Physics

Symplectic geometry is a relatively new field with implications for much of modern mathematics. Here’s what it’s all about.

Modified gravity theories have never been able to describe the universe’s first light. A new formulation does.

At the molecular level, glass looks like a liquid. But an artificial neural network has picked up on hidden structure in its molecules that may explain why glass is rigid like a solid.

One hundred years after it was proposed, the Ising model is used to understand everything from magnets to brains.

Researchers say there are three possible explanations for the anomalous data. One is mundane. Two would revolutionize physics.

We asked four physicists why gravity stands out among the forces of nature. We got four different answers.

Recent measurements of particles called B mesons deviate from predictions. Alone, each oddity looks like a fluke, but their collective drift is more suggestive.

Anyons don’t fit into either of the two known particle kingdoms. To find them, physicists had to erase the third dimension.

Two ways of approximating the ultra-complicated math that governs quark particles have recently come into conflict, leaving physicists unsure what their decades-old theory predicts.

Physicists have proposed extra cosmic ingredients that could explain the faster-than-expected expansion of space.