Symmetry

Rubin Observatory will bring new capabilities to the studies of dark matter and dark energy.

Visualizing dark matter is not an easy task. Although scientists have reason to believe the mysterious substance makes up about 27% of all the matter and energy in the universe, they still have yet to see it directly; they know it exists only because of its gravitational pull on the visible matter around it. An art exhibit at the Science Gallery Dublin combines art and science to illuminate the invisible nature of dark matter.

The LUX-ZEPLIN collaboration has published results showing radioactive background levels for experiment’s components, creating a library for future rare event searches.

Next week, scientists with connections to U.S. particle physics will make their morning coffee, boot up their computers and log in to a virtual community planning meeting with over 1,500 colleagues. The four-day gathering will set the stage for a process known as Snowmass, during which scientists will develop a collective vision for the next decade of U.S. particle physics research. The Snowmass process seeks to identify the most promising questions to explore in future research.

Extremely massive fundamental particles could exist, but they would seriously mess with our understanding of quantum mechanics.

Handedness — and the related concept of chirality — are double-sided ways of understanding how matter breaks symmetries. Different-handed object pairs reveal some puzzling asymmetries in the way our universe works.

Particle accelerators like the LHC require intricate beam dump systems to safely dispose of high-energy particles after each run.

Particle physics is driven by surprise. Researchers in the 1960s studying tiny but ubiquitous particles called neutrinos found only a fraction of what they expected to be in their detector. That unexpected result eventually led to the discovery that neutrinos are shape-shifters, oscillating between three types as they travel. In this stop-motion video, Symmetry writer Zack Savitsky imagines a painter discovering a similar surprise among his art supplies.

Sensors for the world’s largest digital camera have snapped their first 3,200-megapixel images at SLAC. Crews at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory took the photo with an extraordinary array of imaging sensors that will become the heart and soul of the future camera of Vera C. Rubin Observatory.

While we’ve known about neutron stars for the better part of a century, astrophysicists still aren’t entirely sure how large they are. That uncertainty is related to two other unanswered questions: What’s in the middle of neutron stars, and how massive can they grow? Astrophysicists are combining multiple methods to reveal the secrets of some of the weirdest objects in the universe.