Physics News and Discussions

[weatheriscool]

Beauty meson decay confirms tension with Standard Model predictions
https://phys.org/news/2025-09-beauty-me ... ndard.html
by CERN

A new LHCb analysis confirms a previously observed tension with the Standard Model, but more data and improved theoretical calculations are needed to determine whether new physics is at play.

The LHCb collaboration has released the results of its latest analysis of the rare decay of the beauty meson B0 into a K* meson and a pair of muons (B0→K*μ+μ–). Based on data from the first and second runs of the LHC, the new analysis confirms a tension with predictions from the Standard Model that was observed in previous analyses. However, such predictions are highly complex and are a topic of debate within the theoretical physics community.

[weatheriscool]

Proven quantum advantage: Researchers cut the time for a learning task from 20 million years to 15 minutes
https://phys.org/news/2025-09-proven-qu ... llion.html
by Technical University of Denmark

Amid high expectations for quantum technology, a new paper in Science reports a proven quantum advantage. In an experiment, entangled light has allowed researchers to learn a system's noise with very few measurements.

Researchers at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and international partners have demonstrated that entangled light can cut the number of measurements needed to learn the behavior of a complex, noisy quantum system by an enormous factor.

"This is the first proven quantum advantage for a photonic system," says corresponding author Ulrik Lund Andersen, a professor at DTU Physics. "Knowing that such an advantage is possible with a straightforward optical setup should help others look for areas where this approach would pay off, such as sensing and machine learning."

[weatheriscool]

Multimode quantum entanglement achieved via dissipation engineering
https://phys.org/news/2025-10-multimode ... ation.html
by Li Qige, University of Science and Technology of China

A research team led by Prof. Lin Yiheng from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), collaborating with Prof. Yuan Haidong from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, succeeded in generating multipartite quantum entangled states across two, three, and five modes using controlled dissipation as a resource. Their study is published in Science Advances.

Multimode entanglement is a key resource in quantum computation, communication, simulation, and sensing. One of the major challenges in achieving stable and scalable multimode entanglement lies in the inherent susceptibility of quantum systems to environmental noise—a phenomenon known as dissipation. To mitigate dissipative effects, conventional preparation methods often require isolating the system from its surroundings.

[weatheriscool]

Calorimetric experiment achieves tightest bound on electron neutrino mass
https://phys.org/news/2025-10-calorimet ... trino.html
by Tejasri Gururaj, Phys.org

In a Physical Review Letters study, the HOLMES collaboration has achieved the most stringent upper bound on the effective electron neutrino mass ever obtained using a calorimetric approach, setting a limit of less than 27 eV/c² at 90% credibility.
This result validates a decades-old experimental vision and demonstrates the scalability needed for next-generation neutrino mass experiments.

While oscillation experiments have measured the differences between neutrino mass states, the actual individual mass values—the absolute neutrino mass scale—remain unknown. Pinning down these values would help complete our understanding of the Standard Model of particle physics.

[weatheriscool]

First observation of single top quark production with W and Z bosons
https://phys.org/news/2025-11-quark-pro ... osons.html
by CERN

The experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) detect rare events on a daily basis, but some are exceptionally rare, such as this latest result from the CMS collaboration. For the first time, the collaboration has observed the production of a single top quark along with a W and a Z boson, an extremely rare process that happens only once every trillion proton collisions. Finding this event in the LHC data is like searching for a needle in a haystack the size of an Olympic stadium.

The creation of a top quark, a W boson and a Z boson, known as tWZ production, opens up a new window for understanding the fundamental forces of nature. By closely studying tWZ production, physicists can investigate how the top quark interacts with the electroweak force, which is carried by th

[weatheriscool]

CERN's electrostatic trap 'recycles' anions to illuminate the heaviest elements
https://phys.org/news/2025-11-cern-elec ... inate.html
by CERN

From the burning of wood to the action of medicines, the properties and behavior of matter are governed by the way chemical elements bond with one another. For many of the 118 known elements, the intricate electronic structures of the atoms that are responsible for chemical bonding are well understood. But for the superheavy elements lying at the far edge of the periodic table, measuring even a single property of these exotic species is a major challenge.

In a new paper published in Nature Communications, a team of researchers working at the ISOLDE facility at CERN report a novel technique that could help unlock the chemistry of (super)heavy elements and has potential applications in fundamental physics research and medical treatments.

[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]

Physicists demonstrate the constancy of the speed of light with unprecedented accuracy

by Autonomous University of Barcelona
https://phys.org/news/2025-11-physicist ... uracy.html

In 1887, one of the most important experiments in the history of physics took place. American scientists Michelson and Morley failed to measure the speed of Earth by comparing the speed of light in the direction of Earth's motion with that perpendicular to it. That arguably most important zero measurement in the history of science led Einstein to postulate that the speed of light is constant and consequently to formulate his theory of special relativity.

This theory implies that all laws of physics are the same, independent of the relative motion between observers—a concept known as Lorentz invariance.

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

World’s most powerful hypergravity machine is 1,900X stronger than Earth
By Bronwyn Thompson
January 07, 2026

Built by Shanghai Electric Nuclear Power Group as part of China's Centrifugal Hypergravity and Interdisciplinary Experiment Facility (CHIEF), CHIEF1900 will soon function at 1,900 g-tonnes, surpassing the previously most powerful centrifuge the CHIEF1300.

“We aim to create experimental environments that span milliseconds to tens of thousands of years, and atomic to [kilometer] scales – under normal or extreme conditions of temperature and pressure,” Chen Yunmin, CHIEF’s chief scientist and a professor at Zhejiang University, told South China Morning Post. “It gives us the chance to discover entirely new phenomena or theories."

We first reported on the facility in 2024, when the scale of the project was unveiled, but with only the preliminary machinery in place. The impressive CHIEF1300 came online in September 2025, with the ability to generate up to 1,300 g-tonnes of hypergravity. The new centrifuge is about 46% more extreme in its capacity.

https://newatlas.com/science/powerful-h ... y-machine/

[weatheriscool]

[firestar464]

Schrödinger’s cat just got bigger: quantum physicists create largest ever ‘superposition’

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00177-9

[firestar464]

[weatheriscool]

[firestar464]

More on that by Eurekalert:

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1114834

[firestar464]

Antarctica 'ghost particle' observatory gets major upgrade that could 'pave the way' to physics breakthroughs

https://www.livescience.com/physics-mat ... akthroughs

[firestar464]

Radio signal discovered at the center of our galaxy could put Einstein's relativity to the test

https://www.livescience.com/space/astro ... o-the-test

[wjfox]

[firestar464]

[wjfox]