New Atlas

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Dark matter detector reveals material with longest half-life ever – 18 sextillion years

Michael Irving April 28, 2019

Although the many experiments searching for evidence of dark matter have yet to turn up any solid proof yet, they are making other amazing discoveries. The XENON1T experiment has now revealed the longest half-life ever seen in an element, which is far, far longer than the age of the universe.

The XENON1T experiment may not have found dark matter, but it has now revealed the element ...

Physics

Physicists measure quantum tunneling time to be near-instantaneous

Michael Irving March 18, 2019

If you throw a particle at a wall, there’s a chance that it will suddenly appear on the other side. This is thanks to a phenomenon known as quantum tunneling, and now a team of physicists has measured just how long that process takes.

Physicists have measured how long it takes particles to quantum tunnel through barriers, and found it ...

Physics

Large Hadron Collider: 10 years of pushing the frontiers of physics

Michael Irving September 15, 2018

The Large Hadron Collider has been responsible for some of the most important breakthroughs in scientific history, most notably the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2013. New Atlas is celebrating the 10-year anniversary with a look back at its achievements and what it could help solve in the future.

The Large Hadron Collider turned 10 this week

Physics

"Giant atoms" swallow other atoms to form new state of matter

Michael Irving February 26, 2018

As tiny as they are, there's a relatively large amount of empty space inside an atom. Now, scientists from Austria and the US have filled in some of those gaps, creating a new state of matter in the form of "giant atoms" filled with other atoms.

An excited electron (blue) orbits the nucleus (red) of an atom at such a wide distance ...

Physics

Handheld muon detector catches ghostly cosmic ray particles

Michael Irving November 22, 2017

Cosmic rays are raining down over Earth every day, but you’d never know unless you had the right tools. Those tools mostly take the form of bulky, expensive lab equipment, but thanks to an MIT team, you can now build your own detector for US$100 – small enough to take on a plane or the subway.

An MIT team has designed CosmicWatch, a pocket-sized, affordable muon detector

Physics

Another dark matter particle candidate has been ruled out, narrowing the search

Michael Irving November 16, 2017

Researchers at the University of Sussex have disproved the existence of certain kinds of axions, particles that are a leading candidate for dark matter, and while it may send physicists back to the drawing board, the hunt can be more focused in future.

Researchers have ruled out a certain subset of particles that were possible dark matter candidates, using ...

Physics

Does quantum tunneling take time or is it instantaneous?

Michael Irving August 7, 2017

In quantum physics particles can tunnel through barriers that they shouldn’t normally be able to. While this process, called quantum tunneling, is well documented, physicists haven’t been able to tell if it happens instantly or takes time, but now a team from the Max Planck Institute has an answer.

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute have determined how long it takes electrons to quantum tunnel

Physics

Scientists discover "angel particle" that is its own antiparticle

Michael Irving July 20, 2017

Every particle has an antiparticle, which has the opposite charge. But it’s long been theorized that there’s an exception to the rule, with certain particles that are actually their own antiparticles. Now, scientists have found the first strong evidence for what they dub the “angel particle.”

Scientists at Stanford and the University of California have found evidence of Majorana fermions – particles ...

Physics

Experiment suggests that reality doesn't exist until it is measured

Colin Jeffrey June 3, 2015

ANU researchers have conducted an experiment that helps bolster the ever-growing evidence surrounding the weird causal properties inherent in quantum theory. In short, they have shown that reality does not actually exist until it is measured – at atomic scales, at least.

A recent experiment by researchers at ANU into the quantum behavior of particles seems to suggest ...

Science

Who ordered that? An unexpected new particle shakes the Standard Model

Brian Dodson September 19, 2012

Discovery of an elementary particle not predicted by the Standard Model of Particle Physics has been reported and confirmed.

High-energy particle collision similar to those which may be giving us a glimpse of a new ...