A University of Melbourne researcher has placed the strongest constraints yet on certain rare decays of subatomic particles, narrowing the window for where new “hidden” particles could be lurking.
In research published in Physical Review Letters, Dr. Daniel Marcantonio analyzed data from the Belle experiment to search for “feebly interacting particles” (FIPs)—a broad class of hypothetical particles that interact extremely rarely with ordinary matter.
FIPs are predicted by many theories that extend our current understanding of particle physics, and some could serve as candidates for dark matter or as messengers between ordinary matter and a hypothetical “dark sector.”
A major challenge to dark energy, the mysterious force believed to be driving the universe’s accelerating expansion, has been overturned by a new study.
The experiment addresses a long-standing question in physics — in some theories of the universe, there is no built‑in clock so how do you tell what comes ‘before’ and ‘after’ without external time?
Professor Barontini showed that the system follows the standard equations of quantum physics and demonstrates that deep questions about the nature of time — usually discussed only in theories about the universe as a whole — can be tested in controlled laboratory experiments.
The experiment provides a powerful testbed for ideas in quantum cosmology and gravity, meaning that ideas relating to the early universe can now be tested experimentally in the lab.
What did the James Webb Space Telescope just discover that challenges modern physics? In this fascinating breakdown, Brian Greene explores a cosmic finding that appears to defy our current understanding of the universe. From early galaxy formation to mysterious structures that shouldn’t exist so soon after the Big Bang, this discovery could reshape cosmology. Is our standard model incomplete? Are we missing hidden physics? Join us as we unpack the science, the data, and the mind-bending implications behind one of the most shocking astronomical discoveries ever observed by the James Webb Space Telescope.
Explore the mysteries of the universe with Brian Greene Explained. From quantum physics and spacetime to black holes and the multiverse, this channel brings complex ideas into fascinating long-form science content.
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What would you see if you tried to travel alongside a light wave at the speed of light? And suppose you held a mirror in front of you as you zipped along. What would you see in the mirror? This and similar thought experiments were posed by the young Albert Einstein to himself in his teens. It’s come to be known as Einstein’s Mirror and is also the title of a popular book on relativity. It would at first seem that light, reflected off your face, could never reach the mirror to, in turn, reflect back into your eyes to see it. So what would you see? It was only years later that Einstein developed a theory that answered this puzzle. And it required some fundamental adjustments to how we understood the world, which still bend my mind to think about them. These include: You can’t travel at the speed of light. Time is not fixed; it is relative. The speed of light is a universal constant—it is the same, independent of the motion of the source. Einstein wrote: “After ten years of reflection, such a principle resulted from a paradox upon which I had already hit at the age of sixteen: If I pursue a beam of light with the velocity c [the velocity of light in a vacuum], I should observe such a beam of light as a spatially oscillatory electromagnetic field at rest. However, there seems to be no such thing…” — Autobiographical notes, 1949 I’ll try to explain a little as I understand it. Our usual experience is that velocities are additive. Suppose I am on a moving train carriage and I throw a ball from the back of the carriage to the front. For an observer outside the train, that ball moves at the speed of the train plus the speed of the ball relative to me. But light behaves differently. As you approach the speed of light, the energy required to keep accelerating approaches infinity. In effect, you can’t reach the speed of light. So an observer of a flying Einstein wouldn’t see light travelling from him to the mirror at twice the speed of light. What changes is time. For the high-speed Einstein, the light would appear to travel away from him to the mirror and back at its usual immense speed. However, for an observer, what would only seem a moment for the high-speed Einstein might take years for the rest of us—the experience of time changes with velocity. It’s a remarkable turn for a simple and fascinating question. It’s amazing to me that the young Einstein would both pose this question, continue work on it, and then think to question some of the most self-evident facts of our world as we experience it: that time is not fixed, that a speed cannot be reached, and of course, ultimately, that energy is matter. The book Einstein’s Mirror is co-authored by my Dad (respect!). It’s full of photographs, fascinating stories, and the characters that moved physics forward. It includes the people, events and science central to another of Christopher Nolan’s films, Oppenheimer. Perhaps Christopher read it 🤔 Related Ideas to Einstein’s Mirror Also see: Laplace’s Demon Redshift Looking back in time The Doppler Effect Sonic Boom The most beautiful equation — Earlier this year, we attended a showing of Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar at the Royal Albert Hall in London with Hans Zimmer’s soundtrack played by a live orchestra. It was a fantastic way to experience a remarkable film—a film that manages to make black holes, wormholes, and time slippage both understandable (largely) and part of the plot. It strikes me as an astonishing achievement for a mainstream film.
A bold claim that the universe’s accelerating expansion was an illusion has been put to the test—and failed. Researchers found that the study behind the controversy made key mistakes when analyzing supernova data. After revisiting the evidence, astronomers concluded that cosmic acceleration remains as strong as ever.
What is matter, really? Is matter an independent substance, or is reality fundamentally relational? In this episode, we explore some of the deepest questions in philosophy, metaphysics, and modern science, including Quantum Physics, Relativity, Quantum Field Theory, Dark Matter, Consciousness, Space, Time, Cosmology, and the Nature of Reality itself.
From atoms and particles to galaxies and the Universe, modern science increasingly points toward a world of processes, relationships, and dynamic structures rather than isolated objects. Could Matter and Consciousness be different expressions of the same underlying Reality? What can Systems Thinking, Complexity Theory, Nonduality, Taoism, Buddhism, and Vedanta contribute to our understanding of existence?
Let us examine the Nature of Matter, the mystery of Dark Matter, the meaning of Space-Time, and the interconnected fabric of the cosmos. This exploration may challenge the way you think about Reality, Existence, Consciousness, and your place within the Universe.
0:00 Intro. 0:55 A Necessary Correction of Attitude. 4:39 What is Matter? 8:09 Rethinking Properties. 10:34 An Important Question. 14:11 Redefining Matter. 17:43 Outro.
If you love my content, you can support me here: https://buymeacoffee.com/philosophydi… For inquiries: [email protected] ============================= 🎬Suggested videos for you: ▶️ • 3 Quantum Entanglement ▶️ • 2 Wave-Particle Duality ▶️ • 1 Observer Effect ▶️ • Food and Your Mind | How What You Eat Shap… ▶️ • Indian Vegetarian Cooking | How to Make De… ▶️ • Merry Christmas 🎄 ▶️ • 2 What does addiction feel like? ▶️ • Quickly cooking Chinese food😋 ▶️ • 1 Do we really need the “shortcut” to spi… ▶️ • 4 Re-understanding Manifestation ▶️ • 3 Re-understanding Matter ▶️ • 2 Re-understanding Energy ▶️ • 7 Where Does Existence Come From? Final An… ▶️ • 6 There was no “Creation” =================================.
Researchers boosted the sensitivity for measurements of the motion of a levitated nanoparticle, with potential uses in dark matter searches.
Researchers have a bold plan to detect unknown fundamental particles: Levitate a nanoscale object in a vacuum and watch for a microscopic recoil caused by a collision with an exotic particle. Precision measurements of macroscopic objects have been a challenge, but now a research team has demonstrated a significant sensitivity improvement with a levitated object some 6 orders of magnitude larger than in previous experiments [1]. The team hopes the method will find use in experimental searches in the next few years.
Searching for particles not accounted for by the standard model of particle physics requires experiments with unprecedented sensitivity. One method is to use laser light to levitate a small object in a vacuum, isolating it from surrounding noise. Researchers can monitor its motion and potentially detect minuscule recoils caused by rare collisions with exotic particles, such as those of dark matter.
