Theoretical physics

In math and computer science, researchers have long understood that some questions are fundamentally unanswerable. Now physicists are exploring how even ordinary physical systems put hard limits on what we can predict, even in principle.

The reference frames from which observers view quantum events can themselves have multiple possible locations at once — an insight with potentially major ramifications.

Curious connections between physics and math suggest to Latham Boyle that space-time may survive the jump to the next theory of reality.

A decade after the discovery of the “amplituhedron,” physicists have excavated more of the timeless geometry underlying the standard picture of how particles move.

A 1930s-era breakthrough is helping physicists understand how quantum threads could weave together into a holographic space-time fabric.

A black hole formula worked out in the 1970s remains the most concrete clue physicists have about the threads of the space-time fabric.

These three imagined scenarios lead many physicists to doubt that space-time is fundamental.

This special issue of Quanta Magazine explores the ultimate scientific quest: the search for the fundamental nature of reality.

The largest-ever 3D map of the cosmos hints that the dark energy that’s fueling the universe’s expansion may be weakening. One community of theoretical physicists expected as much.