clay Córdova

Assistant Professor.

For more information about Professor Córdova, please visit his webpage .

Luca Delacrétaz

For more information about Professor Delacrétaz, please visit his webpage .

Keisuke Harigaya

For more information about Professor Harigaya, please visit his webpage .

Jeffrey Harvey

For more information about Professor Harvey, please visit his webpage .

David Kutasov

For more information about Professor Kutasov, please visit his webpage .

Emil Martinec

For more information about Professor Martinec, please visit his webpage .

Jonathan Rosner

Professor Emeritus

For more information about Professor Rosner, please visit his webpage .

Savdeep Sethi

For more information about Professor Sethi, please visit his webpage .

University Professor.

For more information about Professor Son, please visit his webpage .

Carlos Wagner

Professor (Half-time); Head High-Energy Physics Theory Group, Argonne National Lab.

For more information about Professor Wagner, please visit his webpage .

LianTao Wang

For more information about Professor Wang, please visit his webpage .

Particle physics RSS feed

Working at the forefront of particle physics, SLAC scientists use powerful particle accelerators to create and study nature’s fundamental building blocks and forces, build sensitive detectors to search for new particles and develop theories that explain and guide experiments. SLAC's particle physicists want to understand our universe – from its smallest constituents to its largest structures.

Related links: Physics of the universe Elementary particle physics

Symmetry: Physics vocabulary, AI edition

Do you know your convolutional neural networks from your boosted decision trees?

Symmetry’s guide to AI in particle physics and astrophysics

In the coming weeks, Symmetry will explore the ways scientists are using artificial intelligence to advance particle physics and astrophysics—in a series of articles...

First results from DESI make the most precise measurement of our expanding universe

Researchers have used the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument to make the largest 3D map of our universe and world-leading measurements of dark energy, the...

SLAC completes construction of the largest digital camera ever built for astronomy

Once set in place atop a telescope in Chile, the 3,200-megapixel LSST Camera will help researchers better understand dark matter, dark energy and other...

Scientists propose a new way to search for dark matter

In a new study, SLAC researchers suggest a small-scale solution could be the key to solving a large-scale mystery.

SLAC technology designed to detect dark matter could lead to a better understanding of galaxy evolution

Sensors designed and created at SLAC could help a proposed satellite mission map the X-ray emissions of galaxies with unprecedented precision.

Symmetry: A trio of paths toward the discovery machine of the future

An advisory committee recommends the US work to advance three key areas of emerging accelerator technology.

Striving toward a new era of the LHC

SLAC experimentalists and theorists collaborate to develop critical detector components, data analysis tools, and theoretical models for the HL-LHC upgrade, which will investigate the...

Final supernova results from Dark Energy Survey offer unique insights into the expansion of the universe

The latest results put the strongest constraints on the expansion of the universe ever obtained with DES supernova data.

Recommendations for U.S. government investments in particle physics include SLAC research priorities

A new report outlines suggestions for federal investments needed for the next generation of transformative discoveries in particle physics and cosmology, including priority projects...

Imagining the future of gravitational-wave research

To understand why scientists are excited about detecting a new background, just look to the history of studies of the CMB.

Kelly Stifter and Julia Gonski awarded 2023 Panofsky Fellowships at SLAC

They’ll work on experiments searching for dark matter and physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics to push our understanding of what makes...

In the coming weeks, Symmetry will explore the ways scientists are using artificial intelligence to advance particle physics and astrophysics—in a series of articles written and illustrated entirely by humans.

Researchers have used the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument to make the largest 3D map of our universe and world-leading measurements of dark energy, the mysterious force behind its accelerating expansion.

Once set in place atop a telescope in Chile, the 3,200-megapixel LSST Camera will help researchers better understand dark matter, dark energy and other mysteries of our universe.

SLAC experimentalists and theorists collaborate to develop critical detector components, data analysis tools, and theoretical models for the HL-LHC upgrade, which will investigate the Higgs boson and pursue physics beyond the Standard Model.

A new report outlines suggestions for federal investments needed for the next generation of transformative discoveries in particle physics and cosmology, including priority projects at SLAC.

They’ll work on experiments searching for dark matter and physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics to push our understanding of what makes up the universe.

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Research topics

Astrophysical magnetism and the interstellar medium.

What fills the space between the stars? In addition to stars, planets, and dark matter, galaxies are home to vast reservoirs of gas and dust, high-energy particles, and magnetic fields. This is the interstellar medium (ISM): the stuff between the stars. The interstellar medium is the material from which new stars are born.

Black Holes

Cosmic Microwave Background

Dark Energy

One of the most important and surprising scientific discoveries of the twentieth century is that the expansion of space is not slowing down, but speeding up—contrary to what we expect the gravitational pull of all the matter in the Universe to do. The driver of this accelerating expansion has been labeled "dark energy," but there is much about the phenomenon that researchers don’t understand.

Dark Matter

First Stars and Galaxies

Roughly 400,000 years after the Big Bang, the Universe—bathing in the afterglow of radiation that we see today as the cosmic microwave background—began to enter the cosmic “dark ages,” so named because the luminous stars and galaxies we see today had yet to form.

Galaxy Clusters

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Optical Surveys

In the traditional model of astronomical observation, individual or small teams of astronomers study a select class of objects in a small region of sky. However, some of the most exciting cosmological and astrophysical results in recent years have required the study of millions of galaxies over thousands of square degrees of sky.

Particle Acceleration

Scientific Visualization and Data Analysis

KIPAC's visualization and data analysis facilities provide hardware and software solutions that help users at KIPAC and SLAC to analyze their large-scale scientific data sets.

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11.2: Introduction to Particle Physics

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Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Describe the four fundamental forces and what particles participate in them
• Identify and describe fermions and bosons
• Identify and describe the quark and lepton families
• Distinguish between particles and antiparticles, and describe their interactions

Elementary particle physics is the study of fundamental particles and their interactions in nature. Those who study elementary particle physics—the particle physicists—differ from other physicists in the scale of the systems that they study. A particle physicist is not content to study the microscopic world of cells, molecules, atoms, or even atomic nuclei. They are interested in physical processes that occur at scales even smaller than atomic nuclei. At the same time, they engage the most profound mysteries in nature: How did the universe begin? What explains the pattern of masses in the universe? Why is there more matter than antimatter in the universe? Why are energy and momentum conserved? How will the universe evolve?

Four Fundamental Forces

An important step to answering these questions is to understand particles and their interactions. Particle interactions are expressed in terms of four fundamental forc es. In order of decreasing strength, these forces are the strong nuclear force , the electromagnetic force, the weak nuclear force , and the gravitational force.

• Strong nuclear force. The strong nuclear force is a very strong attractive force that acts only over very short distances (about \(10^{-15}m\)). The strong nuclear force is responsible for binding protons and neutrons together in atomic nuclei. Not all particles participate in the strong nuclear force; for instance, electrons and neutrinos are not affected by it. As the name suggests, this force is much stronger than the other forces.
• Electromagnetic force. The electromagnetic force can act over very large distances (it has an infinite range) but is only 1/100 the strength of the strong nuclear force. Particles that interact through this force are said to have “charge.” In the classical theory of static electricity (Coulomb’s law), the electric force varies as the product of the charges of the interacting particles, and as the inverse square of the distances between them. In contrast to the strong force, the electromagnetic force can be attractive or repulsive (opposite charges attract and like charges repel). The magnetic force depends in a more complicated way on the charges and their motions. The unification of the electric and magnetic force into a single electromagnetic force (an achievement of James Clerk Maxwell) stands as one of the greatest intellectual achievements of the nineteenth century. This force is central to scientific models of atomic structure and molecular bonding.
• Weak nuclear force. The weak nuclear force acts over very short distances \((10^{-15}m)\) and, as its name suggest, is very weak. It is roughly \(10^{-6}\) the strength of the strong nuclear force. This force is manifested most notably in decays of elementary particles and neutrino interactions. For example, the neutron can decay to a proton, electron, and electron neutrino through the weak force. The weak force is vitally important because it is essential for understanding stellar nucleosynthesis—the process that creates new atomic nuclei in the cores of stars.
• Gravitational force. Like the electromagnetic force, the gravitational force can act over infinitely large distances; however, it is only \(10^{-38}\) as strong as the strong nuclear force. In Newton’s classical theory of gravity, the force of gravity varies as the product of the masses of the interacting particles and as the inverse square of the distance between them. This force is an attractive force that acts between all particles with mass. In modern theories of gravity, this force behavior is considered a special case for low-energy macroscopic interactions. Compared with the other forces of nature, gravity is by far the weakest.

The fundamental forces may not be truly “fundamental” but may actually be different aspects of the same force. Just as the electric and magnetic forces were unified into an electromagnetic force, physicists in the 1970s unified the electromagnetic force with the weak nuclear force into an electroweak force . Any scientific theory that attempts to unify the electroweak force and strong nuclear force is called a grand unified theory , and any theory that attempts to unify all four forces is called a theory of everything . We will return to the concept of unification later in this chapter.

Classifications of Elementary Particles

A large number of subatomic particles exist in nature. These particles can be classified in two ways: the property of spin and participation in the four fundamental forces. Recall that the spin of a particle is analogous to the rotation of a macroscopic object about its own axis. These types of classification are described separately below.

Classification by spin

Particles of matter can be divided into fermion s and boson s . Fermions have half-integral spin \((\frac{1}{2}\hbar, \frac{1}{2}\hbar,. . . )\) and bosons have integral spin \((0\hbar, 1\hbar, 2\hbar, . . . )\).

Familiar examples of fermions are electrons, protons, and neutrons. A familiar example of a boson is a photon. Fermions and bosons behave very differently in groups. For example, when electrons are confined to a small region of space, Pauli’s exclusion principle states that no two electrons can occupy the same quantum-mechanical state. However, when photons are confined to a small region of space, there is no such limitation.

The behavior of fermions and bosons in groups can be understood in terms of the property of indistinguishability. Particles are said to be “indistinguishable” if they are identical to one another. For example, electrons are indistinguishable because every electron in the universe has exactly the same mass and spin as all other electrons—“when you’ve seen one electron, you’ve seen them all.” If you switch two indistinguishable particles in the same small region of space, the square of the wave function that describes this system and can be measured \((|\psi|^2)\) is unchanged. If this were not the case, we could tell whether or not the particles had been switched and the particle would not be truly indistinguishable. Fermions and bosons differ by whether the sign of the wave function \((\psi)\) - not directly observable—flips:

\[\psi \rightarrow - \psi \, (indistinguishable \, fermions), \nonumber \]

\[\psi \rightarrow + \psi \, (indistinguishable \, bosons). \nonumber \]

Fermions are said to be “antisymmetric on exchange” and bosons are “symmetric on exchange.” Pauli’s exclusion principle is a consequence of exchange symmetry of fermions—a connection developed in a more advanced course in modern physics. The electronic structure of atoms is predicated on Pauli’s exclusion principle and is therefore directly related to the indistinguishability of electrons.

Classification by force interactions

Fermions can be further divided into quark s and lepton s . The primary difference between these two types of particles is that quarks interact via the strong force and leptons do not. Quarks and leptons (as well as bosons to be discussed later) are organized in Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\). The upper two rows (first three columns in purple) contain six quarks. These quarks are arranged into two particle families: up, charm, and top ( u , c , t ), and down, strange, and bottom ( d , s , b ). Members of the same particle family share the same properties but differ in mass (given in \(MeV/c^2\)). For example, the mass of the top quark is much greater than the charm quark, and the mass of the charm quark is much greater than the up quark. All quarks interact with one another through the strong nuclear force.

Ordinary matter consists of two types of quarks: the up quark (elementary charge, \(q = +2/3\)) and the down quark (\(q = -1/3\)). Heavier quarks are unstable and quickly decay to lighter ones via the weak force. Quarks bind together in groups of twos and threes called hadron s via the strong force. Hadrons that consist of two quarks are called mesons , and those that consist of three quarks are called baryons . Examples of mesons include the pion and kaon, and examples of baryons include the familiar proton and neutron. A proton is two up quarks and a down quark \((p = uud, \, q = +1)\) and a neutron is one up quark and two down quarks (\(n = udd, \, q = 0\)). Properties of sample mesons and baryons are given in Table \(\PageIndex{1}\). Quarks participate in all four fundamental forces: strong, weak, electromagnetic, and gravitational.

The lower two rows in the figure (in green) contain six leptons arranged into two particle families: electron, muon, and tau (\(e, \mu, \tau\)), and electron neutrino, muon neutrino, and tau neutrino (\(\nu_e, \nu_{\mu}, \nu_T\)).

The muon is over 200 times heavier than an electron, but is otherwise similar to the electron. The tau is about 3500 times heavier than the electron, but is otherwise similar to the muon and electron. Once created, the muon and tau quickly decay to lighter particles via the weak force. Leptons do not participate in the strong force. Quarks and leptons will be discussed later in this chapter. Leptons participate in the weak, electromagnetic, and gravitational forces, but do not participate in the strong force.

Bosons (shown in red) are the force carriers of the fermions. In this model, leptons and quarks interact with each other by sending and receiving bosons. For example, Coulombic interaction occurs when two positively charged particles send and receive (exchange) photons. The photons are said to “carry” the force between charged particles. Likewise, attraction between two quarks in an atomic nucleus occurs when two quarks send and receive gluon s . Additional examples include W and Z boson s (which carry weak nuclear force) and gravitons (which carry gravitational force). The Higgs boson is a special particle: When it interacts with other particles, it endows them not with force but with mass. In other words, the Higgs boson helps to explains why particles have mass. These assertions are part of a tentative but very productive scientific model (the Standard Model) discussed later.

Particles and Antiparticles

In the late 1920s, the special theory of relativity and quantum mechanics were combined into a relativistic quantum theory of the electron. A surprising result of this theory was the prediction of two energy states for each electron: One is associated with the electron, and the other is associated with another particle with the same mass of an electron but with a charge of \(e^+\). This particle is called the antielectron or positron . The positron was discovered experimentally in the 1930s.

Soon it was discovered that for every particle in nature, there is a corresponding antiparticle . An antiparticle has the same mass and lifetime as its associated particle, and the opposite sign of electric charge. These particles are produced in high-energy reactions. Examples of high-energy particles include the antimuon \((\mu^+\)), anti-up quark (\(u\)), and anti-down quark (\(d\)). (Note that antiparticles for quarks are designated with an over-bar.) Many mesons and baryons contain antiparticles. For example, the antiproton ((\overline{p}\)) is \(\overline{u}\overline{u}\overline{d}\) and the positively charged pion (\(\pi^+\)) is \(u\overline{d}\). Some neutral particles, such as the photon and the \(\pi^0\) meson, are their own antiparticles. Sample particles, antiparticles, and their properties are listed in Table \(\PageIndex{1}\).

Particles and their Properties

The same forces that hold ordinary matter together also hold antimatter together. Under the right conditions, it is possible to create antiatoms such as antihydrogen, antioxygen, and even antiwater. In antiatoms, positrons orbit a negatively charged nucleus of antiprotons and antineutrons. Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\) compares atoms and antiatoms.

Antimatter cannot exist for long in nature because particles and antiparticles annihilate each other to produce high-energy radiation. A common example is electron-positron annihilation. This process proceeds by the reaction

\[e^- + e^+ \rightarrow 2\gamma. \nonumber \]

The electron and positron vanish completely and two photons are produced in their place. (It turns out that the production of a single photon would violate conservation of energy and momentum.) This reaction can also proceed in the reverse direction: Two photons can annihilate each other to produce an electron and positron pair. Or, a single photon can produce an electron-positron pair in the field of a nucleus, a process called pair production. Reactions of this kind are measured routinely in modern particle detectors. The existence of antiparticles in nature is not science fiction.

Watch this video to learn more about matter and antimatter particles.

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Elementary Particle Physics

The field of High Energy Physics (HEP) focuses on the study of the fundamental particles that make up the universe and their interactions via the basic forces of nature. It addresses questions such as: Why is there mass? What happened to anti-matter? What is dark matter? What is the nature of the forces that cause particles to interact? We search for answers to these questions using high-energy particle colliders, cosmic rays and neutrinos, ultra-sensitive detectors, and theoretical inquiry.

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The research programme at CERN covers topics from the basic structure of matter to cosmic rays, and from the Standard Model to supersymmetry

CERN's main focus is particle physics – the study of the fundamental constituents of matter – but the physics programme at the laboratory is much broader, ranging from nuclear to high-energy physics, from studies of antimatter to the possible effects of cosmic rays on clouds.

Since the 1970s, particle physicists have described the fundamental structure of matter using an elegant series of equations called the Standard Model . The model describes how everything that they observe in the universe is made from a few basic blocks called fundamental particles, governed by four forces. Physicists at CERN use the world's most powerful particle accelerators and detectors to test the predictions and limits of the Standard Model. Over the years it has explained many experimental results and precisely predicted a range of phenomena, such that today it is considered a well-tested physics theory.

