standard model – 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 What Is the Nature of Time? https://www.quantamagazine.org/what-is-the-nature-of-time-20240229/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/what-is-the-nature-of-time-20240229/#respond Thu, 29 Feb 2024 14:00:20 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=135842 The post What Is the Nature of Time? first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Time seems linear to us: We remember the past, experience the present and predict the future, moving consecutively from one moment to the next. But why is it that way, and could time ultimately be a kind of illusion? In this episode, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Frank Wilczek speaks with host Steven Strogatz about the many “arrows” of time and why most of them seem irreversible...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/what-is-the-nature-of-time-20240229/feed/ 0 Are There Reasons to Believe in a Multiverse? https://www.quantamagazine.org/are-there-reasons-to-believe-in-a-multiverse-20230517/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/are-there-reasons-to-believe-in-a-multiverse-20230517/#respond Wed, 17 May 2023 18:40:14 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=126041 The post Are There Reasons to Believe in a Multiverse? first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> By definition, the universe seems like it should be the totality of everything that exists. Yet a variety of arguments emerging from cosmology, particle physics and quantum mechanics hint that there could also be unobservable universes beyond our own that follow different laws of nature. While the existence of a multiverse is speculative, for many physicists it represents a plausible explanation...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/are-there-reasons-to-believe-in-a-multiverse-20230517/feed/ 0 The Electron Is So Round That It’s Ruling Out Potential New Particles https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-electron-is-so-round-that-its-ruling-out-new-particles-20230410/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-electron-is-so-round-that-its-ruling-out-new-particles-20230410/#respond Mon, 10 Apr 2023 14:00:43 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=124831 The post The Electron Is So Round That It’s Ruling Out Potential New Particles first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Imagine an electron as a spherical cloud of negative charge. If that ball were ever so slightly less round, it could help explain fundamental gaps in our understanding of physics, including why the universe contains something rather than nothing. Given the stakes, a small community of physicists has been doggedly hunting for any asymmetry in the shape of the electron for the past few decades.

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-electron-is-so-round-that-its-ruling-out-new-particles-20230410/feed/ 0 What Is Quantum Field Theory and Why Is It Incomplete? https://www.quantamagazine.org/what-is-quantum-field-theory-and-why-is-it-incomplete-20220810/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/what-is-quantum-field-theory-and-why-is-it-incomplete-20220810/#respond Wed, 10 Aug 2022 20:35:53 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=117754 The post What Is Quantum Field Theory and Why Is It Incomplete? first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Quantum field theory may be the most successful scientific theory of all time, predicting experimental results with stunning accuracy and advancing the study of higher dimensional mathematics. Yet, there’s also reason to believe that it is missing something. Steven Strogatz speaks with David Tong, a theoretical physicist at the University of Cambridge, to explore the open questions of this...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/what-is-quantum-field-theory-and-why-is-it-incomplete-20220810/feed/ 0 Particle Physicists Puzzle Over a New Duality https://www.quantamagazine.org/particle-physicists-puzzle-over-a-new-duality-20220801/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/particle-physicists-puzzle-over-a-new-duality-20220801/#respond Mon, 01 Aug 2022 13:50:29 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=117159 The post Particle Physicists Puzzle Over a New Duality first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Last year, the particle physicist Lance Dixon was preparing a lecture when he noticed a striking similarity between two formulas that he planned to include in his slides. The formulas, called scattering amplitudes, give the probabilities of possible outcomes of particle collisions. One of the scattering amplitudes represented the probability of two gluon particles colliding and producing four...

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