News: Physics

Read the latest news from the College of Natural Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin

Research

Dark Matter Might Have Formed Earlier than Thought

The new model is called WIFI, which stands for dark matter production during Warm Inflation via Freeze-In.

A horn-shaped illustration shows how the universe expanded rapidly during a period called cosmic inflation, with black dots representing the formation of dark matter particles throughout this period

Features

Trick or Treat: Spooky Science to Give You a Scare

Halloween is a good season to treat yourself to some thrilling discoveries from scientists at UT Austin.

Hundreds of bats fly together, marring a backdrop of trees and a sunset.

Announcements

Gift From Love, Tito’s Helps Build Instrument To Track Ultrafast Electrons in Nanomaterials

The new instrument could lead to better materials for quantum computers and solar cells.

Two people with large scissors cut the cords on a pair of black drapes, revealing a new sign over the entrance to a lab. The sign reads: "Love, Tito’s Quantum Materials Characterization Laboratory."

Accolades

Allan MacDonald Named Citation Laureate

The annual recognition highlights researchers with extraordinary citation records and societal impact.

A man in a collared shirt and glasses smiles, seated in front of a blackboard with figures.

Announcements

Natural Sciences Welcomes New Faculty Across the College

Familiar faces and newcomers alike are among the 13 newest tenured and tenure-track faculty members joining the college.

New faculty members 2024-2025

Research

Dark Matter Experiment Sets New Sensitivity Record

The world’s most sensitive dark matter detector still hasn’t found evidence of weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPs, but the search continues.

A large white cylinder in the middle of scientific equipment and a person in a white, full-body cleanroom suit stands nearby for scale

Research

Paving the Way to Extremely Fast, Compact Computer Memory

Materials with high magnetoelectric coupling could be useful in novel devices such as magnetic computer memories, chemical sensors and quantum computers.

Illustration showing two corkscrew-shaped lines twisting in opposite directions, rising up out of a layer of small spheres that represent atoms, each with an arrow pointing in the direction of a feature called its magnetic moment

Oden Institute

Summer School on Quantum Materials

Feliciano Guistino led a week-long workshop for graduate-level students in modern techniques for computational data science and high-performance computing.

Students in a lecture hall discussing a problem and looking at laptop screens

Texas Advanced Computing Center

Surprising Vortex Behind New Solar Cell and Lighting Materials

Using supercomputer simulations, Feliciano Giustino and his team are revealing why perovskites are so promising for solar cells, lighting and computer memory.

A colorful image of a spherical structure of arrows pointing in all directions

Research

Improved Method for Estimating the Hubble Constant with Gravitational Waves

There’s a big debate in cosmology about how fast the universe is currently expanding.

A cosmic pairing is bifurcated by a dynamic force shown in light as gases swirl about.