But the model only describes the 4% of the known universe, and questions remain. Will we see a unification of forces at the high energies of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)? Why is gravity so weak? Why is there more matter than antimatter in the universe? Is there more exotic physics waiting to be discovered at higher energies? Will we discover evidence for a theory called supersymmetry at the LHC? Or understand  the Higgs boson that gives particles mass?

Physicists at CERN are looking for answers to these questions and more – find out more below.

What does “five sigma” mean?

Particles and forces.

Scientists at CERN are trying to find out what the smallest building blocks of matter are.

All matter except dark matter is made of molecules, which are themselves made of atoms. Inside the atoms, there are electrons spinning around the nucleus. The nucleus itself is generally made of protons and neutrons but even these are composite objects. Inside the protons and neutrons, we find the quarks, but these appear to be indivisible, just like the electrons.

Quarks and electrons are some of the elementary particles we study at CERN and in other laboratories. But physicists have found more of these elementary particles in various experiments, so many in fact that researchers needed to organize them, just like Mendeleev did with his periodic table.

This is summarized in a concise theoretical model called the Standard Model . Today, we have a very good idea of what matter is made of, how it all holds together and how these particles interact with each other.

Standard model

Higgs boson, understanding our universe, the early universe, heavy ions and quark gluon plasma, matter-antimatter asymmetry, dark matter, cosmic rays: particles from outer space, supersymmetry, compositeness, unified forces, extra dimensions, gravitons, and tiny black h....

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Research Article

Particle Physics in High School: A Diagnose Study

* E-mail: [email protected]

Affiliation Science Education Department, Facultat de Magisteri, Universitat de València, 46022 València, Spain

• Paula Tuzón, 
• Jordi Solbes

• Published: June 2, 2016
• https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0156526
• Reader Comments

The science learning process improves when the contents are connected to students’ lives. Particle physics has had a great impact in our society in the last years and has changed the theoretical picture about matter fundamental dynamics. Thus, we think that academic contents about matter components and interactions should be updated. With this study we aim to characterize the level of knowledge of high school students about this topic. We built a test with questions about classical atomic models, particle physics, recent discoveries, social implications and students opinions about it. Contrary to our first suspicion, students’ answers show a high variability. They have new physics ideas and show a great interest towards modern concepts. We suggest including an updated view of this topic as part of the curriculum.

Citation: Tuzón P, Solbes J (2016) Particle Physics in High School: A Diagnose Study. PLoS ONE 11(6): e0156526. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0156526

Editor: Alejandro Raul Hernandez Montoya, Universidad Veracruzana, MEXICO

Received: November 11, 2015; Accepted: May 16, 2016; Published: June 2, 2016

Copyright: © 2016 Tuzón, Solbes. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability: All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files.

Funding: The authors have no support or funding to report.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Introduction

Physics and Chemistry (P&Ch) Spanish Curriculum along the different secondary school levels is organized around topics related to the structure and interactions of matter. Motion dynamics, macroscopic forces, energy and work, gravitational and electrical fields, atoms, elements, molecules, chemical bonds, material properties and so on, are all concepts that try to develop the very first ideas about the basic components of matter and their interactions. Some of these concepts are usually introduced by using history of science, teaching different models that had been modified and changed while science and technology were moving forward. This methodology approaches students to the nature of science and contextualizes the steps performed in scientific progress [ 1 ].

However it is surprising that in the case of concepts related to matter components, this approach usually stops at the end of the 19th century or, luckily, at the beginning of the 20th century, ignoring the current picture provided by the Standard Model of Particle Physics [ 2 , 3 ]. Moreover, modern concepts, when not ignored, appear disaggregated from the teaching sequence, isolated and incomplete, which brings even more confusion [ 3 ]. The aim of a secondary school level cannot be to provide a deep understanding of all complex new physics ideas, but to introduce some of them. There is no curricular or educational argument against it. On the contrary, studies suggest that presenting updated physics concepts improves learning and increases the interest towards science [ 4 – 9 ]. The Spanish P&Ch Curriculum includes concepts such as “atomic models”, “matter components” or “fundamental interactions”, but it does not detail either the content or “until when” (in history) students should learn those concepts. So, this historical bias is striking, especially given that one of the main recommendations included in the law describing this curriculum is “to introduce all the concepts following the nature of science and connecting the concepts with today’s society”.

The nature of science refers to the importance of learning procedural skills in science class, besides concepts. Among many procedural skills to develop in science education, there is the hypothesis or model building [ 10 ]. Historically, atomic and nuclear models about fundamental particles and their interactions have been built by refining the previous ones. Inquiry based science education studies [ 8 , 11 – 13 ] strongly recommend to bring such refining process to science class. Models never represent closed truths, they always open new prospects when their limitations are analyzed. Under this point of view, it makes even less sense to stop the learning process on the 19th century atomic and nuclear models, because their prospects and limitations have already been overcome by other models along the 20th and 21st centuries. Avoiding these new models introduces an artificial and unjustified bias in the atomic and nuclear modelling process [ 8 ]. Moreover, this break on the models of matter timeline is sometimes faked [ 3 ], since, for example, neutrons use to be introduced at the same time as protons and electrons as part of the same model. Neutrons appeared later and only after the proton-electron model revision. Their role is therefore poorely understood.

By last, it is important to stress about the need to introduce updated concepts according to their obvious connection with the social context [ 14 ]. It is undeniable the impact that modern physics concepts of matter has had in our lives. The Standard Model of Particle Physics is behind most of the daily used new technology, the development of knowledge areas like Materials Science and Computer Science (e.g. Grid) or some new therapies and tools in medicine. Thus students might be interested about the modern physics behind the things that surround them. And precisely because of this contact, they probably have some (preliminary) conceptions about modern physics already, also coming from media, literature or films, which motivates a systematic treatment in class.

There are studies about students knowledge and misconceptions about the basic theories of modern physics, quantum mechanics and relativity [ 9 , 15 , 16 ]. However, data about the students knowledge of particle physics is scarce [ 6 , 7 , 9 , 17 ] and further studies are needed. Information about students’ previous ideas and attitudes is essential in order to develop teaching strategies and interventions. The aim of this paper is to identify the lacks in comprehension and learning structure about matter components and their interactions towards their updated version. Do students know why there is matter and what is made of? Do they have an old-fashioned view of it? Do updated ideas show up in some way? Are they connected with curricula items?

Materials and Methods

We developed a diagnostic test with free response questions about the knowledge and attitudes of students from the second-to-last year of high school, where the subject of P&Ch is included for the last time in the curriculum. Six groups (classes) of students from four high schools around Valencia metropolitan area (Spain) were surveyed. Students, teachers and high school principals provided oral consent for the development of this study. Student participation was voluntary. All the tests were anonymous and we did not collect any personal or identifying information from participants. Students were grouped by the high schools according to their elective (students can choose between P&Ch and Biology or P&Ch and Technical Drawing), when there are not enough students both kind of students were grouped together. A total of 138 students answered the test in January 2014, after covering most of the topics regarding the atom structure and interactions (the second semester of the course is devoted to study chemical bonds, materials’ properties and other matter topics at molecular level). Textbooks used by all these students do not present an updated view of the atomic structure, and only few modern concepts such as the strong and weak interactions are presented but marginally and decontextualized [ 3 ]. Group, high school, gender and elective were registered for each student. The test was composed by 17 questions divided into four main blocks:

Block (1) about atomic structure and interactions: (a) What is matter made of? , (b) Which are the fundamental forces in Nature? , (c) Which is the force that keeps the electron bounded to the atomic nucleus? and (d) What is a photon?

Block (2) about the model beyond the classical atom based on proton-neutron-electron and the electric interaction: (a) If protons have the same electric charge, why are they able to remain so close in the atomic nucleus without repelling? , (b) What kind of interaction occurs when a nucleus transforms into another? and (c) Which particles do you think have been discovered?

Block (3) about particle accelerators, colliders and current research: (a) What is the Higgs boson? , (b) Have you heard of neutrinos? Do you know what they are? , (c) What is antimatter? , (d) Do you think it is dangerous? Why? , (e) What do you think that happens when two particles collide? and (f) What is the CERN?

Block (4) about social connections: (a) What is the use of colliding particles inside an accelerator? , (b) Why do you think it is important the work done in a particle physics centre? , (c) Do you think it has any impact in your daily life? Which one? and (d) Do you think there are enough contents about particle physics in high school classes? Would you like it to be otherwise? Why?

The first block of questions aims to assess what students know about the classical model of the atom according to what is specified in the curricula. Block (2) tests students preconceptions about classical model limitations or new ideas and, implicitly, if a complete modelling technique has been performed in science class. Questions of this block might have been introduced at different points in the curricula and they appear in many of the books from the most widely distributed publishers [ 3 ]. Block (3) evaluates the use of the context in science class. These questions cover topical issues that students might have heard on the news or from other extra academic sources. Finally, Block (4) assesses students’ perceptions and interests towards particle physics.

The test was refined in a pilot study with 40 students from another public high school in Valencia metro. Redundant (Cramer’s V > 0.7) [ 18 ] or misleading questions were dropped or rephrased.

Answers to the questions (see S1 File ) were classified into categories and each category was scored as low level (0 points), mid level (0.5 points) or high level (1 point) based on the expected level of knowledge that students are supposed to have according to the official P&Ch curriculum. Thus, low level reflects that the answer is below the expected level. Mid level means that the answer is at the level of classical models, i.e. in the answer there is no mention about any of the contributions that particle physics has made since the first half of the 20th century, so the answer is limited to the atomic model based on electrons, protons and neutrons and electromagnetic and gravitational interactions (no nuclear interactions, no subatomic particles). Finally, high level means that the answer shows (right or approximately right) ideas of updated concepts according to particle physics, beyond classical models.

The reliability of the test was measured with the Cronbach’s alpha [ 19 ] and the correlation among questions was assessed with the Cramer’s V. Differences in the total scores over the 17 questions were analyzed in terms of the registered variables: high school, group, elective and gender. This was done with a robust ANOVA [ 20 , 21 ]. Only the effect of the main factors was explored (i.e, no interactions were included) as this was the model with the highest Akaike weight (i.e. the most probable model among all possible models) [ 22 ]. Total scores for each block of questions were also tested using the same methodology. A Holm’s correction [ 23 ] for multiple comparison was applied. All analyses were done with the statistical software R v.3.0.2 [ 24 ].

Results and Discussion

The description of the sample according to gender and elective for the six groups of students is found in Table 1 . The questionnaire presents a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.72 and a low redundancy among questions (Cramer’s V ∈ [0.24, 0.40]).

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0156526.t001

Fig 1 shows the scores of the students’ answers to the test (see S1 File for complete answers). There is a high variability among questions.

Each colour stands for a score (orange, yellow and green are 0, 0.5 and 1 respectively). Radius length of each sector is proportional to its frequency.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0156526.g001

In general, the level of students in Block (1) is intermediate (yellow), but for question (1c), Which is the force that keeps the electron bounded to the atomic nucleus? On average, students’ knowledge corresponds to the classical atomic models although the amount of answers scoring high is not negligible. This reflects that students have some ideas about current particle physics concepts. The poor results of the question (1c) are surprising. Only 22% of students provide a right answer; the most common erroneous answers refer to interactions like gravity (12%) or “the attraction force” (15%). These results show an obvious confusion regarding the types of interactions and the lack of hierarchy between fundamental (gravity, electromagnetic, strong and weak) and derived forces (all others). And also, they suggest that a common approach like the use of a planetary model to explain the atom as an electric system should be revised. Interestingly, “gravity” is the most common answer in question (1b). The level of students’ knowledge about Block (2) is mid-low. Almost none of the answers was scored as high. Question (2a) If protons have the same electric charge, why are they able to remain so close in the atomic nucleus without repelling? is the one where students perform worst across the whole test. On the one hand, this result was expectable judging for the information available in high school textbooks [ 3 ]; and on the other hand it is showing that in general the classical models limitations are not fully explored in the classroom, nor the questions or the new prospects that these limitations open. In other words, modelling as a constructive teaching strategy seems absent. However, despite students’ answers to question (2a) were mainly incorrect, they reflect creative misconceptions susceptible of being treated on a teaching intervention strategy within particle physics concepts. For example, many of them think that neutrons “neutralize” the electric repulsion from proton to proton, either by “absorbing” or “shielding” charge. They also talk about neutrons as “things to put between” protons, increasing the distance between them and so decreasing the effect of the electrical interaction. So, students think that neutrons must play a role here, which is true, but need to understand exactly how and why their hypotheses are wrong. A significant part (25%) of answers to (2b) talk about nuclear interaction or nuclear processes (proton/neutron interchange) but no one mentions the weak interaction. To cover these topics, the need of a strong force to solve question (2a) must be discussed. Then, the spontaneous decay of nucleons and the interplay between the strong and weak interactions could be introduced to explain unstable nuclei and could be also used to introduce neutrinos. Block (3) is the block of questions with the worst results. This is not surprising as the topics covered by these questions are not included in the Spanish P&Ch curriculum for the course. But at the same time, this is showing how science concepts are not connected to the social context in science class, since these questions have had a significant diffusion on media over the last years. It is noteworthy that, for example, 40% of students know that the Higgs is a fundamental particle related to the mass of the particles. Some students even go beyond that and connect mass with weight/gravity (e.g., “it is the particle responsible of the gravitational interaction”). Such considerations could be treated when introducing the interactions, in particular, when talking about gravity. There are also interesting answers like “it is a vacuum with mass” or “it is what remains when matter is removed from the particles”. These concerns should be clarified with easy models. 80% of students do not know what antimatter is and 50% think it is dangerous, either by “some sort of interaction with matter” or “due to black holes”. Antimatter, danger, black holes and swallowing are concepts somehow related for students, probably due to the influence of science fiction films or books (e.g., Dan Brown’s Angels and Deamons ). However, not everything leads to destruction, one of the students concluded “if nothing has happened up to now and antimatter is part of Nature, it should not be dangerous”. This combination of concepts, misconceptions, and arguments should be taken into consideration in order to create an effective communication with society. Half of students know that new particles can be observed/created from collisions (question 3e). What are those particles? How many of them can be observed? Why? What for? All these questions naturally appear. Interestingly, some answers across the test show that at least some students get confused with atomic concepts and scales: “the atoms of the particles” or “the atoms of the nuclei”. This points out that a teaching intervention strategy is needed. Finally, the level of knowledge of Block (4) is somehow high, showing that students understand some of the implications of particle physics and emphasize their interest in modern physics. For example, in question (4b), 50% of students talk about discovering new particles with possible applications or highlight the great impact that this research has in our society. In question (4c) 40% of students identify such applications either with technology or with the knowledge about us and our world. Finally, most of the students express their interest about including this kind of physics (question (4d)) as part of the curriculum in different ways.

Variability among students also exists, and statistically significant differences due to gender (p-value = 0.042) or high school (p-value = 0.004) were found when considering students’ scores for the whole test. In the case of gender, these differences appear mainly in Block (3) (p-value = 0.001) that is related to concepts that go beyond what is covered by the course curriculum. Men scored better in this block. Interestingly, blocks of questions more directly related to academic contents (Blocks (1) and (2)) are the ones that show significant or marginally significant differences between high schools (p-values 0.002 and 0.093 respectively). Further study will be needed to test if these differences are due to different teaching methodologies or to other variables not explored in this study as students’ grades or socio/economic factors.

Contrary to what could be expected, students do have knowledge about particle physics despite not being covered by the traditional curricula. However, this knowledge is partial, unstructured and there is a great variability among students and topics, which motivates the need of a teaching intervention strategy consistent with modelling techniques. The idea is not to add an extra item in the high school curriculum about Particle Physics, but to encourage teachers to lead the discussions about matter components and interactions beyond the 19th century until nowadays [ 25 ]. Most of these questions can easily fit into the current curricula. For example, when studying atomic models, question (2b) should trigger the discussion towards the need of the strong interaction and new particles (quarks) that can feel it and compose the protons. This also clarifies the role of the neutrons in the nucleus. The weak interaction explains spontaneous proton/neutron decays that easily connect with the stability of the atomic nucleus and radioactivity. When talking about forces, the four fundamental interactions and their role/interplay in the formation of matter should be treated. Later in the course, when macroscopic forces like friction or the elastic force appear, it is important to recall that all these forces can be understood in terms of the fundamental ones; and that almost all macroscopic forces have an electric origin. Transverse to all topics, it is important to search news about current searches and applications of particle physics, which can be used to engage students in debates about concepts like antimatter or the Higgs boson, for example, and to clarify controversies like neutrino’s speed or LHC’s dangers. Further investigation is needed to provide effective teaching interventions that could help to bridge the gap from the 19th century physics taught in High Schools to modern and up-to-date ideas of Nature.

