Extremely light and weakly interacting particles may play a crucial role in cosmology and in the ongoing search for dark matter. Unfortunately, however, these particles have so far proved very difficult to detect using existing high-energy colliders. Researchers...
Physics
Searching for sub-eV sterile neutrinos using two highly sensitive detectors
The standard model of particle physics only accounts for 20% of matter in the universe. Physicists have theorized that the remaining 80% is made up by so-called dark matter, which consists of particles that do not emit, absorb or reflect light and thus cannot be...
Searching for axion dark matter conversion signals in the magnetic fields around neutron stars
According to theoretical predictions, axion dark matter could be converted into radio frequency electromagnetic radiation when it approaches the strong magnetic fields that surround neutron stars. This radio signature, which would be characterized by an ultranarrow...
The first demonstration of phase-matching between an electron wave and a light wave
While researchers have conducted countless studies exploring the interaction between light waves and bound electron systems, the quantum interactions between free electrons and light have only recently become a topic of interest within the physics community. The...
Study sets the first germanium-based constraints on dark matter
Cosmological observations and measurements collected in the past suggest that ordinary matter, which includes stars, galaxies, the human body and countless other objects/living organisms, only makes up 20% of the total mass of the universe. The remaining mass has been...
Why solar axions cannot explain the observed XENON1T excess
For several decades, physicists and astrophysicists have theorized about the existence of dark matter in the universe. This elusive type of matter would be made up of particles that do not absorb, reflect or emit light, and that hence cannot be detected using...
The experimental demonstration of entanglement between mechanical and spin systems
Quantum entanglement is the basic phenomenon underlying the functioning of a variety of quantum systems, including quantum communication, quantum sensing and quantum computing tools. This phenomenon results from an interaction (i.e., entanglement) between particles....
The first demonstration of braiding in photonic topological zero modes
Physics theory suggests that exotic excitations can exist in the form of bound states confined in the proximity of topological defects, for instance, in the case of Majorana zero modes that are trapped in vortices within topological superconducting materials. Better...
A protocol to minimize the thermodynamic cost of erasing a single bit over a given amount of time
Stochastic thermodynamics theory is a framework that delineates the amount of heat, dynamics and entropy in small (i.e., mesoscopic) systems that are far from a state of thermodynamic equilibrium. In recent years, scientists have tried to use this theory to better...
Study sets limits on the flux of heavy compact objects using data from the Pi of the Sky project
Strangelets, and specifically nuclearites, their heavy species, are very dense, compact and potentially fast objects made of large and roughly equal numbers of up, down and strange quarks, which may inhabit the universe. Their existence was first hypothesized by...