universality – Quanta Magazine

Mathematicians Prove Symmetry of Phase Transitions

Allison Whitten — Thu, 08 Jul 2021 14:17:59 +0000

For more than 50 years, mathematicians have been searching for a rigorous way to prove that an unusually strong symmetry is universal across physical systems at the mysterious juncture where they’re changing from one state into another. The powerful symmetry, known as conformal invariance, is actually a package of three separate symmetries that are all wrapped up within it. Now, in a proof posted...

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How Mathematical ‘Hocus-Pocus’ Saved Particle Physics

Charlie Wood — Thu, 17 Sep 2020 13:40:51 +0000

In the 1940s, trailblazing physicists stumbled upon the next layer of reality. Particles were out, and fields — expansive, undulating entities that fill space like an ocean — were in. One ripple in a field would be an electron, another a photon, and interactions between them seemed to explain all electromagnetic events. There was just one problem: The theory was glued together with hopes and...

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The Cartoon Picture of Magnets That Has Transformed Science

Charlie Wood — Wed, 24 Jun 2020 14:50:01 +0000

Sudden, radical transformations of substances known to humanity for eons, like water freezing and soup steaming over a fire, remained mysterious until well into the 20th century. Scientists observed that substances typically change gradually: Heat a collection of atoms a little, and it expands a little. But nudge a material past a critical point, and it becomes something else entirely.

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The Universal Law That Aims Time’s Arrow

Natalie Wolchover — Thu, 01 Aug 2019 15:50:11 +0000

Pour milk in coffee, and the eddies and tendrils of white soon fade to brown. In half an hour, the drink cools to room temperature. Left for days, the liquid evaporates. After centuries, the cup will disintegrate, and billions of years later, the entire planet, sun and solar system will disperse. Throughout the universe, all matter and energy is diffusing out of hot spots like coffee and stars...

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Bubble Experiment Finds Universal Laws

Charlie Wood — Wed, 31 Jul 2019 15:30:26 +0000

Each time a drop drips from a faucet, nature performs a magic trick. Breaking one blob into two calls for passage through a singularity — a single point where physical quantities flirt with the infinite. As the neck connecting the two blobs thins to nothing, the fluid pressure and speed race upward toward infinity, as if they were being divided by zero. Here, the equations used to describe fluids...

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