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Category: particle physics

A new framework for studying chiral materials puts the emphasis on electron chirality rather than on the asymmetry of the atomic structure.

Chirality is a fundamental feature of nature, manifesting across scales—from elementary particles and molecules to biological organisms and galaxy formation. An object is considered chiral if it cannot be superimposed on its mirror image. In condensed-matter physics, chirality is primarily viewed as a structural asymmetry in the spatial arrangement of atoms within a crystal lattice [1]. A perhaps less familiar fact is that chirality is also a fundamental quantum property of individual electron states [2]. Now, Tatsuya Miki from Saitama University in Japan and colleagues introduce electron chirality as a framework to quantify symmetry breaking in solids, focusing on chiral and related axial materials [3]. The researchers propose a way of measuring electron chirality with photoemission spectroscopy.

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An international team led by Innsbruck quantum physicist Peter Zoller, together with the US company QuEra Computing, has directly observed a gauge field theory similar to models from particle physics in a two-dimensional analog quantum simulator for the first time. The study, published in Nature, opens up new possibilities for research into fundamental physical phenomena.

String breaking occurs when the string between two strongly bound particles, such as a quark-antiquark pair, breaks and new particles are created. This concept is central to understanding the that occur in (QCD), the theory that describes the binding of quarks in protons and neutrons.

String breaking is extremely difficult to observe experimentally, as it only occurs in nature under extreme conditions. The recent work by scientists from the Universities of Innsbruck and Harvard, the ÖAW-Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI) and the quantum computer company QuEra shows for the first time how this phenomenon can be reproduced in an analog quantum .

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Physicists are always searching for new theories to improve our understanding of the universe and resolve big unanswered questions.

But there’s a problem. How do you search for undiscovered forces or particles when you don’t know what they look like?

Take . We see signs of this mysterious cosmic phenomenon throughout the universe, but what could it possibly be made of? Whatever it is, we’re going to need new physics to understand what’s going on.

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Scientists in Germany have achieved a world first by moving individual atoms from one position to a precisely defined final one using magnetism, unlocking the potential for controlled atomic motion in nanotechnology and data storage.

The research team from the University of Kiel (CAU) and the University of Hamburg used a highly sensitive scanning tunneling microscope (STM) to manipulate atoms on a specially engineered magnetic surface.

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Scheiner and Zierkiewicz, however, have been studying apical carbon atoms in propellane and pyramidane molecules, where the bonding situation is rather different. Along with Mariusz Michalczyk, also at Wrocław University of Science and Technology, they’ve identified an electron-donating orbital – or pseudo lone pair – on these tetrahedral carbons.

While it clearly has a negative charge, Scheiner acknowledges that the nature of this electron-donating orbital could be up for debate. Nonetheless, it appears that this region of negative electrostatic potential can attract the σ-hole of an electrophile to form various non-covalent interactions including hydrogen, halogen, chalcogen, pnictogen and tetrel bonds.

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We’ve all heard the claim: atoms are mostly empty space. That if you zoomed in far enough, you’d find 99.9999999999999% of an atom is just… nothing. But this idea, while popular, is deeply misleading.

In this video, we dive into the quantum reality behind that empty space — and reveal what truly fills the “void” inside atoms. From the discovery of the nucleus to the rise of quantum field theory, we’ll explore how jittering fields, zero-point energy, and vacuum fluctuations reshape our understanding of what “nothing” really is.

Along the way, you’ll learn:

Why Rutherford’s model gave birth to the “empty atom” idea.

Continue reading “The Empty Atom Myth: Why “Nothing” Isn’t Empty at All” | >

New physics may explain discrepant values for the ionization energy of a metastable state of helium.

In the search for new physics beyond the standard model of particle physics, a significant discrepancy between theory and experiment attracts attention, especially in a simple atomic system such as helium. Recently, evidence has appeared for a 9 discrepancy in the ionization energy of the metastable triplet state of helium-4 (4He) [1, 2]. This stands out like a sore thumb in a field where theory and experiment are both highly accurate and normally in agreement. However, in assessing the validity of the discrepancy, there is always the possibility that something has been overlooked or miscalculated. Now Gloria Clausen and Frédéric Merkt of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich have released the results of their latest research [3] in a series of high-precision experiments [1, 4]. Their results (Fig.

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