News: Research
Read the latest news from the Department of Physics
UT Scientists Spied a Skyrmion. What is That?
This, and six other questions about a recent first in physics, answered.

Physicists Reveal Muscles’ Molecular Secret to Balancing Strength and Stamina
The findings could have implications for robotics, prosthetics and energy efficient machines.

University of Texas-led Team Solves a Big Problem for Fusion Energy
Their method to speed up the design of “magnetic bottles” offers an answer to a complex 70-year-old challenge.

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.

From a Physics Frontier: Tim Andeen
Tim Andeen is searching for dark matter at CERN and setting up a robotic system in Paris to test new data-collection chips for the ATLAS...

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.

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.

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.

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.

UT News
Surviving a Volcanic Supereruption May Have Facilitated Human Dispersal Out of Africa
Graduate students Jessica Valdes and Keenan Riordan were on a team that found humans may have dispersed during arid times along “blue highways.”
