particle-physics

Physicists have conducted a worldwide hunt for dark matter. Literally – they turned Earth itself...

target space, background gauge field twisted smooth cohomology in string theory landscape of string theory vacua An M5-brane wrapped on a torsion 3-cycle is called a fractional M2-brane in Aharony, Bergman & Jafferis 2008, §2.2. Neil Lambert, David Tong, Membranes on an Orbifold, Phys. Rev. Lett. 101 041602 (2008) [arXiv:0804.1114] Ofer Aharony, Oren Bergman, Daniel Jafferis, Fractional M2-branes…

Assume the theory at hand is the ordinary $U(1)$ YM: $$\mathcal{L} = -\frac{1}{4e^2} F^{\mu \nu} F_{\mu \nu}$$ Take the Chern-Simons current in $U(1)$ Yang-Mills: $$j_{\mu} = \epsilon_{\mu \nu \rho \sigma }\left(A^{\nu} \partial^\rho A^\sigma +\frac{2}{3} A^{\nu} A^{\rho} A^{\sigma} \right)$$ which reduces to: $$j_{\mu} =\frac{2}{3} \epsilon_{\mu \nu \rho \sigma } A^{\nu} A^{\rho} A^{\sigma}$$ si…

Physicists at CERN have found a new way to peer deep inside atomic nuclei and distinguish between two competing explanations for how gluons behave. Using the ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, researchers measured particle production at unprecedented spatial resolution, revealing structures as small as about one-quarter the size of a proton. At the smallest scales, they saw a surprisi…

Researchers propose using muonium spectroscopy, a sensitive technique, to search for axion dark matter.

Suppose EW theory generating functional: $$ Z[\text{sources}] = \int D(A,\psi,\bar{\psi}, H,H^{\dagger})\text{exp}\bigg[i\int d^{4}x\bigg(-\frac{1}{4g_{EW}^2}F_{EW}^2 + \bar{\psi}(D - m)\psi + DH^{\dagger}DH + $$ $$ \tag 1 +\theta F_{EW}\tilde{F}_{EW} + \text{gauge fix} +\text{ghost} +\text{sources}\bigg)\bigg] $$ I need to calculate topological susceptibility $$ \tag 2 \kappa (0) \equiv \int d^4…

The fact that this scenario accounts for both survival and delay makes it all the more compelling. If the findings are confirmed, they would have far-reaching implications for fundamental physics, since they suggest the universe acts as a laboratory for quantum gravity, probing energies well beyond the range of Earth’s particle accelerators. In addition, very […]

Nature Communications, Published online: 10 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41467-026-77082-2 Heavy polar molecules are promising for electric dipole moment measurements to probe potential beyond Standard Model physics. Yet, isotope availability beyond lead limits experimental progress. Here, the authors demonstrate an accelerator-independent production scheme of heavy radioactive molecular ions, al…

fields and particles in particle physics and in the standard model of particle physics: photon - electromagnetic field (abelian Yang-Mills field) W, Z, B-boson - electroweak field (Yang-Mills field) gluon - strong nuclear force (Yang-Mills field) graviton - field of gravity infraparticle matter field fermions (spinors, Dirac fields) (also: antiparticles) hadrons (bound states of the above quarks)…

[Revised entry by Meinard Kuhlmann on September 9, 2026. Changes to: Main text, Bibliography] Quantum Field Theory (QFT) is the mathematical and conceptual framework for contemporary high-energy physics, or “particle physics” (but see the discussion of the problematic particle interpretation below). It is also a framework used in other areas of theoretical physics, such as […] The post Quantum Fi…

With little in the way of significant discoveries since 2012, there have been mutterings that particle physics is at a dead end. However, new dark matter results suggest an exciting new way to hunt for reality's undiscovered ingredients

Particle collisions are inherently quantum, but much of that character is lost when we turn them into classical data. Sarah Alam Malik explores whether preserving more of it could help us spot signs of dark matter and other new physics

I am puzzled by this issue. When introducing the cross section, the flux F is defined as the number of particles over unit area and over unit time. The flux is then used to obtain the cross section from the rate of interactions R and the number of targets $N_T$: $$ \sigma = \frac{R}{F*N_T} $$ Let us now suppose we have a beam of particle not uniformly spread over a target. That is not unusual, si…

The LUX-ZEPLIN experiment observed a particle interaction that could be interpreted as a signal from WIMPS, a dark

UChicago-led team builds an AI data filter for CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, addressing the challenge of saving relevant collision data from the machine’s extraordinary speeds. Led by Zixin Ding, the award-winning research merges computer science and physics to help experiments make faster decisions, staying within strict limits.

Deflection of charged particles in a magnetic field can be derived by equating centripetal force and magnetic force, resulting in the equation r = mv/qB = p/qB. Accordingly, if an electron and proton enter a magnetic field with equal momentum, then the above equation implies that they will deflect with equal radii. However, due to the far lesser mass of the electron, would not the centripetal for…