Conclusions

In this paper, the level of knowledge about the structure and interactions of matter has been evaluated, according to whether or not this knowledge shows an updated view of the topic. The knowledge of students adjusts globally to a mid-low level, i.e., to the classical models. However, the variability of answers is high. Ideas from new models appear, meaning that students somehow know updated concepts. Nonetheless, these ideas are very tentative and show confusions with both new and classical models. Our results show that students are highly interested towards particle physics and they are curious about the social implications of the topic. The whole picture justifies the need of a teaching intervention strategy to integrate the new concepts in the learning process; so that the classical models can be correctly understood and the topic about matter turns out to be unbiased and completed. Given the social impact of modern physics, this necessity is reinforced. However, how this can be done in an effective manner has been barely investigated (see [ 9 ] and references therein). Our goal for a further study is to present a teaching intervention strategy. It is based on interactive engagement [ 26 ] and modelling techniques with embodiment [ 27 ]. Using embodiment , students perform as the active agents of the model, which greatly facilitates the understanding and learning process.

Supporting Information

S1 file. categories for students’ answers to the questionnaire..

Tables 1, 2, 3 and 4 describe the answers categories for Block (1), (2), (3) and (4) of questions from the pretest. The tables show, for each question referenced on the first column, the different types of answers considered as categories (second column), their corresponding score (third column) and the percentage of students answers that fit into that category (fourth column).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0156526.s001

S2 File. Questionnaire.

Blank copy of the questionnaire given to students.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0156526.s002

Acknowledgments

We wish to acknowledge the students, teachers and high schools involved in this study for their kind participation. We also want to thank Javier Montero-Pau for constructive feedback.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: PT JS. Performed the experiments: PT JS. Analyzed the data: PT. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: PT. Wrote the paper: PT JS.

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Nuclear and Particle Physics: Current Issues and Applications (Report on the Nucleus 2020 International Conference)

A. k. vlasnikov.

St. Petersburg State University, 199034 St. Petersburg, Russia

V. I. Zherebchevsky

T. v. lazareva.

The most promising lines of development in nuclear and particle physics are considered. One of these is the synthesis of achievements in nuclear physics and the nano-, bio-, information, cognitive, and social sciences to create technologies similar to nature and improve our understanding of humanity (the NBICS paradigm). The second topic is the growing attention to ultrahigh energies of collision and studying such exotic states of matter as quark–gluon plasma. The reports delivered at the 70th conference on nuclear physics in St. Petersburg provide a wide range of material for discussion.

INTRODUCTION

The LXX International Conference on Nuclear Physics “Nucleus 2020. Nuclear Physics and Elementary Particle Physics. Nuclear Physics Technologies” was held at St.Petersburg State University October 12–17, 2020. This conference is unique not only in the former Soviet Union but worldwide as well. It has been held annually since 1951, hosting leading physicists from many world laboratories. Its predecessors were national conferences on atomic nuclei (held Leningrad in 1933 and Moscow in 1935) and meetings on the physics of atomic nuclei (held in Leningrad in 1938, Kharkov in 1939, and Moscow in 1940). The Second World War interrupted this trend toward holding annual conferences on nuclear physics. Only in February 1951 was the first Conference on Nuclear Physics held in the small hall of the Presidium of the Soviet Academy of Sciences in Moscow [ 1 ], where the tradition of regular such meetings was renewed. For many years, the organizing committees of these meetings were headed by Boris Dzhelepov, a corresponding member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. Due to his authority, leadership, dedication, and enthusiasm, these conferences acquired annual status and were convened at different venues, helping to develop studies of nuclear physics in Russia. Though these conferences were for many years officially referred to as conferences on nuclear spectroscopy, the range of topics grew notably broader, since there were no other annual meetings where nuclear physicists could discuss relevant problems of science. Over time, the title of the conference changed to the National Conference on Nuclear Spectroscopy and Nuclear Structure. It acquired de facto international status in 1960, but continued to be called the National Conference. In the early 2000s, the title was changed to include the word “Nucleus” and the year of the conference. The development of the conference largely repeated that of science in general and nuclear physics in Russia in particular. The number of theses presented in the periods 1951–1970 ( Fig. 1a ) and 1990–2020 ( Fig. 1b ) illustrate the development of Soviet and Russian nuclear physics. The rapid increase of the first two decades was replaced by a decline starting in the 1990s. However, growth can be seen over the last five years. It may be uneven, but it gives hope of restoring the role of science in modern society.

Change in the number of works included in the programs of annual conferences: (a) 1951–1970 and (b) 1990–2020. Conference venues: Alma-Ata (AA), Voronezh (V), Dubna (D), Erevan (E), Kiev (K), Leningrad (L), Moscow (M), Minsk (Mn), Obninsk (O), Riga (R), Sarov (Sa), St. Petersburg (SP), Tbilisi (T), Kharkov (Kh), and Cheboksary (Ch).

The conference of 2020 was unique, and not only because it was the 70th. The conditions under which it was held were most unusual. The Corona virus made the normal conference format impossible. A team capable of conducting a large conference online was gathered in a relatively short period of time. In a situation where many conferences were being cancelled, the joint efforts of St. Petersburg State University, the Kurchatov Institute, the Joint Institute of Nuclear Research, and the conference’s organizing committee resulted in the correct strategic and organizational decisions. Reliable channels of communication were established that allowed not only the broadcasting of reports but discussion among the conference’s participants as well.

The conference’s scientific program covered a broad range of nuclear physics topics: experimental and theoretical investigations of nuclear structure and nuclear reactions, modern methods and technologies in nuclear physics, particle and high-energy physics, neutrino physics, and nuclear astrophysics. Along with these traditional topics, the conference’s program included reports dealing with synchrotron radiation, neutron physics, and using nuclear physics in studying objects of cultural heritage. Special attention was given to problems encountered in nuclear medicine.

The geography of the conference’s participants was also very broad. More than 400 reports were given by particpants from 38 countries ( Fig. 2 ). The total number of registered participants was more than 575. Even though the conference was held online, meaning that participants had to log in during its hours of operation and regardless of time zones (for example, speakers from the University of Illinois in the United States made their presentation at 5:30 in the morning, local time), interest in the reports was very high.

Conference geography, showing the number of participants per country.

OPENING DAY

The conference opened on October 12. The participants were greeted warmly by A.E. Blagov (director of the Kurchatov Institute, Moscow), academician V.A. Matveev (director of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna), and Paolo Giubellino (director of GSI Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research, Germany). On behalf of St. Petersburg State University, the conference’s participants were greeted by Vice-Rector for Research S.V. Mikushev and conference co-chairman V.I. Zherebchevsky.

On the opening day, a plenary talk titled “Synchrotron Neutron Studies: The Basis for a A Breakthrough in Science and Technology” was delivered by A.E. Blagov (Kurchatov Institute), who reviewed the development of nuclear science and technology in Russia and outlined the current possibilities of synchrotron and neutron studies. It was emphasized that the the Kurchatov Institute is now developing a new interdisciplinary technological system (the NBICS paradigm) that combines nano-, bio-, and information technologies with cognitive and socio-humanitarian knowledge. Nature-like technologies developed in this way will allow us to create biological systems and materials with targeted properties that economize natural resources and energy. An extensive research program that includes experiments with synchrotron and neutron beams must be conducted to achieve these ambitious plans. Blagov noted that the Kurchatov Institute’s complex for synchrotron and neutron studies is of the world’s few venues where there is a synchrotron (with electron energies of up to 2.5 GeV and 16 experimental stations) and a research reactor on the same territory, allowing a fundamentally new level of basic and applied research to be achieved. The lines of this research include crystallography, materials science, structural chemistry, protein crystallography, molecular biology, medicine, the analysis of organic and hybrid multilayer systems, studies of cognitive processes, and studying objects of cultural heritage. The Kurchatov Institute is a leading center for studies of synchrotron radiation and neutrons in the Russian Federation, so the described program for developing such studies and building the required infrastructure was of special interest. Under the federal program, a network of centers for synchrotron radiation will be created that includes the upgraded source of synchrotron radiation at the Kurchatov Institute, another on Russkiy Island (Vladivostok), and a fourth-generation SKIF installation with an electron energy of 3 GeV (Kol’tsovo, near Novosibirsk). A top-of-the-line fourth-generation source of synchrotron radiation with an electron energy of 6 GeV will play a key role in the development of world-class studies by combining the general infrastructure with a linear accelerator and a free-electron X-ray laser (the SILA project in Protvino, Moscow oblast). The specialized source of synchrotron radiation will have a record low emittance of 90 pm rad, while the femtosecond laser will generate light with a wavelength of 0.1 nm, the level of the world’s best installations. These parameters will allow investigations of fast processes and objects the size of atoms.

The plenary report of N.V. Marchenkov, acting director of the Kurchatov Complex of Synchrotron an Neutron Investigations, titled “Kurchatov Complex of Synchrotron and Neutron Research: Current Status and Prospects,” allowed the conference’s participants to become better acquainted with the research on neutrons and synchrotron radiation now under way on the institute’s main campus.

An example of the NBICS paradigm is using means of nuclear physics to study objects of cultural heritage (“Studying Historic Materials by Means of Nuclear Physics at the Kurchatov Institute,” presented by E.B. Yatsyshina). Interesting results were yielded by nondestructive tests of materials contained in relic crosses dating back to 10th and 11th centuries, found in Suzdal’ Opol’e (a territory in Northeastern Russia heavily populated during the Middle Ages). These crosses were similar to one another but, as neutron tomography showed, contained very different substances (human hair, sheep’s wool, and linen and silk fibers). Using computer tomography, a joint research team from the Kurchatov Institute and State Museum of Fine Arts examined ten Egyptian mummies dating back to the 20th century BC. This investigation was complicated by the sarcophagi containing the mummies, which could not be opened.

The investigations revealed the mummification technique, age, gender, diseases, wounds and, in some cases, the cause of death for each mummy. Images of these people that lived 4000 years ago were reproduced using Gerasimov’s techniques for reconstructing facial soft tissues. Nuclear physics techniques for investigating artifacts were included in the conference agenda for the first time, drawing considerable attention. This will hopefully continue in future nuclear physics conferences of the series.

The PIK high-flux research reactor (Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute) is one of the largest megascience facilities operating in the Russian Federation. In his plenary talk titled “International Center for Neutron Research Based on Reactor PIK”, Deputy Director V.V. Voronin described current and planned experiments with this Facility. It was noted that the PIK reactor was first mentioned in the literature as early as 1966. Although it was commissioned over half a century ago, this facility still operates more efficiently than most research reactors built recently. Upon the final upgrade of this reseach facility scheduled for 2024, the reactor’s power will reach 100 MW, and both cold and ultracold neutrons will be available to users. This will allow experimental studies in the fields of condensed-state physics, nanosystems, biology, nuclear and particle physics, and fundamental interactions.

The second day of the session started with the report “History of One Calendar Date. To the 80th Anniversary of the Discovery of Spontaneous Fission” delivered by S.V. Khlebnikov, director of the Radium Institute Museum (St. Petersburg). Leningrad physicists G.N. Flerov and K.A. Petrzhak, who discovered this phenomenon, built upon significant advances in nuclear physics, radiochemistry, and radiogeology largely achieved at the Radium Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The concept of charged-particle acceleration with the field of a high-frequency alternating current was proposed at the Radium Institute by L.V. Mysovskii, and the first European cyclotron was commissioned there fifteen years later (in 1937). The First National Radioactivity Meeting, the first nuclear physics conference in the Soviet Union, was convened at the Radium Institute in 1932. It is noteworthy that though 1940 is the accepted date of the discovery of spontaneous fission, this phenomenon was first recorded in the report by K.A. Petrzhak (Radium Institute) a year earlier.

Reports on large-scale international experiments in neutrino physics were delivered the same day. In his talk “Status and Prospects of the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory,” Alberto Garfagnini (Italy) represented the JUNO international collaboration, in which physicists from nineteen countries including Russia participate. In the JUNO project, the 700 m deep experimental hall under construction in China will house the world’s largest liquid scintillator detector of antineutrinos: 20 000 tons of liquid scintillator will be contained in a spherical vessel with a 30 m radius, and electron antineutrinos will be detected from the Vavilov–Cherenkov radiation produced by secondary positrons in collisions with protons by 20 000 large and 26 500 small photomulplier tubes. Two nuclear power plants operating at distances of ~50 km from the detector will serve as antineutrino sources. Detecting neutrino oscillations will provide clues to the neutrino mass hierarchy and help refine the values of neutrino-mixing parameters. Compared to measurements made with other detectors, the uncertainties on these parameters will be reduced by several times, due to a greater number of statistics. JUNO will also offer a powerful instrument for studies of solar and atmospheric neutrinos, and ones emitted by supernovas and geoneutrinos. The JUNO experimental program also includes seaches for proton decay (predicted by some theoretical schemes beyond the Standard Model) and sterile neutrinos.

The latter were also discussed by A.P. Serebrov (Corresponding Member, Russian Academy of Sciences) in his talk “Observation of Sterile Antineutrino Oscillation in the Neutrino-4 Experiment at SM-3 Reactor” devoted to the revolutionary discovery of a new types of neutrino. Neutrinos ot three flavors corresponding to three generations of lepton are now known to exist: electron, muon, and tau neutrinos. Also hypothesized is the existence of so-called sterile neutrinos, which could be dark matter particles and participate only in gravitational interactions but possibly mix with neutrinos of the three mentioned flavors. Mixing between known and sterile antineutrinos can be studied by measuring the electron–antineutrino flux as a function of the distance from the reactor core. Such measurements made in 2014–2019 in the Neutrino-4 experiment indeed indicate the existence of a sterile neutrino (dubbed neutrino-4), which could also explain results obtained earlier in the LSND and MiniBooNe experiments. Using the Neutrino-4 data, the authors extracted the mass-square difference between the first and fourth neutrino mass eigenstates and the sine of the doubled mixing angle between them. Using data obtained by other experiments and a number of assumptions (including the simplest scheme with a single sterile neutrino, the 3 + 1 model), effective neutrino masses were obtained as m νe = 0.58 ± 0.09 eV, m νμ = 0.42 ± 0.24 eV, m ντ ≤ 0.65 eV, and m 4 = 2.68 ± 0.13 eV. The above estimate of the electron-neutrino mass is consistent with corresponding upper limit m νe  < 1.1 eV (at 90% C.L.) imposed using the tritium beta-decay data of the KATRIN experiment (Germany) and reported by N. Titov (Institute for Nuclear Research, Moscow).

Provided that the lepton number is not conserved and that neutrino is a Majorana particle identical to its antiparticle, the rate of neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) is also sensitive to the neutrino effective mass. Results from the search for neutrinoless double beta-decay in the GERDA experiment (Gran Sasso laboratory, Italy) were reported by F. Salamida. The most stringent lower limit on the half-life of 76 Ge 0νββ decay was imposed in this experiment: T 1/2 > 1.8 × 10 26 yr (90% C.L.).

Very interesting talks dealing with the physics of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays were also delivered on the same day. It is well known that the energies of some charged cosmic particles bombarding the Earth’s atmosphere exceed by seven–eight orders of magnitude those attained at the highest-energy accelerator constructed so far, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). These produce showers of secondary particles in the atmosphere that are detected by terrestrial cosmic-ray arrays, particularly by the world’s largest observatory, the Pierre Auger in Argentina. We obtain unique astrophysical data by detecting these ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays, along with information on fundamental interactions. Where particle colliders are concerned, we refer the reader to numerous conference reports dealing with the NICA collider under construction at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna.

Virtually all reports of large international collaborations in the fields of particle physics, relativistic nuclear physics, and high-energy physics were delivered on Wednesday, October 14. The corresponding section of the conference featured the largest number of talks delivered and drew the largest audience, reflecting the worldwide interest in these fields of research. The plenary talks presented results obtained at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (Brookhaven National Laboratory, US), the Large Hadron Collider (CERN, Geneva), and the CERN proton supersynchrotron. These machines are used in experiments conducted by large international collaborations with considerable Russian participation.

In his report “PHENIX Highlights,” Yu. Mitrankov (St. Petersburg Polytechnical University) described studies of quark–gluon plasma (QGP) produced in heavy ion collisions in the PHENIX experiment (RHIC). Compared to the LHC, the RHIC experimental conditions are advantageous in that we can collide heavy ions of different species, thus probing the dependence of QGP formation on the mass numbers of colliding nuclei. PHENIX data were presented on such QGP-sensitive parameters as the anisotropies of charged and neutral secondary hadrons (elliptical and triangular flows), nuclear modification factors reflecting QGP effects on the multiplicity of secondary hadrons, and direct-photon yields. The authors of this report concluded that collisions between light and heavy nuclei result in mini-QGP formation. The data suggest that in all heavy-ion collision systems, direct photons are emitted by sources of the same (albeit not specified) nature, regardless of the energy of collision.

