Physics News

One of the most fascinating predictions of quantum electrodynamics (QED), is the existence of a state of minimum energy, the vacuum state, which is full of particles, namely the particle-antiparticle pairs that exist for a very short time and are therefore called virtual.

Take a look at your hand, while breathing some air: what are they made of? Our bodies, and more generally, matter is made of atoms, which, in turn, are made up of a small and dense nucleus orbited by electrons.

Among the many mysteries surrounding the evolution of our Universe, one of the most fascinating is the complete asymmetry between matter and anti-matter.

The 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz for their research on phase transitions in topological insulators.

About ten seconds after the Big Bang, the temperature of the Universe cooled down to a few billion kelvin and the synthesis of light nuclei –deuterium, helium, beryllium, lithium– started.

Among the most troubling problems for physicists, the nature of dark matter is certainly at the top of the list. It’s a matter of numbers: this elusive matter contributes for about a quarter to the total energy of the universe, a huge figure considering only a thin 5% comes from ordinary matter and radiation.