Proton collisions at the LHC appear wildly chaotic, but new data reveal a surprising underlying order. The findings confirm that a basic rule of quantum mechanics holds true even in extreme particle ...

Inside high-energy proton collisions, quarks and gluons briefly form a dense, boiling state before cooling into ordinary ...

The production of entropy, which means increasing the degree of disorder in a system, is an inexorable tendency in the macroscopic world owing to the second law of thermodynamics. This makes the ...

A device based on a 155-year-old thought experiment has been realised at the largest scale yet, and it may help us understand how entropy, or disorder, is produced. It could also someday be used to ...

Protons are complicated. The subatomic particles are themselves composed of smaller particles called quarks and gluons. Now, data from the Large Hadron Collider hint that protons’ constituents don’t ...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 6, 2023 – Though a cornerstone of thermodynamics, entropy remains one of the most vexing concepts to teach budding physicists in the classroom. As a result, many people oversimplify ...

Physicists have employed a version of Maxwell's demon to reduce entropy in a three-dimensional lattice of super-cooled, laser-trapped atoms -- a process that could help speed progress toward creating ...

The steady tick of a clock usually feels simple and dependable. Something swings or vibrates in a controlled rhythm and marks the passing of each moment. What you rarely notice is the hidden cost ...