Biggest Breakthroughs in Physics (2024)
We investigate three of this year's biggest breakthroughs in physics, including evidence that dark energy may be weakening, the discovery of a supersolid, and new advances in quantum geometry.
2024-12-17 12:00:00 - Quanta Magazine
Weakening Dark Energy
A generation of physicists has referred to the dark energy that permeates the universe as “the cosmological constant.” Now, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) has produced the largest map of the cosmos to date, hinting that this mysterious energy has been changing over billions of years.
Supersolids in the Lab
New observations of microscopic vortices, known as quantum tornadoes, confirm the existence of a paradoxical phase of matter that may also arise inside neutron stars.
Quantum Geometry
A decade after discovering the "amplituhedron," physicists have excavated more of the timeless geometry underlying the standard picture of how particles move. A new shape called the "associahedron" gives an alternative to calculating scattering amplitudes with Feynman diagrams.