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Physics

stylized photo of a researcher at a colorful optical table
Photo Credit
Matt Perko

UCSB researchers to collaborate in three of NSF's Quantum Leap Challenge Institutes

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portrait of two scientists, one sitting, one standing
Photo Credit
Matt Perko
Danyi Zhang, left, and Tamas Vami

Physicists extend the search for quantum black holes at the LHC
A researcher in protective gear works near a tall, cylindrical scientific instrument with visible wiring. The walls surrounding it are reflective Teflon.
Photo Credit
Matthew Kapust/Sanford Underground Research Facility
The LUX-ZEPLIN main detector in a surface lab before installation underground.

LZ sees surprising result in search for dark matter
An artist's impression of a runaway supermassive black hole that was ejected from its host galaxy.
Photo Credit
NASA, ESA, Leah Hustak (STScI)
The rogue super-massive black hole compresses gas in its wake, forming a long “contrail” of young, blue stars. This unusual event happened when the universe was approximately half its current age.

Physicists reconstruct the collision that launched a runaway black hole
a picture of smoke rising from a wildfire in the hills behind a coastal city
The Palisades Fire of January, 2025, burned watersheds in the Santa Monica Mountains, subsequently impacting water quality at several Southern California beaches

Researchers link wildfires in California’s coastal watersheds to the water quality at the beach
An artist's concept of a distant galaxy with an active quasar at its center shooting out bright jets of radiation above and below the galactic disc.
Photo Credit
NASA, ESA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)
A quasar emits exceptional amounts of energy generated by matter falling into a supermassive black hole.

The earliest quasars yet observed are shedding light on the infancy of our cosmos
Geometric image of multicolored lines extending from a gray, rectangular structure
Photo Credit
Brian Long
Co-PI Andrew Jayich will use the new technology to create ion traps like the one shown here, in which colors indicate independent electrodes to control trapped ions.

Galan Moody leads successful effort to secure $1.3 million for advanced 3D printing
photo of a brightly colored optical experiment
Photo Credit
Courtesy Image

Atomic physicist David Weld selected for 2026 National Brown Investigator Award
concept illustration of the energy landscape of 2D materials

The first-time direct observation of exotic charge-neutral quasiparticles in twisted tungsten diselenide
man in wild sea grass
Photo Credit
Courtesy
UC Santa Barbara physics researcher Skyler Palatnik

Designing lightweight optics to detect signs of life beyond our solar system
A man in a lab coat and mask works in a laboratory lit by blue light
Photo Credit
Matt Perko
A researcher works in the lab of Ania Bleszynski Jayich

Using mechanical inputs to enhance quantum states in sensors
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Nobel winner named to national science council
Shelly Gable, David Morrison, Javier Read de Alaniz, Kelly Caylor
Photo Credit
Matt Perko and Jeff Liang
Shelly Gable, David Morrison, Javier Read de Alaniz, and Kelly Caylor

UCSB professors honored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science
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