The results obtained in CERN experiments were discussed in a great many plenary talks. S. Kovalsky (Poland) reported recent studies of strong interactions in the NA61/SHINE fixed-target experiment at the SPS machine, in which the momenta of incident Ar, Xe, and Pb ions were varied between 13 A and 158 A  GeV/ c . The main aim of this experiment was to study the formation of fireballs (clusters of ultradense, strongly interacting matter) and systematically investigating the hadron gas transition to the QGP phase. Phase diagrams with such variables as temperature, baryon chemical potential, and system size will be plotted for different strongly interacting collision systems. Compared to earlier SPS experiments, greater attention is given in NA61/SHINE to variations of physical characteristics as signals of a phase transition. Variations in the multiplicities of secondary strange and charmed particles are known to signal the onset of QGP formation. As was emphasized by the reporter, the range of collision energies provided by the SPS machine offers a unique opportunity to investigate charmed-particle production in the vicinity of the critical point of the first-order phase transition between the confined and QGP states of hadronic matter.

The current status and upgrade of the ALICE experiment at the LHC were discussed in a number of talks that included four plenary ones. E. Fragiacomo (CERN) reported ALICE data for proton collisions with heavy Pb and Xe ions at energies of collision between 1 and 13 TeV, shedding light on QGP formation and subsequent decay, and on the planned upgrade of the ALICE detector. The LHC will undergo a substantial upgrade whereby its luminosity will be boosted in two steps (by a factor of ten after 2027). The LHC will resume operation with protons and heavy ions upon completion of the first stage of the upgrade planned for 2021–2022. As reported by W. Trzaska (Finland), the ALICE detector is undergoing a thorough upgrade that will allow this detector of heavy-ion collisions to fully utilize the enhanced LHC luminosity. Upon completion of the detector upgrade in 2022, rare phenomena will be detected with increased precision. These include the emission of heavy-quark hadrons with small transverse momenta sensitive to quark interactions with the medium, and dilepton emissions from QGP that provide insight into the restoration of chiral-symmetry in quark–gluon plasma. The talk “New Inner Tracking System (ITS) for Open Charm Direct Measurements by ALICE at the LHC: Status and Perspectives” delivered by G.A. Feofilov (St. Petersburg State University) was of considerable interest to the audience. Planned upgrades of the detector oriented toward the third and fourth stages of the ALICE experimental program were discussed. Short-lived hadrons containing heavy quarks (such as D mesons) with small transverse momenta will be detected at a much higher frequency of primary collisions using a new internal tracker formed by seven layers of monolithic active pixel sensors manufactured with CMOS technology. The new internal tracker increases the spatial resolution by a factor of three, allows us to detect particles with transverse momenta down to 50 MeV/ c (zero for charmed particles), and can perform at a higher particle frequencies corresponding to those of primary collisions. In some respects, the new internal tracker of the ALICE detector is superior to those of the ATLAS and CMS detectors also operating at the LHC. Along with probing QGP properties, the ALICE detector can be used to investigate exotic nuclei, as was explained by A. B. Borissov in his talk “Latest Results on (Anti-)Hypernuclei Production at the LHC with ALICE.” Apart from elementary particles, lead ion collisions also produce low A nuclei and smaller amounts of hypernuclei that feature a constituent Λ hyperon instead of a neutron. We can not only detect hypertritons but also measure their lifetimes, due to the unique virtues of the ALICE detector. The latter proved to be close to the Λ lifetime, in agreement with theoretical models predicting that the Λ hyperon is weakly bound to constituent nucleons of the nucleus. Antihypertriton production can also be investigated in the ALICE experiment.

That QGP studies at the LHC are not restricted to the ALICE experiment was demonstrated by O. Evdokimova’s talk “New Results from Heavy-Ion Studies in the CMS Experiment.” Originally, the main thrust of the CMS experiment was particle physics, and particularly those of the Higgs boson. However, the CMS experimental agenda has since been diversified to include studies of heavy-ion collisions (particularly of the azimuthal anisotropy of secondary particles, the production of hadrons containing heavy quarks, and jet quenching). These processes provide clues to QGP formation in heavy-ion collisions. In the latter report, particular attention was given to CMS data on QGP formation in collisions between light nuclei.

FOURTH AND SUBSEQUENT DAYS

Fundamental problems of low-energy nuclear physics were discussed on the fourth day of the conference. Talks were submitted by veterans who have regularly participated in such conferences for several decades. Spectroscopic factors broadly used in analyzing data on nuclear reactions were critically reviewed by Prof. L.D. Blokhintsev (Moscow State University). It was unexpectedly concluded that spectroscopic factors are unobservable quantities that can be consisitently defined only for certain forms of the nuclear interaction Hamiltonian.

The phenomenon of chaos in quantum-mechanical systems, and in atomic nuclei in particular, was discussed by Prof. V.E. Bunakov (Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute). How can chaotic motion be defined for quantum processes that involve no particle trajectories? A chaoticity criterium also applicable to quantum systems was proposed: a system can be viewed as chaotic as soon as the number of its integrals of motion (or “good” quantum numbers) is less than the number of degrees of freedom. In counting the number of “good” quantum numbers, we need consider only those that are conserved in the classical limit (in contrast to, e.g., the space parity conserved in strong interactions). In his review, Prof. R.V. Jolos (Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna) discussed the nuclear phase transitions that occur upon raising the energy of excitation and angular momentum while varying the number of constituent neutrons. The symmetry of the nucleus mean field and the structures of its ground and excited states are thus affected. Such effects as the coexistence of different nuclear shapes, the transition to a state with octupole deformation with increasing angular momentum, and the variation of the nucleus superfluid properties were considered within either the collective and microscopic approach.

JINR measurements of total cross sections of the 8 Li and 8 He exotic isobar scattering by 28 Si, 59 Co, and 181 Ta targets as functions of collision energy were reported by V.V. Samarin. Note that the structure of exotic nuclei near drip line consisting of a core and a halo can be efficiently probed by colliding them with stable nuclei, so such experiments attract growing attention. Total cross sections were measured for the first time over a broad energy range of 6–46 MeV per nucleon, and nuclear collisions were detected via prompt neutron and gamma emission. Measurements were compared to theoretical predictions, including ones based on the time-dependent Schrödinger equation, with which the 8 Li nucleus was found to consist of a 7 Li core (formed by 4 He and 3 H clusters) and a halo neutron.

In his interesting report “Physical Criteria of Data Reliability and Systematic Uncertainties of Photoneutron Reaction Cross Sections,” Prof. V.V. Varlamov (Moscow State University) analyzed the differences between the Saclay and Livermore measurements of the cross sections of photoneutron reactions. In a talk titled “Mechanisms of Multy-Stage Nuclear Decays with Taking into Account Real and Virtual States of Intermediate Nuclei,” Prof. S.G. Kadmensky (Voronezh) proposed including the virtual (and real) states of intermediate nuclei in the decay chain of radioactive nuclei. This theoretical framework was then used to describe ternary and quaternary nuclear decays (either spontaneous or induced) as virtual processes. Presentations delivered by E. Litvinova (West Michigan University, United States) and Yu.V. Popov (Moscow State University) were also met with interest.

MEDICAL APPLICATIONS

The Nucleus 2020 agenda included a broader scope of nuclear physics applications in medical research than those of the previous conferences of the series. European and Russian participants both shared their experience with nuclear physics tecnologies in the therapy and diagnostics of various diseases. The promising modern technology of flash therapy, which opens up new possibilities in the treatment of oncological diseases, was described in an interesting report delivered by Prof. M. Dosanjh (CERN). Cancer tumors are briefly exposed to a charged-particle beam and receive a large dose of radiation. The period of irradiation is selected so that the DNA molecules of cancer cells are destroyed, while those of normal cells remain intact. Modern ways of treating oncological diseases with radioactive isotopes of different elements were reviewed by V.I. Zherebchevsky (St. Petersburg State University). These new isotopes find important applications in diagnostics (through positron emission tomography and single-photon emission computerized tomography) and therapy (through radioimmunology). Oncological diseases can be effectively diagnosed and treated with minimum side effects by combining the radioisotope visualization of organs and tissues with radioisotope therapy (an approach referred to as theranostics , or diagnostics-based therapy). The onco-selective preparation administered to the patient contains a radionuclide used originally for diagnostics and then as a means of treatment. Particular attention was given to joint studies and projects with the participation of physicists and engineers from St. Petersburg State University and State Corporation ROSATOM.

CONCLUSIONS

Because of volume restrictions, not all reports delivered at the conference can be noted in this brief review. For a full list, the reader is referred to Internet site [ 2 ] and the list of abstracts published in advance of the conference [ 3 ]. The best reports recommended by the conference’s program committee will be published in several issues of the Bulletin of the Russian Academy of Sciences: Physics , Physics of Elementary Particles and Atomic Nuclei , and Nuclear Physics and Engineering .

The unique long-term continuity of the series of Russian nuclear physics conferences is explained by the flexibility and broad scope of its scientific program, which adequately reflects the evolution of microworld physics. Compared to the conferences of the initial forty-year period, which dealt largely with low-energy physics, today’s emphasis is on high-energy physics and nuclear physics applications in such areas as medicine and studying objects of cultural heritage. Despite the long history of the conference, its organizers are quite young, providing it with new ideas and energy.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This conference was a result of the collective efforts of many physicists. We thank the participants for sharing their results and ideas. We also thank the conference’s audience for their many questions, which could inspire future research leading to new discoveries.

Translated by A. Asratyan

416 Physics Topics & Ideas to Research

18 January 2024

last updated

Physics topics may include the complex systems of the universe, from the smallest particles to colossal galaxies. This field of study examines fundamental concepts, such as force, energy, and matter, extrapolating them into areas like quantum or relative mechanics. It also explores thermodynamics, revealing the intriguing principles behind heat, work, and energy conversions. Some themes may vary from the mysteries of dark matter and energy in cosmology to the resonating string theories in theoretical physics. Moreover, the world of semiconductors in solid-state physics presents a spectrum of interconnected topics. In turn, the essential laws of physics provide the basis for almost all scientific research, offering profound insights into the natural world and shaping human understanding of how everything in the universe behaves and interacts.

Cool Physics Topics

• Quantum Entanglement and Its Potential Applications
• Harnessing Solar Energy: Next-Generation Photovoltaic Cells
• Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion Energy
• The Role of Physics in Climate Change Models
• Dark Matter and Dark Energy: Unveiling the Universe’s Mysteries
• Astrophysics: Formation and Evolution of Black Holes
• Implications of Superconductivity in Modern Technology
• Roles of Biophysics in Understanding Cellular Mechanisms
• Theoretical Physics: The Quest for Quantum Gravity
• Nanotechnology: Manipulating Matter at the Atomic Scale
• Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation and the Big Bang Theory
• The Uncertainty Principle and Its Philosophical Consequences
• Exploring Exoplanets: Physics Beyond Our Solar System
• Advances in Optics: From Microscopy to Telecommunications
• Gravitational Waves: Probing the Fabric of Spacetime
• Neutrino Physics: Studying the Universe’s Ghost Particles
• Entropy and Time’s Arrow: Understanding Thermodynamics
• Applications of Particle Physics in Medicine
• Physics of Semiconductors and the Evolution of Computing
• Exploring String Theory and Multidimensional Realities
• Relativity Theory: Spacetime Curvature and Gravitational Lenses
• Quantum Computing: Bridging Physics and Information Technology

Easy Physics Topics

• Antimatter: Understanding its Properties and Possible Uses
• Physics of Chaos and Nonlinear Dynamical Systems
• Condensed Matter Physics: Unveiling the Behavior of Phases of Matter
• Science of Acoustics: Understanding Sound Phenomena
• Roles of Physics in Developing Advanced Materials
• Synchrotron Radiation: Tools and Techniques in Research
• Particle Accelerators: Probing the Quantum World
• Theoretical Predictions and Experimental Tests in Quantum Mechanics
• Nuclear Fusion: The Physics of a Star’s Energy Production
• The Holographic Principle: A Revolution in Quantum Physics?
• Biomechanics: Understanding the Physics of Life Movements
• Exploring the Physics of Supermassive Black Holes
• Magnetism: From Quantum Spin to Industrial Applications
• Laser Physics: Principles and Cutting-Edge Applications
• Advances in Cryogenics and Low-Temperature Physics
• The Physics of Flight: From Birds to Airplanes
• Quantum Field Theory and the Nature of Reality
• Modern Cosmology: Inflation and the Cosmic Structure
• Probing Subatomic Particles in High-Energy Physics
• Physics of Fluid Dynamics: From Blood Flow to Weather Systems
• The Grand Unified Theory: Bridging Fundamental Forces
• Quantum Cryptography: Ensuring Information Security
• Photonic Crystals and Their Applications in Telecommunication

Physics Research Paper Topics for High School

• Exploring the Mysteries of Dark Matter and Dark Energy
• Quantum Entanglement: Unraveling the Enigma
• Nanotechnology: The Physics of the Incredibly Small
• Black Holes: Understanding Gravity’s Ultimate Victory
• Time Travel: Exploring its Possibility in Physics
• Particle Physics: A Closer Look at the Higgs Boson
• Waves and Resonance: The Science Behind Vibrations
• Antimatter: The Mirror Image of Normal Matter
• Superconductivity: Exploring the Role of Temperature
• Effects of Nuclear Physics on Medical Imaging Technology
• The Theory of Everything: Unifying the Fundamental Forces
• Superstring Theory: The Quest for Unification
• Chaos Theory: A Journey Through Nonlinear Dynamics
• Radioactivity: The Science Behind Nuclear Decay
• Examining the Physical Properties of Non-Newtonian Fluids
• Magnetic Monopoles: A Missing Piece in Electromagnetism?
• Quantum Field Theory: The World of Subatomic Particles
• Physics of Climate Change: Understanding Global Warming
• Thermodynamics: The Science of Heat and Energy Transfers

Physics Research Paper Topics for College Students

• Unveiling the Mysteries of Quantum Entanglement
• Implications of Zero-Point Energy: A Look Into Vacuum Fluctuations
• Examining the Principles and Potential of Nuclear Fusion
• Harnessing Antimatter: Theoretical Approaches and Practical Limitations
• Tracing Cosmic Rays: Sources, Propagation, and Interaction with Matter
• Advanced Gravitational Waves: Detection and Significance
• Rethinking Dark Matter: Contemporary Views and Hypotheses
• Probing Planetary Physics: Dynamics in Our Solar System
• Exploring the Physics of Black Holes: Beyond the Event Horizon
• Thermodynamics in Nanoscale Systems: Deviations From Classical Rules
• Computational Physics: The Impact of Machine Learning on Physical Research
• Spintronics: Revolutionizing Information Technology
• Accelerators in Medicine: Using Particle Physics for Cancer Treatment
• The Influence of Physics on Climate Change Modeling
• Neutrino Oscillations: Exploring the Ghost Particles
• Quantum Computing: Bridging the Gap Between Physics and Information Technology
• Dark Energy and the Accelerating Universe: Current Understanding
• Gauge Theories in Particle Physics: A Deep Dive
• The Holographic Principle: The Universe as a Hologram
• The Role of Physics in Renewable Energy Technologies
• Time Travel Theories: Fact or Fiction?
• Implications of String Theory in Modern Physics

Physics Research Paper Topics for University

• Metamaterials: Creating the Impossible in Optics and Acoustics
• Fluid Dynamics in Astrophysics: Stars, Galaxies, and Beyond
• Tackling Turbulence: The Last Great Problem in Classical Physics
• The Casimir Effect: Unearthing Quantum Force in the Vacuum
• Superconductivity: New Frontiers and Applications
• Advances in Biophysics: Cellular Mechanisms to Organismal Systems
• The Physics of Spacecraft Propulsion: Ion Drives and Beyond
• Supersymmetry: The Unfulfilled Promise of the Universe
• Relativity and GPS: The Unseen Influence of Physics in Everyday Life
• Topological Insulators: Quantum Phenomena in Solid State Physics
• The Future of Photonics: Powering the Next Generation of Technology
• Atomic Clocks: The Intersection of Quantum Mechanics and Relativity
• Quantum Field Theory: A Modern Understanding
• Electromagnetism in Biological Systems: Understanding Bioelectricity
• The Kardashev Scale: A Framework for Advanced Civilizations
• Harnessing the Sun: The Physics of Solar Energy
• M-Theory: The Unifying Theory of Everything
• Bell’s Theorem: Debunking Local Realism
• Quantum Cryptography: Security in the Age of Quantum Computers
• Geophysics: Understanding the Earth’s Core and Plate Tectonics

Physics Research Paper Topics for Master’s & Ph.D.

