Understanding and controlling phase transitions are fundamental to physics and central to many technological revolutions.

See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. Physicists with the U.S. Department of Energy have discovered a new ...

A research team led by Haruki Watanabe, a professor in the Department of Physics and the Jockey Club Institute for Advanced ...

A new study in Nature Communications has established a link between the Riemann Hypothesis and dynamical phase transitions in engineered quantum systems, demonstrating the effect on a quantum ...

Contrary to conventional wisdom, so-called order parameters that distinguish symmetry-governed phases of matter can have topological structure. Symmetry constitutes a fundamental concept in physics.

"The moment I hear a sound, sweetness spreads in my mouth." "The moment I see a vivid blue, the scent of soil after rain ...

An experiment uncovers the role played by gravity in Ostwald ripening, a spontaneous thermodynamic process responsible for many effects such as the recrystallization of ice cream. Figure 1: The growth ...

In 1935, Albert Einstein and Erwin Schrödinger, two of the most prominent physicists of the day, got into a dispute over the nature of reality. Einstein had done the math and knew that the universe ...

Two types of ant colonies—one that experiences sudden bursts of activity and one that doesn’t—exemplify two distinct phases of collective behavior. Unfazed. Ants in a nest can exhibit sudden, ...

New theoretical work explores the onset of rigidity in granular materials and other disordered systems by mapping out the edges of rigid regions. Phase transitions are a common part of our daily lives ...