News: Research

Read the latest news from the Department of Physics

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

Research

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...

tim

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

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.

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.”

Map of northeastern Africa indicating location of an archaeological site

Research

Researchers Discover New Ways to Excite Spin Waves with Extreme Infrared Light

New ultrafast method for controlling magnetic materials might enable next-generation information processing technologies.

Two red waves enter a crystal from the left and on the other side, a blue and green wave emerge, each with a different wavelength

Research

Compact Accelerator Technology Achieves Major Energy Milestone

Bjorn “Manuel” Hegelich led the development of a compact laser accelerator that produces an electron beam with an energy of 10 billion electron volts.

A piece of scientific equipment lit from the outside by green light. In a window in the side of the equipment, a pink light glows.

Research

Researchers Find a New Avenue to Combat Biofilm Threat

A team of researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and other institutions have unlocked a clue about how bacteria form biofilms.

Electron microscope image of bacterial biofilm