The Higgs boson (blue) may be created by the interaction of gluons (yellow) during proton collisions. Protons consist of two up quarks (red) and one down quark (purple), bound by gluons so strongly ...

In three-dimensional particle physics, elementary particles divide nicely into fermions and bosons. But in lower-dimensions, things aren’t so clear cut. These dimensions host a “third kingdom” of ...

When you drill down into the very fabric of reality—where elementary particles make up the matter that is you and me and everything around us in three-dimensional space—things get divided nicely into ...

A pair of identical particles swapping places sounds like a small move. In quantum physics, it is a defining one. In everyday three-dimensional space, that swap only comes in two flavors. Either the ...

From the early days of quantum mechanics, scientists have thought that all particles can be categorized into one of two groups — bosons or fermions — based on their behavior. “We determined that new ...

A clever mathematical tool known as virtual particles unlocks the strange and mysterious inner workings of subatomic particles. What happens to these particles within atoms would stay unexplained ...

Here’s what you’ll learn when reading this story: When you drill down into the very fabric of reality—where elementary particles make up the matter that is you and me and everything around us in three ...

In their search for more flavors of Higgs bosons, a team of researchers at CERN stumbled across what could be evidence of the smallest matter-antimatter particle ever. The hypothetical particle, known ...

For decades, scientists have explored the enigmatic world of fundamental particles, uncovering the building blocks of our universe. But what if some of these particles, once deemed impossible, ...