The Biggest Discoveries in Physics in 2022

The year started as the James Webb Space Telescope unfurled its sun shield, which would plunge the observatory into frigid shade and open up its view of theIR universe. After the ball dropped in New York City, the sun shield could have snapped, ruining the new telescope and tossing billions of dollars into the void. The new year in physics got off to a great start with the sun shield opening perfectly.

New faces of the universe began to appear. The first public image of the telescope was unveiled by the president on July 11. The next day there were four more images. The data from the telescope has been shared among hundreds of scientists.

There is a lot of data in astronomy. The first-ever photo of the supermassive black hole in the heart of our galaxy was released by the event horizon telescope in May. A recent effort by other telescopes to map the locations of millions of galaxies yielded surprising evidence of an asymmetric distribution of the universe.

Condensed matter physicists are seeing breakthrough in their field. An experiment published in September proved the origin of high-temperature superconductivity, which could help in the field's perennial quest for an even warmer version of the phenomenon. Research on two-dimensional materials is a goal. A flat crystal that once helped lubricate skis has become a powerful platform for quantum phenomena.

Particle physicists have been less fortunate. The subject of a wonderful visual project we published this fall is the feature of the protons. The Standard Model of particle physics, which has been the theory to beat for half a century, has few clues about how to go beyond it. At least one possible crack in the Standard Model opened up this year. There is a list of the greatest hits of the year.

Despite smashing its last protons a decade ago, the handler of the collider has continued to analyze its detections of weakly interacting particles. They announced in April that they had measured the mass of the W boson more precisely than ever before and found it to be heavier than they had thought.

There would be a huge discovery if there was a discrepancy with the Standard Model. Hold on to theApplause. The Standard Model prediction is closer to the mass measured by the ATLAS experiment. One or both groups may have missed a subtle source of error in the new measurement.

The aim of the experiment is to find a solution. The W boson needs to be the same on both sides of the Atlantic.

The situation particle physicists are in is reflected by the buzz about the Standard Model. The Standard Model doesn't explain all the mysteries of the universe. It hasn't turned up an 18th yet.

Figuring out how to proceed has been a problem for theorists for a long time. A new direction has opened up in the past few weeks. Naturalness is a long-held assumption that theorists are rethinking. Nature has a reductionist structure where big stuff is explained by smaller stuff. Theories are wondering if the laws of nature aren't structured in a simple bottom-up way because of profound naturalness problems. They are looking at how gravity could change the picture.

The current moment in the field is referred to by some as a crisis. She thinks that it is a time where she feels like we are on to something great.

The physics of nothing was the subject of a explainer published in August.

Graphene is a crystal sheet made of carbon atoms. Transition metal dichalcogenide is a new family of flat crystals. Material with different quantum properties and behaviors can be created by stacking different TMDs.

The near-magical properties of these materials are known thanks to a married couple who run a lab at Cornell University. The story of 2D materials against the backdrop of Condensed matter physics, and also unpacking a slew of exciting new discoveries, was told in the profile of Shan and Mak. A short documentary about the duo and their discoveries can be found on theQuanta channel.

Physicists announced a first-of-its-kind experiment on a chip in November. It was possible to manipulate the flow of quantum information in the computer in such a way that it was double what it was in the real world.

The wormhole isn't part of the space-time we live in. It has a different space-time geometry than the real, positively curved, 4D space-time we live in, and it is a kind of simulation or hologram. The purpose of the experiment was to show that certain quantum systems of particles can be seen as a continuum. The space-time can be seen as a hologram that comes from the lower-dimensional quantum system. In more advanced quantum computer experiments in the coming years, researchers hope to explore the mechanics of holographic duality, with the ultimate goal of unraveling whethergravity in our universe is a result of some quantum bits or not.

Physicists and lay readers had differing opinions on the hologram. Physicists thought the simulation was too small compared to the theoretical model it was based on. The physicists behind the work and the journalists who covered them should have emphasized that this wasn't a real wormhole that could bring people to the other side of the world. Negative-energy material is needed to open up a wormhole in real space-time.

This year, the biggest thing in physics is floating a million miles away, at a spot in space called Lagrange Point 2, where its sun shield can block out the Earth, moon and sun at the same time. Images of hearts have stood still. Our understanding of the universe is being changed by its data.

When Biden unveiled the first image of the telescope, researchers were immediately able to see some of the stars. Papers on scientific topics appeared online. New discoveries about stars, planets and even Jupiter were reported two weeks after. One of the most exciting findings was that the universe seems to have begun in a surprising way. There will be more about this in the future.

We will have to wait for the study of the rocky planets in the TRAPPIST-1 star system. The starlight that pierces the atmosphere of a distant planet is a key specialty of the JWST. This shows what the planet's atmosphere is made of, as well as evidence of alien biology. The telescope has been used for a long time. The TRAPPIST-1 planets are so small that they will need to transit in front of their suns a few times over the next few years.

It might not be possible to see clear-cut biosignatures in the sky. Astronomers have been waiting for the search to start for their entire careers. As the first exoplanets were discovered, Lisa Kaltenegger, director of the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University, came of age. She joined a group of people who were trying to figure out how to live on one. The profile of Kaltenegger describes how she and her generation of exoplanet astronomy have planned for this era for decades. In the future, there will be more on that.

It was the year in computer science.