• Quantum Entanglement: Unraveling the Spooky Action at a Distance
• Harnessing Fusion Power: Prospects for Unlimited Clean Energy
• Gravitational Waves: Detecting Ripples in Spacetime
• The Nature of Black Holes and Singularities
• Time Dilation and Its Applications in Modern Physics
• Investigating the Particle-Wave Duality: A Deeper Look Into Quantum Mechanics
• The Physics of Superconductors: Transitioning From Theory to Practical Applications
• Hawking Radiation: From Theory to Possible Observations
• Evolution of the Universe: A Closer Look at the Big Bang Theory
• Exploring the Higgs Field: Implications for Particle Physics
• Nanotechnology in Physics: The Promising Path Toward the Future
• String Theory and the Quest for a Theory of Everything
• The Role of Physics in Climate Change Modelling
• Understanding Neutrinos: Ghost Particles of the Universe
• The Fundamentals of Chaos Theory: Applications in Modern Physics
• Quantum Computing: Breaking Down the Physics Behind the Future of Computation
• Exploring The Fourth Dimension: A Journey Beyond Time
• Astrophysics and the Study of Exoplanets: Seeking Alien Life
• Quantum Field Theory: Bridging Quantum Mechanics and Special Relativity
• Understanding Quantum Tunneling: Applications and Implications
• Study of Quarks: Subatomic Particles and the Strong Force
• Biophysics and the Mechanics of Cellular Structures
• Magnetic Monopoles: Hunting for the Missing Entities in Quantum Theory

Physics Research Topics on Classical Mechanics

• Understanding Kepler’s Laws and Their Practical Applications
• The Role of Energy Conservation in Mechanical Systems
• Implications of Newton’s Third Law on Engineering Designs
• Exploring Oscillatory Motion: Springs and Pendulums
• Effects of Friction Forces on Everyday Objects
• Stability of Rotational Systems in Aerospace Engineering
• Interpreting Physical Phenomena Using Vector Mechanics
• Influence of Classical Mechanics on Modern Architecture
• Application of Momentum Conservation in Collision Analysis
• Kinematics of Complex Systems: An In-Depth Study
• Elasticity and Its Impact on Material Science
• Newtonian Physics in Contemporary Game Design
• The Art of Fluid Dynamics: Concepts and Applications
• Gyroscopes and Their Applications in Modern Technologies
• Applications of Torque in Mechanical Engineering
• Relevance of Angular Momentum in Astrophysics
• The Science Behind Musical Instruments: A Mechanical Perspective
• Diving Into the Parallels Between Classical and Quantum Mechanics
• Exploring Parabolic Trajectories in Projectile Motion
• Dynamics of Multi-Body Systems in Space Exploration

Research Topics for Physics of Materials

• Analysis of Quantum Behavior in Superconductors
• Predictive Modelling of Phase Transitions in Crystalline Structures
• Examination of Electron Mobility in Semi-Conductive Materials
• Study of High-Temperature Superconductivity Phenomena
• Mechanical Properties of Novel Metallic Alloys
• Graphene: Exploring its Remarkable Electronic Properties
• Optimization of Energy Storage in Advanced Battery Materials
• Ferroelectric Materials: Unraveling their Unique Electrical Properties
• Assessing Durability of Construction Materials Under Environmental Stressors
• Properties and Potential Applications of Topological Insulators
• Investigation into Multiferroic Materials: Challenges and Opportunities
• Dynamic Response of Materials under High-Strain Rates
• Nanomaterials: Understanding Size-Dependent Physical Properties
• Harnessing Thermoelectric Materials for Energy Conversion
• Photonic Crystals: Manipulation of Light Propagation
• Exploring Amorphous Solids: From Metallic Glasses to Plastics
• Investigations into Magnetocaloric Materials for Eco-Friendly Refrigeration
• Neutron Scattering in the Study of Magnetic Materials
• Probing the Anisotropic Nature of Composite Materials
• Characterization of Disordered Materials Using Spectroscopic Techniques
• Roles of Surface Physics in Material Science

Physics Research Topics on Electrical Engineering

• Influence of Artificial Intelligence on Modern Power Systems
• Radio Frequency Identification (RFID): Advancements and Challenges
• Improving Transmission Efficiency Through Smart Grids
• Developments in Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure
• Optical Fiber Technology: The Future of Communication
• Interplay between Solar Power Engineering and Material Science
• Harnessing the Potential of Superconductors in Electrical Engineering
• Li-Fi Technology: Lighting the Way for Data Communication
• Innovations in Energy Storage: Beyond Lithium-Ion Batteries
• Designing Efficient Power Electronics for Aerospace Applications
• Exploring the Boundaries of Microelectronics With Quantum Dots
• Robotic Automation: Electrical Engineering Perspectives
• Power System Stability in the Era of Distributed Generation
• Photovoltaic Cells: Advances in Efficiency and Cost-Effectiveness
• Investigating the Feasibility of Wireless Power Transfer
• Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs): Power Management and Energy Efficiency
• Quantum Entanglement: Implications for Information Transmission
• Fuel Cells: Exploring New Frontiers in Electrical Power Generation
• Machine Learning Applications in Predictive Maintenance of Electrical Systems
• Neural Networks and their Role in Electrical Circuit Analysis

Optical Physics Research Topics

• Exploring Quantum Optics: Unveiling the Peculiarities of Light-Particle Interactions
• Harnessing the Power of Nonlinear Optics: Potential Applications and Challenges
• Fiber Optic Technology: Influencing Data Transmission and Telecommunication
• The Role of Optics in Modern Telescopic Innovations: An Analytical Study
• Polarization of Light: Understanding the Physical and Biological Applications
• Unfolding the Mystery of Optical Tweezers: Manipulation and Measurement at the Microscale
• Lasing Mechanisms: Insights Into the Evolution and Operation of Lasers
• Waveguides and Their Crucial Role in Integrated Optics: A Comprehensive Study
• Optical Illusions: Revealing the Underlying Physics and Perception Aspects
• Biophotonics: The Intersection of Optics and Biomedicine
• Exploiting Optical Metamaterials: The Pathway to Invisible Cloaking Devices
• Optical Holography: Unearthing the Potential for 3D Visualization and Display Systems
• Investigation of Optical Solitons: Nonlinear Pulses in Fiber Optic Communications
• Plasmonics: Harnessing Light With Nanostructures for Enhanced Optical Phenomena
• Advances in Spectroscopy: Optical Techniques for Material Analysis
• The Physics behind Optical Coherence Tomography in Medical Imaging
• Optical Vortices and Their Role in High-Capacity Data Transmission
• Ultrafast Optics: Time-Resolved Studies and Femtosecond Laser Applications
• In-Depth Review of Optical Trapping and Its Potential in Nanotechnology
• Optical Parametric Oscillators: Applications in Spectroscopy and Laser Technology
• Theoretical Perspectives on Photonic Crystals and Band Gap Engineering

Physics Research Topics on Acoustics

• Exploration of Ultrasonic Waves in Medical Imaging and Diagnostics
• Propagation of Sound in Various Atmospheric Conditions
• Impacts of Acoustics on Architectural Design Principles
• Innovative Approaches to Noise Cancellation Technologies
• The Role of Acoustics in Underwater Communication Systems
• Sonic Boom Phenomena: Causes and Effects
• Effects of Acoustic Resonance in Musical Instruments
• Influence of Material Properties on Sound Absorption
• Harnessing the Power of Sound: Acoustic Levitation Research
• Relationship Between Acoustic Ecology and Urban Development
• Evaluating the Principles of Acoustic Metamaterials
• Acoustic Thermometry: Precision in Temperature Measurement
• Potential Applications of Phononic Crystals in Acoustics
• Deciphering Dolphin Communication: Bioacoustics in Marine Life
• Development and Improvement of Acoustic Emission Techniques
• Thermoacoustic Engines and Refrigeration: An Emerging Technology
• Investigating the Psychoacoustic Properties of Sound
• Impacts of Acoustic Treatment in Home Theatres and Studios
• Evaluating the Effectiveness of Sonar Systems in Submarine Detection
• Ultrasound Applications in Non-Destructive Testing and Evaluation

Physics Research Topics on Thermodynamics

• Investigating the Role of Thermodynamics in Nanotechnology Development
• Entropy Production: A Deep Dive into Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics
• Impacts of Thermodynamics on Energy Conservation Practices
• Quantum Thermodynamics: Bridging Quantum Mechanics and Traditional Thermodynamics
• Advanced Materials in Heat Engines: A Thermodynamic Perspective
• Applications of Thermodynamics in Renewable Energy Technology
• Exploring Thermodynamic Limits of Computation: Theoretical and Practical Aspects
• Unveiling the Mysteries of Black Hole Thermodynamics
• Influence of Thermodynamics in Climate Change Modelling
• Exploiting Thermodynamics for Efficient Spacecraft Heat Management
• Understanding Biological Systems Through the Lens of Thermodynamics
• Applying Thermodynamics to Predict Geophysical Phenomena
• Thermodynamics in Food Processing: Effects on Nutrient Preservation
• Biogeochemical Cycles: An Insight From Thermodynamics
• Roles of Thermodynamics in Understanding Supernova Explosions
• Thermodynamics in Modern Architecture: Energy-Efficient Building Designs
• Thermoelectric Materials: Harnessing Thermodynamics for Power Generation
• Roles of Thermodynamics in Efficient Resource Recovery From Waste
• Thermodynamics and Its Implications in the Formation of Stars
• Exploring Thermodynamics in Quantum Information Theory

Particle Physics Research Topics

• Unraveling the Mysteries of Quark Structures in Baryonic Matter
• The Enigma of Neutrino Oscillations: New Discoveries
• String Theory Applications in Particle Physics: A New Horizon
• Dark Matter Particles: Unseen Influences on Cosmic Structures
• The Higgs Field and Its Implications for the Standard Model
• Lepton Family: A Comprehensive Study of Their Unique Properties
• Quantum Chromodynamics: Decoding the Strong Force
• The Role of W and Z Bosons in Electroweak Interactions
• Antiparticle Behavior and Its Ramifications for Symmetry
• Detecting Supersymmetry: A Paradigm Shift in Particle Physics?
• Insights Into Graviton: Hunting the Quantum of Gravity
• Probing the Exotic: Search for Hypothetical Particles
• Flavor Changing Processes in the Quark Sector: An Analytical Approach
• Precision Measurements of the Top Quark: A Key to New Physics
• Pentaquark Particles: A Fresh Perspective on Hadronic Matter
• Examining the Asymmetry Between Matter and Antimatter
• Gluons and Confinement: Probing the Fabric of Quantum Chromodynamics
• Proton Decay: GUTs, Supersymmetry, and Beyond
• Unveiling the Secrets of Cosmic Ray Particles
• Meson Spectroscopy: Understanding Hadrons Better
• Scalar Fields and Inflation: A Quantum Field Theory Perspective

Statistical Physics Research Topics

• Exploring the Second Law of Thermodynamics in Cosmic Evolution
• Investigating the Role of Entropy in the Black Hole Information Paradox
• Understanding Statistical Mechanics in Biophysical Systems
• Analyzing Temperature’s Impact on Quantum Spin Chains
• Diving Into Phase Transitions in Quantum Fields
• Quantum Fluctuations and Their Statistical Significance
• Applications of Statistical Physics in Neural Networks
• Investigating the Universality Classes in Critical Phenomena
• Revealing the Role of Statistical Physics in Ecosystem Dynamics
• Fluctuation Theorems: A Study of Non-Equilibrium Systems
• Statistical Physics’ Approach to Understanding Traffic Flow Dynamics
• Non-Equilibrium Statistical Mechanics in Living Systems
• Deciphering the Puzzle of Quantum Entanglement Using Statistical Methods
• Research on Spin Glasses and Disorder in Statistical Physics
• Thermodynamics in Small Systems: A Statistical Physics Approach
• Fractal Analysis: Its Impact on Statistical Physics
• Harnessing the Power of Statistical Physics for Climate Modeling
• Introducing Quantum Field Theory to Statistical Physics Studies
• Investigating Energy Landscapes in Protein Folding
• Simulating Turbulence Using Concepts of Statistical Physics

Atomic Physics Research Topics

• Quantum Entanglement and Its Impact on Information Transfer
• Exploring the Properties of Exotic Atoms
• Manipulating Matter: The Potential of Cold Atoms
• Unveiling the Secrets of Quantum Decoherence
• Probing Quantum Tunneling: From Theory to Practical Applications
• Atomic Collisions and Their Consequences in Astrophysics
• Advancements in Atomic Clock Technology and Precision Timekeeping
• Harnessing the Power of Quantum Computing With Atomic Physics
• Advancements in Atom Interferometry and Precision Measurements
• Evaluating the Influence of Atomic Physics on Biological Systems
• Atomic Physics Applications in Emerging Technologies
• Unlocking the Mysteries of Atomic Spectroscopy
• Delving into the World of Ultracold Atoms and Bose-Einstein Condensates
• The Role of Atomic Physics in Climate Change Studies
• Shedding Light on Dark Matter: Atomic Physics Approaches
• Innovations in Controlled Nuclear Fusion Through Atomic Physics
• Electron Capture and Beta Decay: The Intricacies of Weak Force
• Quantum Magnetism and Its Influence on Atomic Structures
• Theoretical Frameworks for Describing Atomic Structure and Behavior
• The Future of Nanotechnology: Role of Atomic Physics
• Understanding Atomic Physics Role in Quantum Cryptography
• Fundamental Symmetries: Atomic Physics Perspectives and Tests

Physics Research Topics on Quantum Mechanics

• Investigating the Quantum Behavior of Superconducting Circuits
• Exploring the Applications of Quantum Entanglement in Communication Systems
• Analyzing the Role of Quantum Mechanics in Biological Systems
• Developing Quantum Algorithms for Solving Complex Optimization Problems
• Understanding Quantum Tunneling in Nanostructures
• Investigating Quantum Coherence in Macroscopic Systems
• Exploring the Role of Quantum Mechanics in Quantum Computing
• Analyzing the Quantum Properties of Photons in Quantum Information Processing
• Developing Quantum Sensors for High-Precision Measurements
• Investigating the Quantum Mechanics of Quantum Dots in Optoelectronic Devices
• Analyzing the Quantum Mechanics of Spintronics for Information Storage and Processing
• Exploring the Role of Quantum Mechanics in Quantum Cryptography
• Investigating the Quantum Properties of Bose-Einstein Condensates
• Developing Quantum Simulators for Studying Complex Quantum Systems
• Analyzing the Quantum Mechanics of Topological Insulators
• Exploring Quantum Chaos and its Applications in Quantum Mechanics
• Investigating the Quantum Mechanics of the Quantum Hall Effect
• Analyzing the Quantum Properties of Quantum Gravity
• Exploring the Role of Quantum Mechanics in Quantum Sensing and Metrology
• Investigating the Quantum Mechanics of Quantum Optics

Nuclear Physics Research Topics

• Quantum Tunneling in Nuclear Reactions
• Neutron Stars: Structure and Properties
• Nuclear Fusion as a Clean Energy Source
• Investigating the Role of Mesons in Nuclear Forces
• Nuclear Shell Model: Understanding Nucleus Stability
• Proton-Proton Collisions in High-Energy Physics
• Nuclear Fission: Mechanisms and Applications
• Theoretical Analysis of Nuclear Decay Processes
• Particle Accelerators for Nuclear Physics Research
• The Quark-Gluon Plasma: Experimental Studies
• Superheavy Elements and Their Synthesis
• Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy in Materials Science
• Neutrino Oscillations and Mass Hierarchy
• Isotope Separation Techniques for Medical and Industrial Applications
• Exotic Nuclear Shapes: Triaxial and Hyperdeformed Nuclei
• Nuclear Data Evaluation and Uncertainty Analysis
• Studying Nuclear Reactions in Supernovae
• Exploring Nuclear Isomerism for Quantum Computing
• Nuclear Waste Management and Disposal Strategies
• Giant Resonances in Nuclear Physics

Physical Geography Topics to Write About

• Solar Radiation’s Impact on Geographical Landform Evolution
• Oceanic Currents and Their Role in Coastal Erosion
• Atmospheric Pressure Interactions and Mountain Formation
• Tectonic Plate Movements’ Influence on Geographical Features
• Gravity’s Contribution to Geographical Landscape Formation
• Climate Change Effects on Glacial Retreat and Polar Geography
• Wind Patterns and Dune Formation in Deserts
• River Networks’ Dynamics and Fluvial Geomorphology
• Volcanic Activity and Island Formation
• Magnetic Fields and Geomagnetic Reversals in Paleomagnetism
• Earthquakes’ Impact on Geographical Landforms and Seismic Hazards
• Rainfall Patterns and Soil Erosion in Agricultural Landscapes
• Geothermal Energy’s Role in Hydrothermal Features
• Tsunamis’ Effects on Coastal Landforms and Human Settlements
• Earth’s Magnetic Field and the Auroras
• Eolian Processes and Desertification in Arid Landscapes
• Gravity Waves’ Influence on Atmospheric Circulation and Climate Patterns
• River Diversions and Delta Formation
• Climate Change and Coral Reef Degradation
• Ice Sheets’ Dynamics and Sea Level Rise
• Karst Processes and Cave Formation

Astrophysics Topics for a Research Paper

• Quantum Effects in Stellar Evolution
• Gravitational Waves From Binary Neutron Star Mergers
• Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropy Analysis
• Supernova Nucleosynthesis and Element Formation
• Dark Matter Distribution in Galaxy Clusters
• Magnetic Fields in Protostellar Disks
• Exoplanet Atmospheres and Habitability
• Black Hole Dynamics in Galactic Centers
• High-Energy Particle Acceleration in Active Galactic Nuclei
• Gamma-Ray Burst Progenitor Identification
• Interstellar Medium Turbulence and Star Formation
• Neutrino Oscillations in Supernova Explosions
• Cosmic Ray Propagation in the Galactic Magnetic Field
• Stellar Populations and Galactic Archaeology
• Stellar Pulsations and Variable Stars in Globular Clusters
• Dusty Torus Structure in Active Galactic Nuclei
• Planetary Formation in Binary Star Systems
• Primordial Magnetic Fields and Early Universe Magnetogenesis
• Neutron Star Equation of State Constraints from Pulsar Timing
• Galactic Chemical Evolution and Metal Enrichment

Theoretical Physics Topics to Research

• Quantum Entanglement in Multi-Particle Systems
• Gravitational Waves and Black Hole Mergers
• Emergent Phenomena in Condensed Matter Physics
• Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos in Physical Systems
• Symmetry Breaking and Phase Transitions
• Topological Insulators and Their Applications
• Quantum Computing and Information Theory
• Cosmological Inflation and the Early Universe
• Quantum Field Theory and Particle Interactions
• Time Reversal Symmetry in Quantum Mechanics
• Black Hole Thermodynamics and Hawking Radiation
• Quantum Simulation and Quantum Many-Body Systems
• Dark Matter and Its Detectability
• Superconductivity and Superfluidity
• Information-Theoretic Approaches to Quantum Gravity
• Magnetic Monopoles and Their Role in Particle Physics
• High-Energy Physics and Collider Experiments
• Quantum Hall Effect and Topological Order
• Quantum Optics and Quantum Information Processing
• Neutrino Physics and Neutrino Oscillations
• Fractals and Self-Similarity in Physical Systems

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Peter Higgs’ famous particle discovery is now at the heart of strategies to unlock the secrets of the universe

Associate Professor of Physics, Durham University

Disclosure statement

Martin Bauer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Durham University provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation UK.

