experimental physics – Quanta Magazine https://www.quantamagazine.org Illuminating science Mon, 16 Sep 2024 14:10:47 -0400 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2 The First Nuclear Clock Will Test if Fundamental Constants Change https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-first-nuclear-clock-will-test-if-fundamental-constants-change-20240904/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-first-nuclear-clock-will-test-if-fundamental-constants-change-20240904/#respond Wed, 04 Sep 2024 15:02:43 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=140311 The post The First Nuclear Clock Will Test if Fundamental Constants Change first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> At 11:30 one night in May 2024, a graduate student, Chuankun Zhang, saw a signal that physicists have sought for 50 years. As a peak rose from the static on his monitor at the research institute JILA in Boulder, Colorado, Zhang dropped a screenshot in a group chat with his three lab mates. One by one they hopped out of bed and trickled in. After several sanity checks to make sure that what they...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-first-nuclear-clock-will-test-if-fundamental-constants-change-20240904/feed/ 0 ‘Metaphysical Experiments’ Probe Our Hidden Assumptions About Reality https://www.quantamagazine.org/metaphysical-experiments-test-hidden-assumptions-about-reality-20240730/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/metaphysical-experiments-test-hidden-assumptions-about-reality-20240730/#respond Tue, 30 Jul 2024 14:40:10 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=139377 The post ‘Metaphysical Experiments’ Probe Our Hidden Assumptions About Reality first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that deals in the deep scaffolding of the world: the nature of space, time, causation and existence, the foundations of reality itself. It’s generally considered untestable, since metaphysical assumptions underlie all our efforts to conduct tests and interpret results. Those assumptions usually go unspoken. Most of the time, that’s fine.

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/metaphysical-experiments-test-hidden-assumptions-about-reality-20240730/feed/ 0 What Could Explain the Gallium Anomaly? https://www.quantamagazine.org/what-could-explain-the-gallium-anomaly-20240712/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/what-could-explain-the-gallium-anomaly-20240712/#respond Fri, 12 Jul 2024 13:30:54 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=139070 The post What Could Explain the Gallium Anomaly? first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Deep in the Caucasus Mountains, on the border between Russia and Georgia, an unusual experiment is taking place. In an underground lab shielded by a mountain of rock, highly radioactive material sits inside a vat of liquid gallium, blasting out particles called neutrinos that break the gallium down into atoms of germanium. The goal is to resolve a little-known mystery of physics: the gallium...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/what-could-explain-the-gallium-anomaly-20240712/feed/ 0 Physicists Puzzle Over Emergence of Strange Electron Aggregates https://www.quantamagazine.org/physicists-puzzle-over-emergence-of-strange-electron-aggregates-20240529/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/physicists-puzzle-over-emergence-of-strange-electron-aggregates-20240529/#respond Wed, 29 May 2024 16:15:17 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=138229 The post Physicists Puzzle Over Emergence of Strange Electron Aggregates first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> In the 127 years since the electron was discovered, it has undergone more scrutiny than perhaps any other particle. As a result, its properties are not just well known, but rote, textbook material: Electrons have a smidgen of mass and negative electric charge. In a conductor, they swim relatively unimpeded as a current; in an insulator, they barely move. Over time, caveats have cropped up.

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/physicists-puzzle-over-emergence-of-strange-electron-aggregates-20240529/feed/ 0 He Seeks Mystery Magnetic Fields With His Quantum Compass https://www.quantamagazine.org/he-seeks-mystery-magnetic-fields-with-his-quantum-compass-20240517/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/he-seeks-mystery-magnetic-fields-with-his-quantum-compass-20240517/#respond Fri, 17 May 2024 14:03:34 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=137981 The post He Seeks Mystery Magnetic Fields With His Quantum Compass first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Atomic physicists “are jacks of all trades,” according to Alex Sushkov. “You have to have the idea, design the experiment, build the experiment, run the experiment, fix everything, take data, analyze data, write up the paper. You do everything,” and that “suits my personality.” In his lab at Boston University, the Russian-born Australian is supercharging a 50-year-old tool for new purposes.

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