For the past quarter-century, scientists using a particle collider on Long Island have been smashing the nuclei of gold atoms together at nearly the speed of light to create the hottest matter ever made on Earth. The soup of particles born from the collision mimics the universe as it was just after the big bang. Now researchers have at last accurately measured the temperature of this matter for the first time.
Matter and antimatter mirror each other in all respects but electric charge; physicists are excited by small differences in their behaviors. Recently, observations at the world's largest particle collider revealed a new class of antimatter particles breaking down differently than matter counterparts. This discovery contributes to the quest to understand why our universe consists of matter as opposed to an equal balance with antimatter, a situation suggested by early universe theories.
Axion quasiparticles are simulations of axion particles, which can be further used as a detector of actual particles. If a dark matter axion hits our material, it excites the quasiparticle, and, by detecting this reaction, we can confirm the presence of the dark matter axion.
The Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino (KATRIN) experiment has measured the upper limit of the neutrino's mass to 0.45 electron volts, advancing our understanding of this elusive particle.