Physics Papers Challenging What We Think We Know

Chu (2026). Rederives Hawking radiation using quantum tunnelling rather than the standard Bogoliubov coefficient method, resolving the trans-Planckian problem that has haunted the original derivation since 1974. The tunnelling picture connects naturally to the quantum information theoretic description of the black hole interior, suggesting a path towards reconciling Hawking radiation with unitarity.

Alfonsi, Borsten, Jalali Farahani, Kim, Wolf & Young (2026). Demonstrates that L-infinity algebras — the mathematical structures underlying string field theory — provide a systematic construction mechanism for integrable 2D field theories. Every integrable model studied emerges as a special case, and the framework generates new integrable models not previously known. A deep unification result.

Braglia, Cespedes & Pinol (2026). Quantum loop corrections to inflation have been controversial because they can be large and scale-dependent. This paper carefully computes one-loop corrections in models with features in the inflaton potential, finding characteristic signatures in the primordial power spectrum that the Simons Observatory and CMB-S4 could detect.

Rouxinol, Magorsch, Osborne, Brambilla & Halimeh (2026). The 1+1D QED Schwinger model is the ideal testing ground for non-perturbative physics because it is exactly solvable. Coupling it to a dynamical axion creates a richer model that preserves solvability while capturing the essential physics of axion-photon dynamics relevant to dark matter detection experiments.

Hardy (2026). Lucien Hardy — one of the architects of the quantum information-theoretic approach to quantum foundations — examines how the operational framework of quantum theory can be reformulated in a time-symmetric way, clarifying the role of causality and the arrow of time. A contribution to quantum foundations that will influence approaches to quantum gravity.

Rodrigo (2026). Establishes a correspondence between vacuum amplitudes in quantum field theory (the starting point of the standard model) and qubit operations in quantum information, providing a new bridge between particle physics and quantum computing. The correspondence suggests novel algorithms for simulating QFT on quantum computers.

Glennon (2026). M-theory remains the most mysterious object in theoretical physics — a consistent quantum theory of gravity in 11 dimensions whose formulation is unknown. This paper tests whether Sugawara-type current algebra can serve as the algebraic skeleton of M-theory, placing new constraints on the symmetry structure and connecting to E10 exceptional algebra proposals.

Bhattacharya, Dutta, Pasari & Verma (2026). Studies the large-N limit of Chern-Simons theory on torus knots in lens spaces, identifying a quiver gauge theory structure that organises the knot invariants. The quiver structure provides new exact results for previously intractable knot invariants and connects to ongoing work on 3d mirror symmetry.

Giribet & Sivilotti (2026). Timelike Liouville theory arises as the worldsheet description of string theory in de Sitter space — a spacetime relevant to cosmological applications but technically difficult to analyse. Computing the disk one-point function provides a non-trivial consistency check on the theory and connects to matrix model descriptions of two-dimensional quantum gravity.

Chu (2026). Rederives Hawking radiation using quantum tunnelling rather than the standard Bogoliubov coefficient method, resolving the trans-Planckian problem that has haunted the original derivation since 1974. The tunnelling picture connects naturally to the quantum information theoretic description of the black hole interior, suggesting a path towards reconciling Hawking radiation with unitarity.

Alfonsi, Borsten, Jalali Farahani, Kim, Wolf & Young (2026). Demonstrates that L-infinity algebras — the mathematical structures underlying string field theory — provide a systematic construction mechanism for integrable 2D field theories. Every integrable model studied emerges as a special case, and the framework generates new integrable models not previously known. A deep unification result.

Braglia, Cespedes & Pinol (2026). Quantum loop corrections to inflation have been controversial because they can be large and scale-dependent. This paper carefully computes one-loop corrections in models with features in the inflaton potential, finding characteristic signatures in the primordial power spectrum that the Simons Observatory and CMB-S4 could detect.

Rouxinol, Magorsch, Osborne, Brambilla & Halimeh (2026). The 1+1D QED Schwinger model is the ideal testing ground for non-perturbative physics because it is exactly solvable. Coupling it to a dynamical axion creates a richer model that preserves solvability while capturing the essential physics of axion-photon dynamics relevant to dark matter detection experiments.

Hardy (2026). Lucien Hardy — one of the architects of the quantum information-theoretic approach to quantum foundations — examines how the operational framework of quantum theory can be reformulated in a time-symmetric way, clarifying the role of causality and the arrow of time. A contribution to quantum foundations that will influence approaches to quantum gravity.

Rodrigo (2026). Establishes a correspondence between vacuum amplitudes in quantum field theory (the starting point of the standard model) and qubit operations in quantum information, providing a new bridge between particle physics and quantum computing. The correspondence suggests novel algorithms for simulating QFT on quantum computers.

Glennon (2026). M-theory remains the most mysterious object in theoretical physics — a consistent quantum theory of gravity in 11 dimensions whose formulation is unknown. This paper tests whether Sugawara-type current algebra can serve as the algebraic skeleton of M-theory, placing new constraints on the symmetry structure and connecting to E10 exceptional algebra proposals.

Bhattacharya, Dutta, Pasari & Verma (2026). Studies the large-N limit of Chern-Simons theory on torus knots in lens spaces, identifying a quiver gauge theory structure that organises the knot invariants. The quiver structure provides new exact results for previously intractable knot invariants and connects to ongoing work on 3d mirror symmetry.

Giribet & Sivilotti (2026). Timelike Liouville theory arises as the worldsheet description of string theory in de Sitter space — a spacetime relevant to cosmological applications but technically difficult to analyse. Computing the disk one-point function provides a non-trivial consistency check on the theory and connects to matrix model descriptions of two-dimensional quantum gravity.