Mean-field theory and semiclassical methods constitute vital frameworks in contemporary quantum mechanics. By replacing the intricate web of particle interactions with an average or “mean” field, mean ...

An international research team has sparked interest in the scientific community with results in quantum physics. In their current study, the researchers reinterpret the Higgs mechanism, which gives ...

At long last, a unified theory combining gravity with the other fundamental forces—electromagnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forces—is within reach. Bringing gravity into the fold has been the ...

The force we experience most intimately remains the most mysterious. Physicists understand how vast migrations of particles called photons light up our homes, and how swarms of “gluon” particles hold ...

Effective field theory (EFT) and hydrodynamics together provide a powerful lens through which to view the collective behaviour of quantum systems. EFT offers a systematic approach to model the ...

To put one of physicists’ most important theories to the test, scientists go to extremes. Extremely strong electromagnetic fields, that is. The theory of quantum electrodynamics, which describes ...

For more than a century, modern physics has rested on two towering frameworks that do not quite agree with each other. Quantum theory governs particles and fields, while Einstein’s gravity describes ...

An international collaboration sheds new light on the relationship between quantum theory and thermodynamics. The research group demonstrated that while the laws of quantum theory alone do not ...

Classical physics theories suggest that when two or more electromagnetic waves interfere destructively (i.e., with their electric fields canceling each other out), they cannot interact with matter. In ...

In an effort to solve the riddle of why we have subjective conciousness, scientists have develop myriad theories, including ones involving the quantum realm. A new theory suggests that consciousness ...

I keep coming back to a strange idea: what if everything we know about quantum physics is already encoded inside a single atom? Not in a mystical sense, but in the very real way that one tiny system ...