Columnist Natalie Wolchover checks in with particle physicists more than a decade after the field entered a profound crisis.

Current theories suggest that W and Z bosons acquire mass from interactions with the Higgs scalar field, but a new study suggests that the higher dimensional structure of spacetime could be the actual ...

The elusive particle that physicists knew had to to exist, but took half a century to find. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. The ...

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. One of the biggest questions in particle physics is whether the ...

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: String theory—the idea that particles are not point-like, but instead one-dimensional strings—is a popular theoretical framework that attempts to ...

Physicists have spent decades treating mass as something the universe simply hands to particles, a property encoded in equations rather than explained from first principles. A new proposal argues that ...

UC Santa Cruz physicist Stefano Profumo has put forward two imaginative but scientifically grounded theories that may help solve one of the biggest mysteries in physics: the origin of dark matter. In ...

An artistic illustration of the mechanism proposed by Professor Stefano Profumo where quantum effects near the rapidly expanding cosmic horizon after the Big Bang gravitationally generate dark matter ...

A proposed funding program for small- and medium-scale projects reveals insights into the science, logistical challenges, and future of particle physics research. Particle physicists have a reputation ...