Illinois Physics | The Grainger College of Engineering | UIUC

It was too good to be true. Two years ago, a measurement suggested a subatomic particle called the W boson was heavier than predicted by theory. The discrepancy raised hopes it was a sign of new particles and forces beyond those in physicists’ standard model, a 40-year-old theory that, with vexing reliability, has explained everything observed in particle accelerators—although it fails to include gravity. Now, a new measurement indicates the W is as massive as expected, spoiling the mystery.

As a “pen and paper” theorist, SMitha Vishveshwara enjoys thinking about the what ifs and letting her imagination flow.

“The language of math is a beautiful way of discovering new things, but the physicality of it also matters. I love proposing things that can be realized in experiments and also studying the mysteries that experiments bring. It’s been an amazing playground here at Illinois for that,” she says.   

Illinois Physics Professor Jacob Covey has been selected for an Early Career Research Program (ECRP) award by the U.S. Department of Energy. 

Covey’s winning ECRP research proposal titled “Simulating nuclear physics with nuclear spin qudits” will leverage techniques, recently analyzed and proposed by his group, to encode multiple quantum bits (“qubits”) within a single atom. These techniques offer a route to improve the hardware efficiency of certain quantum computing and networking applications.

“Instead of viewing AI as an enemy, what we really should be doing is to help people develop skills to properly use AI, and understand its abilities and limitations,” says Zhongzhou Chen of the University of Central Florida, who presented his physics education research on ChatGPT at this year’s meeting of the APS Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics in Fort Worth, Texas.