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A giant of particle physics, Peter Wade Higgs, passed away at his home in Edinburgh on April 8 2024, having lived to 94 years. His unparalleled legacy, epitomised by the discovery of the Higgs boson , continues to profoundly shape the future of particle physics like no other discovery before it. This is the story of his legacy.

When Higgs was born in 1929, our understanding of matter was completely different. Physicists had developed a simple model of matter with three fundamental, or elementary, particles (those that can’t be broken down into smaller particles).

These were protons , which exist in the nuclei of atoms, electrons , which surround the protons and photons , packets of light that are responsible for a force of nature called the electromagnetic force.

During Higgs’ lifetime, an astonishing revolution would unfold, culminating in the creation of the Standard Model of particle physics , the most successful framework for understanding the building blocks of the universe in history.

Higgs would supply the heart to this theory. To understand the significance of Higgs’ work, it is necessary to understand the puzzle that nature laid out for physicists, beginning with the discovery of the neutron in 1932.

The neutron is a sub-atomic particle , a neutral partner of the proton, but slightly heavier. If ripped out of the atomic nucleus, a neutron decays into a proton and an electron in about ten minutes.

Explaining this decay required a new force and particle to mediate it (known as a force carrier). The new force carrier had to be many times heavier than both the neutron and proton, which the prevalent theory couldn’t explain.

According to this theory, force carriers had to be massless. This was the case for the force carrier for the electromagnetic force, the photon. Physicists call this feature of the theory a symmetry.

In physics, theories with more symmetry have fewer free parameters – fewer parts of the theory that can be changed. An additional parameter, such as the mass for a force carrier, would make the theory inconsistent.

Physicists knew that some particles had mass, but could not explain it. They needed to find the right way to break, or overcome, the symmetry in this theory, giving particles mass in a way that was compatible with everything known about the laws of nature. At the time Higgs began working on his ideas in the 1960s, the question of how elementary particles acquired mass was a central issue in physics.

In the early 1960s, the American physicist Phil Anderson noticed that the problematic symmetry in this theory could be overcome in superconductors (a material that conducts electricity with zero resistance) or in charged gas called plasma. However, for a theory that should explain mass, a viable solution couldn’t depend on a specific medium or material.

Later, Higgs and other theorists developed a model that overcame this difficulty. The others physicists were Gerald Guralnik, Carl Hagen, Tom Kibble, Robert Brout and François Englert. Englert would go on to share the 2013 Nobel prize in physics with Higgs .

The idea was simple in retrospect: a background field permeates all of space, creating the kind of medium for which Anderson’s idea worked. Higgs published his first paper on the topic in 1964. In 1966, he was first to predict that this “Higgs field” must also come with a “Higgs particle”. If discovered, it would prove that the Standard Model was a consistent theory of nature.

Yet the search for the Higgs boson turned out to be extraordinarily challenging. Higgs himself thought the question would not be settled in his lifetime. It took almost 50 years and the largest experiment ever built, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at Cern, to finally discover the Higgs boson . On July 4 2012, images of Higgs, moved to tears by the announcement, went around the world.

Our universe is fundamentally shaped by the unique properties of the Higgs boson. Similar to the solid, liquid and gaseous states of matter, the Higgs field corresponds to a phase of the universe that can be determined by measuring the way the Higgs boson interacts with other particles.

In the decade since its discovery, many of these interactions have been observed at the LHC. These results have raised new questions. The stability of the universe – its ability to persist in its present state more or less forever — seems to depend on the mass and interactions of the Higgs boson.

If current measurements of that particle are correct, the universe isn’t stable in its current state. This means that it could eventually undergo a transition to another form . The answers we uncover to this question could prove the Standard Model wrong.

Physicists also want to answer whether the Higgs field really explains all the masses of elementary particles as predicted by the Standard Model. For many Higgs bosons produced at the LHC, we can’t figure out what other particles they decay into. If we could, we could test more speculative theories linked to dark matter or other theories beyond the Standard Model.

To answer these questions, Europe , the US and China have proposed plans for building new particle colliders focused on studying the Higgs boson. Higgs’ legacy will be the experimental particle physics programme of the 21st century.

Higgs was a physicist from a different era. It would be unthinkable now for someone with his publication record to hang on in academia. He published only a handful of papers, almost all of which were authored by him alone. Today’s academic culture creates fierce competition and pressure to publish frequently.

Higgs acknowledged this in a 2013 interview : “It’s difficult to imagine how I would ever have enough peace and quiet in the present sort of climate to do what I did in 1964… Today I wouldn’t get an academic job… I don’t think I would be regarded as productive enough.”

This should be considered a warning. Breakthroughs require time to read and study work in other fields, such as the time Higgs spent to understand Anderson’s work. They require universities to create environments that prioritise time for research, rather than placing researchers in precarious positions dependant on the constant pursuit of grant funding.

It would be entirely fitting if Peter Higgs’ legacy, which transformed our understanding of particle physics, also transformed our approach to research.

• Large Hadron Collider
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• Particle physics
• Peter Higgs

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From disorder to order: Flocking birds and 'spinning' particles

Research demonstrates a new mechanism of order formation in quantum systems, with potential applications for quantum technology.

Researchers Kazuaki Takasan and Kyogo Kawaguchi of the University of Tokyo with Kyosuke Adachi of RIKEN, Japan's largest comprehensive research institution, have demonstrated that ferromagnetism, an ordered state of atoms, can be induced by increasing particle motility and that repulsive forces between atoms are sufficient to maintain it. The discovery not only extends the concept of active matter to quantum systems but also contributes to the development of novel technologies that rely on the magnetic properties of particles, such as magnetic memory and quantum computing. The findings were published in the journal Physical Review Research .

Flocking birds, swarming bacteria, cellular flows. These are all examples of active matter, a state in which individual agents, such as birds, bacteria, or cells, self-organize. The agents change from a disordered to an ordered state in what is called a "phase transition." As a result, they move together in an organized fashion without an external controller.

"Previous studies have shown that the concept of active matter can apply to a wide range of scales, from nanometers (biomolecules) to meters (animals)," says Takasan, the first author. "However, it has not been known whether the physics of active matter can be applied usefully in the quantum regime. We wanted to fill in that gap."

To fill the gap, the researchers needed to demonstrate a possible mechanism that could induce and maintain an ordered state in a quantum system. It was a collaborative work between physics and biophysics. The researchers took inspiration from the phenomena of flocking birds because, due to the activity of each agent, the ordered state is more easily achieved than in other types of active matter. They created a theoretical model in which atoms were essentially mimicking the behavior of birds. In this model, when they increased the motility of the atoms, the repulsive forces between atoms rearranged them into an ordered state called ferromagnetism. In the ferromagnetic state, spins, the angular momentum of subatomic particles and nuclei, align in one direction, just like how flocking birds face the same direction while flying.

"It was surprising at first to find that the ordering can appear without elaborate interactions between the agents in the quantum model," Takasan reflects on the finding. "It was different from what was expected based on biophysical models."

The researcher took a multi-faceted approach to ensure their finding was not a fluke. Thankfully, the results of computer simulations, mean-field theory, a statistical theory of particles, and mathematical proofs based on linear algebra were all consistent. This strengthened the reliability of their finding, the first step in a new line of research.

"The extension of active matter to the quantum world has only recently begun, and many aspects are still open," says Takasan. "We would like to further develop the theory of quantum active matter and reveal its universal properties."

• Quantum Physics
• Spintronics
• Quantum Computing
• Spintronics Research
• Quantum Computers
• Computer Modeling
• Computers and Internet
• Quantum entanglement
• Wave-particle duality
• Electron configuration
• Particle physics
• Nanoparticle
• Quantum number
• Bose-Einstein condensate
• Quantum tunnelling

Story Source:

Materials provided by School of Science, The University of Tokyo . Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference :

• Kazuaki Takasan, Kyosuke Adachi, Kyogo Kawaguchi. Activity-induced ferromagnetism in one-dimensional quantum many-body systems . Physical Review Research , 2024; 6 (2) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevResearch.6.023096

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Peter Higgs’ famous particle discovery is now at the heart of strategies to unlock the secrets of the universe

• Thought Leadership

Described as a "giant of particle physics", Peter Wade Higgs sadly died earlier this month. Dr Martin Bauer from our Physics department explains how Peter’s ground-breaking work means his legacy will live on.

A giant of particle physics, Peter Wade Higgs,   passed away at his home   in Edinburgh on April 8 2024, having lived to 94 years. His unparalleled legacy, epitomised by the discovery of the   Higgs boson , continues to profoundly shape the future of particle physics like no other discovery before it. This is the story of his legacy.

When Higgs was born in 1929, our understanding of matter was completely different. Physicists had developed a simple model of matter with three fundamental, or elementary, particles (those that can’t be broken down into smaller particles).

These were   protons , which exist in the nuclei of atoms,   electrons , which surround the protons and   photons , packets of light that are responsible for a force of nature called the electromagnetic force.

During Higgs’ lifetime, an astonishing revolution would unfold, culminating in the creation of   the Standard Model of particle physics , the most successful framework for understanding the building blocks of the universe in history.

Higgs would supply the heart to this theory. To understand the significance of Higgs’ work, it is necessary to understand the puzzle that nature laid out for physicists, beginning with the discovery of the neutron in 1932.

The neutron   is a sub-atomic particle , a neutral partner of the proton, but slightly heavier. If ripped out of the atomic nucleus, a neutron decays into a proton and an electron in about ten minutes.

Explaining this decay required a new force and particle to mediate it (known as a force carrier). The new force carrier had to be many times heavier than both the neutron and proton, which the prevalent theory couldn’t explain.

According to this theory, force carriers had to be massless. This was the case for the force carrier for the electromagnetic force, the photon. Physicists call this feature of the theory a symmetry.

In physics, theories with more symmetry have fewer free parameters – fewer parts of the theory that can be changed. An additional parameter, such as the mass for a force carrier, would make the theory inconsistent.

Physicists knew that some particles had mass, but could not explain it. They needed to find the right way to break, or overcome, the symmetry in this theory, giving particles mass in a way that was compatible with everything known about the laws of nature. At the time Higgs began working on his ideas in the 1960s, the question of how elementary particles acquired mass was a central issue in physics.

In the early 1960s, the American physicist Phil Anderson noticed that the problematic symmetry in this theory could be overcome in superconductors (a material that conducts electricity with zero resistance) or in charged gas called plasma. However, for a theory that should explain mass, a viable solution couldn’t depend on a specific medium or material.

Later, Higgs and other theorists developed a model that overcame this difficulty. The others physicists were Gerald Guralnik, Carl Hagen, Tom Kibble, Robert Brout and François Englert. Englert would go on to share the   2013 Nobel prize in physics with Higgs .

The idea was simple in retrospect: a background field permeates all of space, creating the kind of medium for which Anderson’s idea worked. Higgs published his first paper on the topic in 1964. In 1966, he was first to predict that this “Higgs field” must also come with a “Higgs particle”. If discovered, it would prove that the Standard Model was a consistent theory of nature.

Yet the search for the Higgs boson turned out to be extraordinarily challenging.   Higgs himself thought   the question would not be settled in his lifetime. It took almost 50 years and the largest experiment ever built, the   Large Hadron Collider (LHC)   at Cern, to   finally discover the Higgs boson . On July 4 2012, images of Higgs, moved to tears by the announcement, went around the world.

Our universe is fundamentally shaped by the unique properties of the Higgs boson. Similar to the solid, liquid and gaseous states of matter, the Higgs field corresponds to a phase of the universe that can be determined by measuring the way the Higgs boson interacts with other particles.

In the decade since its discovery, many of these interactions have been observed at the LHC. These results have raised new questions. The stability of the universe – its ability to persist in its present state more or less forever — seems to depend on the mass and interactions of the Higgs boson.

If current measurements of that particle are correct, the universe isn’t stable in its current state. This means that it could eventually   undergo a transition to another form . The answers we uncover to this question could prove the Standard Model wrong.

Physicists also want to answer whether the Higgs field really explains all the masses of elementary particles as predicted by the Standard Model. For many Higgs bosons produced at the LHC, we can’t figure out what other particles they decay into. If we could, we could test more speculative theories linked to dark matter or other theories beyond the Standard Model.

To answer these questions,   Europe , the US and China have proposed plans for building new particle colliders focused on studying the Higgs boson. Higgs’ legacy will be the experimental particle physics programme of the 21st century.

Higgs was a physicist from a different era. It would be unthinkable now for someone with his publication record to hang on in academia. He published only a handful of papers, almost all of which were authored by him alone. Today’s academic culture creates fierce competition and pressure to publish frequently.

Higgs acknowledged this in a   2013 interview : “It’s difficult to imagine how I would ever have enough peace and quiet in the present sort of climate to do what I did in 1964… Today I wouldn’t get an academic job… I don’t think I would be regarded as productive enough.”

This should be considered a warning. Breakthroughs require time to read and study work in other fields, such as the time Higgs spent to understand Anderson’s work. They require universities to create environments that prioritise time for research, rather than placing researchers in precarious positions dependant on the constant pursuit of grant funding.

It would be entirely fitting if Peter Higgs’ legacy, which transformed our understanding of particle physics, also transformed our approach to research.

Find out more:

• This article is republished from  The Conversation  under a Creative Commons license. Read the  original article.
• Read more about the work of Dr Martin Bauer
• Read more about the Higgs boson discovery
• Find out more about our awarding of an Honorary Doctor of Science to Peter Higgs in 2013

Our Department of Physics is a thriving centre for research and education. Ranked 2nd in the UK in The Guardian University Guide 2024 and in the World Top 100 in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024, we are proud to deliver a teaching and learning experience for students which closely aligns with the research-intensive values and practices of the University.  

Feeling inspired? Visit our Physics webpages to learn more about our postgraduate and undergraduate programmes.  

Durham University is a top 100 world university. In the QS World University Rankings 2024, we were ranked 78th globally.  

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April 26, 2024

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Research demonstrates a new mechanism of order formation in quantum systems

by University of Tokyo

Researchers Kazuaki Takasan and Kyogo Kawaguchi of the University of Tokyo with Kyosuke Adachi of RIKEN, Japan, have demonstrated that ferromagnetism, an ordered state of atoms, can be induced by increasing particle motility and that repulsive forces between atoms are sufficient to maintain it.

The discovery not only extends the concept of active matter to quantum systems but also contributes to the development of novel technologies that rely on the magnetic properties of particles, such as magnetic memory and quantum computing. The findings were published in the journal Physical Review Research .

