This article is the first part of a series about quantum field theory published by Quanta Magazine. Other stories in the series can be found here. Over the past century, quantum field theory has ...

Effective field theory (EFT) and hydrodynamics together provide a powerful lens through which to view the collective behaviour of quantum systems. EFT offers a systematic approach to model the ...

Mean-field theory and semiclassical methods constitute vital frameworks in contemporary quantum mechanics. By replacing the intricate web of particle interactions with an average or “mean” field, mean ...

During the latter part of the 20th century, string theory was put forward as a unifying theory of physics foundations. String theory has not, however, fulfilled expectations. That is why we are of the ...

Quantum field theory marries the ideas of other quantum theories to depict all particles as “excitations” that arise in underlying fields. The British physicist Paul Dirac started the ball rolling in ...

At Aalto University in Finland, two physicists believe they may have cracked a puzzle that has defied generations of scientists: how to reconcile the physics of the very big with the physics of the ...

An international research team has sparked interest in the scientific community with results in quantum physics. In their current study, the researchers reinterpret the Higgs mechanism, which gives ...

Even in an incomplete state, quantum field theory is the most successful physical theory ever discovered. Nathan Seiberg, one of its leading architects, talks about the gaps in QFT and how ...

Peter Millington is a Senior Research Fellow in the Particle Theory Group at the University of Manchester, UK, where he holds a UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowship and a Royal Society ...

You may think of physics as a way to explain the behaviors of things like black holes, colliding particles, falling apples, and quantum computers. But a small group physicists today is working on a ...

Two leading scientists discuss the future of their field. Credit...Ariel Davis Supported by By Dennis Overbye The future belongs to those who prepare for it, as scientists who petition federal ...