Detecting dark matter, the invisible substance thought to keep galaxies intact, remains one of the most enduring mysteries in physics. Although it cannot be directly observed or touched, researchers suspect that dark matter leaves behind faint traces. These subtle signals might be detectable using advanced quantum technologies that can senseContinue Reading
Researchers have made a major leap in solar physics by finding the first direct evidence of small-scale torsional Alfvén waves within the Sun’s corona. These elusive magnetic waves, first theorized in the 1940s, have long been suspected to play a key role in heating the Sun’s outer atmosphere. The findings,Continue Reading
The Sun’s polar regions remain one of the least explored areas in solar science. Space-based observatories and ground telescopes have given us extraordinary images of the Sun’s surface, atmosphere, and magnetic fields, but nearly all of those observations come from within the ecliptic plane — the narrow zone where EarthContinue Reading
In a world-first, researchers from the Femtosecond Spectroscopy Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) have directly observed the evolution of the elusive dark excitons in atomically thin materials, laying the foundation for new breakthroughs in both classical and quantum information technologies. Their findings have been publishedContinue Reading
Dark Matter remains one of the biggest mysteries in fundamental physics. Many theoretical proposals (axions, WIMPs) and 40 years of extensive experimental search failed to provide any explanation of the nature of Dark Matter. Several years ago, in a theory unifying particle physics and gravity, new, radically different Dark MatterContinue Reading
An international research collaboration has used advanced computer simulations to investigate how faint radio signals from the early Universe, soon to be observed from missions on the far side of the Moon, could shed light on the fundamental properties of dark matter, reports a new study published in Nature AstronomyContinue Reading
About 80 percent of the universe’s mass is thought to consist of dark matter. And yet, little is known about the composition and structure of the particles that make up dark matter, presenting physicists with some fundamental questions. To explore this elusive matter, researchers are attempting to capture photons, orContinue Reading
The Earth supports the only known life in the universe, all of it depending heavily on the presence of liquid water to facilitate chemical reactions. While single-celled life has existed almost as long as the Earth itself, it took roughly three billion years for multicellular life to form. Human lifeContinue Reading
The European Space Agency-led Solar Orbiter mission has split the flood of energetic particles flung out into space from the Sun into two groups, tracing each back to a different kind of outburst from our star. The Sun is the most energetic particle accelerator in the Solar System. It whipsContinue Reading
A plucked guitar string can vibrate for seconds before falling silent. A playground swing, emptied of its passenger, will gradually come to rest. These are what physicists call “damped harmonic oscillators” and are well understood in terms of Newton’s laws of motion. But in the tiny world of atoms, thingsContinue Reading
