Theoretical physics

Physicists are confronting their “nightmare scenario.” What does the absence of new particles suggest about how nature works?

The physicist-mathematician Miranda Cheng is working to harness a mysterious connection between string theory, algebra and number theory.

The physicist Asimina Arvanitaki is thinking up ways to search gravitational wave data for evidence of dark matter particles orbiting black holes.

According to our best theories of physics, the universe is a fixed block where time only appears to pass.

Richard Feynman's famous diagrams weren’t just a way to do calculations. They represented a deep shift in thinking about how the universe is put together.

Rampant rumors and a new analysis undercut hopes of a major discovery at the Large Hadron Collider.

Suchitra Sebastian’s searches for quantum anomalies have led to the potential discovery of a new building block of matter.

An experiment claims to have invalidated a decades-old criticism against pilot-wave theory, an alternative formulation of quantum mechanics that eliminates the most baffling features of the subatomic universe.

The astrophysicist, conceptual writer and host of standing-room-only scientific soirees at a repurposed factory in Brooklyn sees science as a powerful force in culture.