Flocking birds, swarming bacteria, cellular flows. These are all examples of active matter, a state in which individual agents, such as birds, bacteria, or cells, self-organize. The agents change from a disordered to an ordered state in what is called a "phase transition." As a result, they move together in an organized fashion without an external controller.

"Previous studies have shown that the concept of active matter can apply to a wide range of scales, from nanometers (biomolecules) to meters (animals)," says Takasan, the first author. "However, it has not been known whether the physics of active matter can be applied usefully in the quantum regime. We wanted to fill in that gap."

To fill the gap, the researchers needed to demonstrate a possible mechanism that could induce and maintain an ordered state in a quantum system. It was a collaborative work between physics and biophysics. The researchers took inspiration from the phenomena of flocking birds because, due to the activity of each agent, the ordered state is more easily achieved than in other types of active matter.

They created a theoretical model in which atoms were essentially mimicking the behavior of birds. In this model, when they increased the motility of the atoms, the repulsive forces between atoms rearranged them into an ordered state called ferromagnetism. In the ferromagnetic state, spins, the angular momentum of subatomic particles and nuclei, align in one direction, just like how flocking birds face the same direction while flying.

"It was surprising at first to find that the ordering can appear without elaborate interactions between the agents in the quantum model," Takasan reflects on the finding. "It was different from what was expected based on biophysical models."

The researcher took a multi-faceted approach to ensure their finding was not a fluke. Thankfully, the results of computer simulations, mean-field theory, a statistical theory of particles, and mathematical proofs based on linear algebra were all consistent. This strengthened the reliability of their finding, the first step in a new line of research.

"The extension of active matter to the quantum world has only recently begun, and many aspects are still open," says Takasan. "We would like to further develop the theory of quantum active matter and reveal its universal properties."

Journal information: Physical Review Research , arXiv

Provided by University of Tokyo

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Research team accelerates multi-physics simulations with El Capitan predecessor systems

by Jeremy Thomas, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have achieved a milestone in accelerating and adding features to complex multi-physics simulations run on Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), a development that could advance high-performance computing and engineering.

As LLNL readies for El Capitan, the National Nuclear Security Administration's first exascale supercomputer, the team's efforts have centered around the development of MARBL, a next-generation multi-physics code, for GPUs. El Capitan is based on AMD's cutting-edge MI300A Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), which combines Central Processing Units (CPUs) with GPUs and high-bandwidth memory into a single package, allowing for more efficient resource sharing.

El Capitan's heterogeneous (CPU/GPU) computing architecture, along with expectations that most future supercomputers will be heterogeneous, made it imperative that multi-physics codes like MARBL—which targets mission-relevant high-energy-density (HED) physics like those involved in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments and stockpile stewardship applications—could perform efficiently across a wide variety of architectures, researchers said.

In a recent paper published by the Journal of Fluids Engineering , by harnessing the power of GPUs, specifically AMD's MI250X GPUs in El Capitan's early access machines, the researchers successfully extended MARBL's capabilities to include additional physics crucial for HED physics and fusion modeling.

"The big focus of this paper was supporting multi-physics—specifically multi-group radiation diffusion and thermonuclear burn, which are involved in fusion reactions—and the coupling of all of that with the higher-order finite-element moving mesh for simulating fluid motion," principal investigator Rob Rieben said.

"To get performance on the GPU, there is a lot you have to do in terms of programming, optimizing kernels, balancing memory, and turning your code into a GPU-parallel code, and we were able to accomplish that."

Rieben's team has been dedicated to engineering the scalable, GPU-accelerated multi-physics application MARBL for simulating HED physics experimental platforms since 2015, focusing on the simultaneous advancement of software abstractions and algorithmic developments to enable GPU performance.

The work described in the recent paper is essential for delivering on programmatic tasks that rely heavily on large-scale computational science to answer tough national security questions, said co-author Alejandro Campos, who added that the team faced two main challenges in extending MARBL's capabilities: verifying that additional physics modules were accurately implemented and ensuring that those new modules could perform efficiently when running on the next generation of GPU-based machines.

Researchers said the team addressed those challenges through techniques such as new algorithms for solving linear systems with preconditioners, which have historically been optimized for CPUs. A breakthrough from LLNL's Center for Applied Scientific Computing (CASC) led to a new type of preconditioner suited for GPUs, which was integrated into the code and scaled up for production use.

Preconditioners for linear solvers have been challenging to port to GPUs in a performant way, Rieben said. "CASC proposed a new type of preconditioner needed for solving diffusion equations that is specifically designed to provide high performance for high-order methods on GPUs, which enable us to run large 3D multi-physics simulations on GPU machines like El Capitan.

"Our job was to put their method into a production code, scale it up, and show that it works, not just on benchmarks, but on the actual problems that we care about. We took that hot-off-the-presses research, worked with the researchers in CASC, and got it into our code and did all the necessary tuning to make that perform well on multiple GPU systems," Rieben said.

In the paper, the team compared traditional distributed CPU approaches to the rapid computing enabled by GPU architectures and focused on developing software that could effectively utilize the Single Instruction/Multiple Data paradigm of GPU hardware. The multi-physics nature of the simulations introduced bottlenecks that added complexity to the task, which could degrade overall performance and scalability if not properly addressed, the team reported.

Researchers said the team's use of performance portability abstraction layers, such as the LLNL-developed RAJA Portability Suite and the MFEM finite element discretization library, was instrumental in enabling MARBL's single source code to target multiple GPU/CPU architectures.

"In this paper, we focus on the AMD GPUs because we could leverage other open-source performance portability libraries developed here like RAJA," co-author Tom Stitt said. "While there were some AMD-specific changes that needed to be made, there weren't that many, and they didn't take that much time, so to start our performance portability strategy, that's a win."

Stitt added that getting MARBL to perform on LLNL's current CPU/GPU flagship Sierra took about six years of employee time versus about four months to achieve performance on the El Capitan early-access systems at an 18-fold productivity boost.

"If we had to invest that six years of time again for this new platform, we wouldn't have succeeded; we'd still be working on it," Stitt said. "Our code successes show that the RAJA Portability Suite is a very viable option for writing codes that will work across CPU and GPU architectures and across different GPU vendors."

In addition to RAJA, Umpire—a programming interface that helped alleviate memory constraints on Sierra—also has helped improve codes for El Capitan, Stitt said. Since El Capitan will have eight times more memory per node than Sierra, researchers will be able to fit much bigger problems on a single node and take advantage of the parallelism that the AMD APUs can provide, researchers said.

"The MI300As are the next evolution in AMD GPU processors, and thus, we are very excited to carry out our simulations with those resources," co-author Alejandro Campos said. "We've relied on various libraries developed at LLNL, such as MFEM, RAJA, Umpire, and others, to abstract away some of the work that went into performance portability, and thus, we hope the transition for MARBL to the newer processors will be as straightforward as possible."

Co-author Aaron Skinner said prior methods to run MARBL on CPU-based machines proved challenging due to differences in architecture. Recognizing these limitations, Skinner worked with other CASC researchers to develop code and algorithmic enhancements suited for GPUs, an effort that has successfully benefitted multiple physics modules.

"We've known for a while that we need matrix-free methods to gain performance on GPUs, but our best linear solvers don't lend themselves easily to that formalism, if at all," Skinner said.

"With CASC, we've spent a lot of time implementing and optimizing those matrix-free methods, which have really paid off because the same linear solvers can be used across many different types of modules, including radiation diffusion, thermal conduction, and alpha-particle diffusion. Our approach uses a combination of code optimizations and algorithmic restructuring to gain performance in our linear solvers, which tend to make up the bulk of the computational workload."

Researchers said the successful GPU acceleration for MARBL represents a leap forward for high-performance computing and could have significant implications, not just for El Capitan but for computational science overall.

Improving performance portability will improve flexibility while advancing GPU acceleration could lead to more efficient and accurate simulations for real-world scientific problems in high energy density physics—including fusion energy driven by lasers or pulsed power—and codes for aerospace and automotive engineering, materials science, climate, biological applications, and other complex phenomena.

"Performance portability of codes like MARBL will allow for simulations that provide answers much more quickly or simulations that were previously too expensive to carry out even on the largest supercomputers, as it allows for seamless utilization of different GPU hardware without the need for extensive hardware-specific porting," Campos said.

In the paper, the team conducted scaling studies on key physics benchmark problems to demonstrate the success of their approach on various computing architectures, showing the potential of GPU acceleration for high-order finite element multi-physics simulations and highlighting the versatility and adaptability of their performance portability approach.

"The fact that we have a single source code that can target multiple GPUs from different vendors, that's a really big deal," Rieben said. "At the DOE labs, one of our principles has been that we can't afford to be locked into a specific vendor. That's baked into how we develop our software, so this is a big win for us. It's a big multiplier in terms of being able to run the code on as many platforms as we possibly can."

Researchers said they were able to run problems with MARBL on El Capitan's early access machines, in which the integrated CPU/GPUs share a single memory space at about twice the speed of Sierra and aim to reach a factor of five times or greater on El Capitan's advanced MI300 APUs, and a 15- to 20-fold increase over the Lab's current fastest Commodity Technology Systems.

Rieben said faster computation through GPUs directly correlates with scientific discovery, as researchers learn from running numerous simulations rather than just one. Rapid iteration at high resolution enables users to turn around problems quickly, boosting productivity. Additionally, the increased computational power LLNL will get with El Capitan will allow for larger-scale simulations that were previously unattainable and raise the standard for simulation complexity.

"The ability to rapidly iterate at full fidelity and high resolution in 3D is crucial for efficient discovery," Rieben said. "That's an immediate benefit; people can turn problems around that much faster. So, that speed increase directly translates into a productivity boost for the user."

"The other thing it lets you do is, of course, scale, so now you can consider things at a scale that you wouldn't have considered before. What was once considered cutting-edge will become more commonplace over time."

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• 17 April 2024

CERN’s impact goes way beyond tiny particles

• Nikki Forrester 0

Nikki Forrester is a science journalist based in Davis, West Virginia.

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The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector enabled the discovery of the Higgs boson at CERN, Europe’s particle-physics lab near Geneva. Credit: Richard Juilliart/AFP via Getty

Roughly 100 metres underground, in a tunnel that crosses the border between Switzerland and France, lies the largest machine ever built. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) compresses and collides tiny bits of matter to recreate the fundamental particles that appeared just one-trillionth of a second after the Universe was created.

It’s all part of a day’s work at CERN, Europe’s particle-physics laboratory near Geneva, which is home to the LHC. The lab, which celebrates its 70th anniversary this year, continues to attract scientists who are eager to uncover the nature of particles that comprise matter. Along with more than 2,600 staff members and 900 fellows, CERN hosted nearly 12,000 visiting scientists from 82 countries in 2022. According to indexed papers on the Web of Science database, the researchers publish, on average, around 1,000 papers each year that explore the origin of the Universe, antimatter, dark matter, supersymmetry and beyond. And their ranks include eminent scientists such as Tim Berners-Lee, credited with inventing the World Wide Web, and physicist Peter Higgs, who died on 8 April.

Peter Higgs obituary: physicist who predicted boson that explains why particles have mass

“Particle physics is basically exploring back in time,” says Alain Blondel, a particle physicist who has worked at CERN and the University of Geneva in Switzerland. “The science we do, together with cosmology, astrophysics and many other fields, explores how the Universe was born and how it works. These are questions that have fascinated people for generations”.

Discoveries made at CERN, such as the production of antihydrogen and the development of the World Wide Web, have affected not only the scientific world, but society as a whole. Yet, the inaccessibility of CERN to the majority of the public has led to an almost mythical perception of the organization, says Andri Pol, a photographer based in Switzerland. Pol spent two years capturing the inner workings of CERN for his 2014 book Inside CERN . “You jump into another world and you feel like an alien,” he says. “I don’t know anything about physics, chemistry or mathematics. But you feel the creativity. There’s a lot of energy not only in the machines, but also the people.”

Retaining and attracting scientific talent was a key driving force behind the creation of CERN. During and after the Second World War, many scientists fled Europe to pursue careers in the United States. In the early 1950s, a small group of European scientists put forth a proposal to create a physics laboratory to unite scientists throughout Europe. On 29 September 1954, 12 member states signed a convention establishing CERN near Geneva (see ‘CERN’S growth’).

Source: CERN

Part of the decision to build CERN in Switzerland was the country’s central location in Europe and its neutrality during the war. In fact, CERN’s convention states, “The Organization shall have no concern with work for military requirements.”

“CERN has this aspect of science for peace,” says Rainer Wallny, a physicist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich who chaired the Swiss Institute of Particle Physics in 2020–21. “You are not doing anything military related; you work for the curiosity.”

Now, CERN is governed by a council of 23 member states that provide financial contributions and make decisions regarding the organization’s activities, budget and programmes. CERN’s projected annual revenue for 2023 was 1.39 billion Swiss francs (US$1.53 billion), all of which it spends.“I think it is a great model for international collaboration,” says Wallny. “It has a lot of facilities available that are beyond the scope of individual user groups. No one has a particle accelerator in their backyard.”

The LHC, which is the most powerful particle accelerator in the world, consists of a 27-kilometre ring of superconducting magnets. Inside, two particle beams shoot trillions of protons towards one another at nearly the speed of light, causing some to collide and transform their energy into new particles. Along with the LHC, CERN has eight other particle accelerators, two decelerators, an antimatter factory and a vast array of engineering and computing infrastructure.

These resources bring together thousands of scientists from around the world to tackle big questions in particle physics. Research efforts at CERN led to the discovery of weak neutral currents in 1973, the W and Z bosons in 1983 and three types of neutrino in 1989 1 – 3 . These findings provided support for the standard model of physics, a theory developed in the 1970s that describes the fundamental particles of the Universe and the four forces that shape their interactions. Then, in July 2012, scientists at CERN found evidence for the last key force in the standard model — the Higgs boson 4 .

“I’m fascinated by the concept of having these large, international collaborations working on a scientific puzzle,” says Lea Caminada, a particle physicist at the University of Zurich and the Paul Scherrer Institute in Villigen, Switzerland. Caminada and her research group develop pixel detectors for the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS), a particle detector experiment at the LHC that does research on the standard model, dark matter and extra dimensions. “Doing high-energy physics is unique. It’s really the energy frontier, and there is no other facility in the world where you can do this,” she says.

The CMS collaboration involves more than 5,900 physicists, engineers, technicians and students from 259 institutions across 60 countries. The collaboration publishes around 100 papers each year and celebrated its 1,000th publication in November 2020. But organizing and contributing to large-scale projects is no simple feat. “It’s not always easy to work at CERN. It’s very hard to organize experiments this big,” Caminada says. For instance, she explains, everyone involved in the CMS experiment can review manuscript drafts and provide feedback before submission of a paper. “But I think it creates opportunities for people in different countries.”

A fount of knowledge

Thea Klæboe Åarrestad’s first experience at CERN was during an undergraduate internship in July 2012. During the paid programme, she took three weeks of classes, met with fellow physicists and attended lectures from specialists in the field. It also happened to be the year CERN announced the discovery of the Higgs boson. “Peter Higgs was there. The press of the free world was there. People were sleeping in lines outside the main auditorium to catch the speech,” she says.

The Gargamelle chamber at CERN, operational during the 1970s, detected neutrinos. Credit: CERN PhotoLab

Åarrestad went on to earn her PhD from the University of Zurich in 2019, where she worked on the CMS experiment at CERN, and then became a research fellow at CERN from 2019 to 2021. “My daughter was five months old when I started commuting to CERN. I spent eight hours on the train every day,” she says. “My friends questioned whether I could do exactly the same work for a company, and I can honestly say no, I can’t.”

Now, as a particle physicist at ETH Zurich, Åarrestad studies how to use machine learning to improve data collection and analysis methods at CERN. “The environment there is fantastic. You go for a coffee and everyone has ideas and thoughts to discuss. I was always very passionate about physics, and being at CERN just made me even more passionate about it because I shared it with so many others,” she says.

Reverberating impacts

The impact of CERN goes well beyond the smashing together of tiny particles. “Such a vibrant intellectual node radiates out to the universities,” says Wallny. He often sends his graduate students to CERN, where they can gain experience in a large, international setting. “There’s a lot of education happening, and not just in science and engineering. You interact with people from other cultures and learn how to express yourself in English,” he adds.

According to Wallny, lessons from organizing large-scale collaborations at CERN can also be applied to other areas of science, such as quantum computing. “In these large experiments, you have to invent your own governance. You have a bunch of usually quite anarchistic academics who still have to play by some rules. You have to give yourself a constitution and a collaboration board. These approaches can easily be copied in other emerging fields of science,” he says.

Investing in projects such as CERN has benefits for society that expand beyond the bounds of academia. Massimo Florio, an economist at the University of Milan in Italy, calculates the costs and benefits of large-scale research infrastructure projects. In 2018, Florio and his colleagues evaluated how procurement orders from CERN for the production of the LHC affected knowledge production, patent filings, sales and profits for more than 350 supplier companies 5 .

