The Top Physics Stories for 2005

[zarquon]

At the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) on Long Island, the four large detector groups agreed, for the first time, on a consensus interpretation of several year’s worth of high-energy ion collisions: the fireball made in these collisions -- a sort of stand-in for the primordial universe only a few microseconds after the big bang -- was not a gas of weakly interacting quarks and gluons as earlier expected, but something more like a liquid of strongly interacting quarks and gluons (PNU 728 (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2005/split/728-1.html)).

Other top physics stories for 2005 include, in general chronological order of their appearance throughout the year, the following:

the arrival of the Cassini spacecraft at Saturn and the successful landing of the Huygens probe on the moon Titan (PNU 716 (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2005/split/716-1.html));
the development of lasing in silicon (Nature 17 February (http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v433/n7027/index.html));

the biggest burst of light ever recorded from outside the solar system, from a soft gamma repeater (PNU 721 (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2005/split/721-1.html));
further evidence for superfluid behavior in a solid (PNU 724 (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2005/split/724-2.html));

detection of infrared radiation directly from an exoplanet (PNU 724 (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2005/split/724-1.html));

zeptogram mass sensitivity in a cantilever sensor (PNU 725 (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2005/split/725-1.html));

splashless impact of droplets at low pressures (PNU 725 (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2005/split/725-3.html));

the demonstration of pyrofusion, fusion reactions created with a pyroelectric crystal (PNU 729 (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2005/split/729-1.html));

the best-yet prediction of hadron masses using lattice QCD (PNU 731 (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2005/split/731-1.html));

the best measurement yet of the weak nuclear force (PNU 736 (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2005/split/736-1.html));

superfluidity directly observed in a sample of ultracold fermi atoms (PNU 734 (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2005/split/734-1.html));

extension of the "comb" technique for measuring frequency (a topic pertaining to the 2005 Nobel prize in physics) into the ultraviolet (PNU 735 (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2005/split/735-2.html));
geoneutrinos observed (PNU 739 (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2005/split/739-3.html));

hybrid atom-molecule dark states (PNU 744 (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2005/split/744-1.html));

using statistical mechanics to predict the effectiveness of flu vaccines (PNU 724 (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2005/split/724-3.html));
hydrophobic water (PNU 747 (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2005/split/747-2.html));

2005 Nobel Prize (PNU 748 (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2005/split/748-1.html));

molecules that walk (PNU 751 (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2005/split/751-2.html));

phonon Hall effect (PNU 750 (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2005/split/750-1.html));

short gamma ray bursts identified as coming from in-spiraling neutron stars (Nature 6 October (http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v437/n7060/index.html));
hyperentangled states (PNU 754 (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2005/split/754-1.html));

further progress in research concerning left-handed or negative-refraction materials, including perfect lensing (Science 22 April (http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/308/5721/534)), almost perfect lensing in the mid-infrared (PNU 750 (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2005/split/750-3.html)),

and extension of negative-index behavior into the near-infrared region (PNU 756 (http://www.aip.org/pnu/2005/split/756-1.html)).
http://www.aip.org/pnu/2005/split/757-1.html