Nature Spotlight: Switzerland

“There is clear evidence that after they got an order from CERN, even 10 years later, it was transformative for them,” says Florio. “Even if you give zero value to the discovery of the Higgs boson, the knowledge generated along the way has immediate benefits to society.”

Over the past 70 years, technologies developed at CERN to tackle technical and computing challenges have been applied throughout the world. Perhaps the most notable is the World Wide Web, which was developed by computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 to rapidly share knowledge among scientists. In medicine, the technologies from particle accelerators and detectors are used in positron emission tomography scanners and radiation methods for cancer treatments, such as hadron therapy 6 .

Satisfying curiosity

As CERN embarks on its eighth decade of research, the organization is planning to upgrade its accelerators to add to knowledge about the fundamental particles that make up the Universe. Towards the end of 2025, the LHC will be shut down and upgraded to a high-luminosity LHC over about four years. The upgrades aim to increase the machine’s luminosity tenfold, which would result in a larger number of collisions, allowing scientists to observe new events and rare events, such as those producing a Higgs boson, in more detail. “If we’re ever going to produce new physics, we need a lot of data. And in order to get a lot of data, we need more collisions,” says Åarrestad. She notes that upgrades to the LHC will result in almost quadruple the number of collisions that occur now.

Feasibility studies are also being conducted for the potential development of the Future Collision Collider (FCC), a massive, 91-kilometre particle accelerator 7 . A later phase of the proposed FCC is a hadron collider that could have roughly seven times the collision energy of the LHC. But there are concerns about the costs and environmental impacts of the FCC proposals 8 , as well as particle-physics research more broadly. “There are a lot of humans that would benefit from that money. It costs energy and affects the environment to do fundamental physics,” says Åarrestad. “But I think it is something we should continue in the future despite the cost and the energy consumption, because in the end, as humans, what are we if we’re not curious about where we’re from?”

Furthermore, says Pol, basic research often leads to real-world advances. “Sometimes, something new comes out of basic, theoretical research — one never knows. So, you have to give people who are really skilled a chance to try and find out what makes us what we are,” he says.

That sentiment holds for non-scientists, as well. While working on a contribution to the 2023 book Collisions: Stories from the Science of CERN , Lucy Caldwell, a novelist and playwright based in Ireland, had the opportunity to visit the organization. There, she met several scientists and published a fictional piece on the basis of her experiences. “As humankind, we tend to tell the same stories over and over in different variations,” she says. “Being able to go somewhere like CERN and talk to the scientists right at the cutting edge of knowledge gives you, as a writer, new images, new words and new concepts. It gives you ways to make old stories fresh again and ways to tell new stories. And I think that’s important for all of us.”

Nature 628 , S1-S3 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-01100-w

This article is part of Nature Spotlight: Switzerland , an editorially independent supplement. Advertisers have no influence over the content.

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How light can vaporize water without the need for heat

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It’s the most fundamental of processes — the evaporation of water from the surfaces of oceans and lakes, the burning off of fog in the morning sun, and the drying of briny ponds that leaves solid salt behind. Evaporation is all around us, and humans have been observing it and making use of it for as long as we have existed.

And yet, it turns out, we’ve been missing a major part of the picture all along.

In a series of painstakingly precise experiments, a team of researchers at MIT has demonstrated that heat isn’t alone in causing water to evaporate. Light, striking the water’s surface where air and water meet, can break water molecules away and float them into the air, causing evaporation in the absence of any source of heat.

The astonishing new discovery could have a wide range of significant implications. It could help explain mysterious measurements over the years of how sunlight affects clouds, and therefore affect calculations of the effects of climate change on cloud cover and precipitation. It could also lead to new ways of designing industrial processes such as solar-powered desalination or drying of materials.

The findings, and the many different lines of evidence that demonstrate the reality of the phenomenon and the details of how it works, are described today in the journal PNAS, in a paper by Carl Richard Soderberg Professor of Power Engineering Gang Chen, postdocs Guangxin Lv and Yaodong Tu, and graduate student James Zhang.

The authors say their study suggests that the effect should happen widely in nature— everywhere from clouds to fogs to the surfaces of oceans, soils, and plants — and that it could also lead to new practical applications, including in energy and clean water production. “I think this has a lot of applications,” Chen says. “We’re exploring all these different directions. And of course, it also affects the basic science, like the effects of clouds on climate, because clouds are the most uncertain aspect of climate models.”

A newfound phenomenon

The new work builds on research reported last year , which described this new “photomolecular effect” but only under very specialized conditions: on the surface of specially prepared hydrogels soaked with water. In the new study, the researchers demonstrate that the hydrogel is not necessary for the process; it occurs at any water surface exposed to light, whether it’s a flat surface like a body of water or a curved surface like a droplet of cloud vapor.

Because the effect was so unexpected, the team worked to prove its existence with as many different lines of evidence as possible. In this study, they report 14 different kinds of tests and measurements they carried out to establish that water was indeed evaporating — that is, molecules of water were being knocked loose from the water’s surface and wafted into the air — due to the light alone, not by heat, which was long assumed to be the only mechanism involved.

One key indicator, which showed up consistently in four different kinds of experiments under different conditions, was that as the water began to evaporate from a test container under visible light, the air temperature measured above the water’s surface cooled down and then leveled off, showing that thermal energy was not the driving force behind the effect.

Other key indicators that showed up included the way the evaporation effect varied depending on the angle of the light, the exact color of the light, and its polarization. None of these varying characteristics should happen because at these wavelengths, water hardly absorbs light at all — and yet the researchers observed them.

The effect is strongest when light hits the water surface at an angle of 45 degrees. It is also strongest with a certain type of polarization, called transverse magnetic polarization. And it peaks in green light — which, oddly, is the color for which water is most transparent and thus interacts the least.

Chen and his co-researchers have proposed a physical mechanism that can explain the angle and polarization dependence of the effect, showing that the photons of light can impart a net force on water molecules at the water surface that is sufficient to knock them loose from the body of water. But they cannot yet account for the color dependence, which they say will require further study.

They have named this the photomolecular effect, by analogy with the photoelectric effect that was discovered by Heinrich Hertz in 1887 and finally explained by Albert Einstein in 1905. That effect was one of the first demonstrations that light also has particle characteristics, which had major implications in physics and led to a wide variety of applications, including LEDs. Just as the photoelectric effect liberates electrons from atoms in a material in response to being hit by a photon of light, the photomolecular effect shows that photons can liberate entire molecules from a liquid surface, the researchers say.

“The finding of evaporation caused by light instead of heat provides new disruptive knowledge of light-water interaction,” says Xiulin Ruan, professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University, who was not involved in the study. “It could help us gain new understanding of how sunlight interacts with cloud, fog, oceans, and other natural water bodies to affect weather and climate. It has significant potential practical applications such as high-performance water desalination driven by solar energy. This research is among the rare group of truly revolutionary discoveries which are not widely accepted by the community right away but take time, sometimes a long time, to be confirmed.”

Solving a cloud conundrum

The finding may solve an 80-year-old mystery in climate science. Measurements of how clouds absorb sunlight have often shown that they are absorbing more sunlight than conventional physics dictates possible. The additional evaporation caused by this effect could account for the longstanding discrepancy, which has been a subject of dispute since such measurements are difficult to make.

“Those experiments are based on satellite data and flight data,“ Chen explains. “They fly an airplane on top of and below the clouds, and there are also data based on the ocean temperature and radiation balance. And they all conclude that there is more absorption by clouds than theory could calculate. However, due to the complexity of clouds and the difficulties of making such measurements, researchers have been debating whether such discrepancies are real or not. And what we discovered suggests that hey, there’s another mechanism for cloud absorption, which was not accounted for, and this mechanism might explain the discrepancies.”

Chen says he recently spoke about the phenomenon at an American Physical Society conference, and one physicist there who studies clouds and climate said they had never thought about this possibility, which could affect calculations of the complex effects of clouds on climate. The team conducted experiments using LEDs shining on an artificial cloud chamber, and they observed heating of the fog, which was not supposed to happen since water does not absorb in the visible spectrum. “Such heating can be explained based on the photomolecular effect more easily,” he says.

Lv says that of the many lines of evidence, “the flat region in the air-side temperature distribution above hot water will be the easiest for people to reproduce.” That temperature profile “is a signature” that demonstrates the effect clearly, he says.

Zhang adds: “It is quite hard to explain how this kind of flat temperature profile comes about without invoking some other mechanism” beyond the accepted theories of thermal evaporation. “It ties together what a whole lot of people are reporting in their solar desalination devices,” which again show evaporation rates that cannot be explained by the thermal input.

The effect can be substantial. Under the optimum conditions of color, angle, and polarization, Lv says, “the evaporation rate is four times the thermal limit.”

Already, since publication of the first paper, the team has been approached by companies that hope to harness the effect, Chen says, including for evaporating syrup and drying paper in a paper mill. The likeliest first applications will come in the areas of solar desalinization systems or other industrial drying processes, he says. “Drying consumes 20 percent of all industrial energy usage,” he points out.

Because the effect is so new and unexpected, Chen says, “This phenomenon should be very general, and our experiment is really just the beginning.” The experiments needed to demonstrate and quantify the effect are very time-consuming. “There are many variables, from understanding water itself, to extending to other materials, other liquids and even solids,” he says.

“The observations in the manuscript points to a new physical mechanism that foundationally alters our thinking on the kinetics of evaporation,” says Shannon Yee, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Georgia Tech, who was not associated with this work. He adds, “Who would have thought that we are still learning about something as quotidian as water evaporating?”

“I think this work is very significant scientifically because it presents a new mechanism,” says University of Alberta Distinguished Professor Janet A.W. Elliott, who also was not associated with this work. “It may also turn out to be practically important for technology and our understanding of nature, because evaporation of water is ubiquitous and the effect appears to deliver significantly higher evaporation rates than the known thermal mechanism. …  My overall impression is this work is outstanding. It appears to be carefully done with many precise experiments lending support for one another.”

The work was partly supported by an MIT Bose Award. The authors are currently working on ways to make use of this effect for water desalination, in a project funded by the Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab and the MIT-UMRP program.

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Researchers at MIT have discovered that “light in the visible spectrum is enough to knock water molecules loose at the surface where it meets air and send them floating away,” reports Michael Franco for New Atlas . “While the distinction between light-caused evaporation and heat-caused evaporation might not seem like a big one, the researchers say it could not only have a big impact on the way future evaporative projects are executed, but that it could also explain a long-standing discrepancy involving clouds,” writes Franco.

Interesting Engineering

Interesting Engineering reporter Rizwan Choudhury spotlights a new study by MIT researchers that finds light can cause evaporation of water from a surface without the need for heat. The photomolecular effect “presents exciting practical possibilities,” writes Choudhury. “Solar desalination systems and industrial drying processes are prime candidates for harnessing this effect. Since drying consumes significant industrial energy, optimizing this process using light holds immense promise.”

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Six uchicago scholars elected to american academy of arts and sciences in 2024, uchicago scholar wins national book critics circle award, ‘are we doomed’ class debates end of the world—and finds reason for hope.

Six members of the University of Chicago faculty have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies. They include Profs. Diane Brentari, Bonnie T. Fleming, Chuan He, Erik Hurst, Deborah L. Nelson and Amir Sufi.

These scholars have made breakthroughs in fields ranging from linguistics to particle physics to fundamental biology. They join the 2024 class , announced April 24, which includes 250 artists, scholars, scientists, and leaders in the public, nonprofit and private sectors.

Diane Brentari is the Mary K. Werkman Professor in the Department of Linguistics and the College. Her interests address the sign language grammars of Deaf communities around the world—how these languages emerge, and the degree of variation that exists among them. Throughout her career she has analyzed the formal, cognitive, and cultural dimensions that motivate the similarities and differences among these languages.

Her work focuses on sign language structure as a way to better understand the flexibility of the human language capacity in constructing spoken and signed languages, as well as the effects of communication mode (or modality) on language. Her current research has expanded to conduct analyses on a new protactile language, which includes the modalities of proprioception and touch, that is emerging in DeafBlind communities in the U.S.

Brentari is one of three directors of the Center for Gesture, Sign and Language and is the director of the Sign Language Linguistics Lab .

Bonnie Fleming is an internationally recognized particle physicist with outstanding expertise and a world leader in neutrino physics. She serves as the Deputy Director for Science and Technology and Chief Research Officer at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, where she leads all areas of science and technology at Fermilab, and holds a joint appointment with the University of Chicago in the Enrico Fermi Institute within the Department of Physics.

From 2004 to 2022, Fleming led a research group studying neutrinos as a professor at Yale University while also performing research at Fermilab. She was the founding spokesperson for the two neutrino experiments, ArgoNeuT and MicroBooNE, focusing on studying neutrinos and developing the next generation of accelerator neutrino detectors using liquid argon, and was an early member of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). She is known for pioneering a class of detectors called Liquid Argon Time Projection Chambers, which provided a giant leap forward in how scientists may study the varying states of neutrinos and how the subatomic particles might interact with matter. These detectors are the core to Fermilab’s neutrino experiments, including the future international DUNE.

Fleming currently serves as a member of the National Academies Decadal Survey in particle physics.

Chuan He is the John T. Wilson Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Chemistry and the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He is an expert in the field of RNA modification biology and cancer epigenetics. He was the first to champion the idea that modifications to RNA are reversible and can control gene expression.

His work is foundational to developing potential therapies that target RNA methylation effectors against human diseases such as cancer. Prof. He’s team was the first to identify eraser proteins, which can undo changes made to RNA molecules, which sparked the emergence of epitranscriptome research. Prof. He's team explained how RNA methylation functions through characterizing reader proteins—processes that known to play critical roles in many types of cancer.

A Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, He’s many honors include the 2023 Wolf Prize in Chemistry, the 2023 Tetrahedron Prize, and the 2023 Falling Walls Science Breakthrough of the Year in Life Sciences.

Erik Hurst is the Frank P. and Marianne R. Diassi Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and the director of the Becker Friedman Institute. He is an economist whose work lies at the intersection of macroeconomics, labor economics and urban economics. His research has addressed topics such as declining male participation rates, the determinants of U.S. wage growth, the welfare losses to society stemming from gender and racial discrimination, the causes and consequences of urban gentrification, the economics of time use, small business dynamics, life-cycle consumption profiles, the role of housing and mortgage markets in driving macroeconomic conditions, and the choice to invest in human capital. His research has been extensively covered in The New York Times , The Washington Post , The Wall Street Journal and the Economist .

Hurst has received numerous honors and awards including the TIAA-CREF Paul A. Samuelson Award for Outstanding Scholarly Writing on Lifelong Financial Security, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Prize Medal for Distinguished Research in Entrepreneurship, the Emory Williams Award for Outstanding MBA Teaching and the McKinsey Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Hurst is a member of the Economic Fluctuations Group, Aging Group, and Public Economics Group at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He is a member of the Econometrics Society and a Fellow of the IZA Institute of Labor Economics. Hurst was a former co-editor of the Journal of Political Economy, NBER’s Macroannual, and the Journal of Economic Perspectives.

Deborah Nelson is the Helen B. and Frank L. Sulzberger Professor of English and dean of the Division of the Humanities. Her book Tough Enough: Arbus, Arendt, Didion, McCarthy, Sontag, Weil won the Modern Language Association’s James Russell Lowell Prize for Best Book of 2017 and the Gordan Laing Prize in 2019 for the most distinguished contribution to the University of Chicago Press by a faculty member.

She is also the author of Pursuing Privacy in Cold War America and articles published in PMLA , American Literary History , Contemporary Literature , Feminist Studies and in several edited collections. Nelson led a Mellon-funded Sawyer Seminar called “@1948” and edited with Leela Gandhi a special issue of Critical Inquiry devoted to the topic. She is a founding member of the research collective, Post45.

She has been the deputy provost for Graduate Education (2011-2015), the director of the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality (2006-2009) and chair of the Department of English (2017-2023). She has continued her work on graduate education with grants from the NEH (Next Generation Implementation Grant) in 2016 and the Mellon Foundation (Scholarly Careers Initiative) in 2018.

Amir Sufi is the Bruce Lindsay Distinguished Service Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. His research fits within the broader fields of finance and macroeconomics. While he has researched a number of topics, his main contributions have been in two areas: the role of household debt in macroeconomic fluctuations and empirical financial contracting. He is the co-author of House of Debt: How They (and You) Caused the Great Recession and How We Can Prevent It from Happening Again (2014).

Sufi was awarded the 2017 Fischer Black Prize by the American Finance Association, given biennially to the top financial economics scholar under the age of 40. He was elected as a Fellow of the Econometric Society in 2022.

He is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and co-director of the NBER Program on Corporate Finance. He serves as an associate editor for the American Economic Review. 

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