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Baylor Physics & Astronomy

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Department of Physics and Astronomy at Baylor University 🐻🪐

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This week, we enjoyed our annual Physics Department Picnic, complete with homemade nitrogen ice cream! Our Society of Physics Students also toured the BRIC. Dr. Peña’s and Dr. Zhang’s research groups hosted workshop sessions during the Advanced Instrumentation Workshop (AIW) organized by the Department of Chemistry.

AIW is an outreach program that provides students from small four-year institutions with hands-on experience using instrumentation unavailable at their home institutions. We also gathered for an engaging colloquium with Dr. Julian Muñoz!

With the cold settling in, make sure to bundle up for tomorrow’s Baylor vs. TCU game!
Have a great weekend, Bears. by @baylorphysicsastronomy

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Another week in Baylor Physics & Astronomy! 🐻✨

Here’s what went down this week:

Our students, Sophia Knorreck, Ryan Mueller, and Noah Heslep, joined forces in the marching band!

SPS kept the Friday morning tradition alive with its bi-weekly Donut Social 🍩
We had a full house for our colloquium with Dr. Balicas!

Reminder: It’s advising season! Be sure to connect with your academic advisor to start planning for next semester.

And despite the rain, stay dry and enjoy the weather! Have a great weekend, Bears! by @baylorphysicsastronomy

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15 days ago

Stop by on Fridays in room E. 125 to listen to Baylor's graduate students discuss their research interests! by @baylorphysicsastronomy

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The first round of tests kicked off this week, but plenty was happening beyond the classroom. Dr Rose shared his expertise in an interview about NASA’s Roman Space Telescope, students gathered to showcase their research at a conference, and the Society of Physics Bowling Social gave everyone a chance to unwind and connect. by @baylorphysicsastronomy

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Join us next Wednesday to hear Dr. Grace Cummings speak about Collider experiments with low-level detector information.

The presentation is at 3:35 pm in room E. 125. Reception will follow in room D. 311. We hope to see you there! by @baylorphysicsastronomy

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Highlights this week are graduate students at work in their labs, the kickoff of Physics Tutoring, and another insightful colloquium with the community featuring Dr. Fritz Gesztesy from Baylor's own math department! by @baylorphysicsastronomy

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This week, the Department of Physics and Astronomy had the pleasure of celebrating the retirement of Dr. Hyde after 39 years of service. We also had the opportunity to welcome our new Baylor bears into the department during welcome week. We had our first colloquium featuring Dr.Alan Farhan and lab sessions are up and running this week, additionally, our very own Dr. Rose and his research team were at the launch of NASA’s Roman Space Telescope! by @baylorphysicsastronomy

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Our own Dr. Rose and his research team at the launch of NASA’s Roman Space Telescope!
#baylorphysicsastronomy #baylor by @baylorphysicsastronomy

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Our own Dr. Rose and his research team at the launch of NASA’s Roman Space Telescope!
#baylorphysicsastronomy #baylor by @baylorphysicsastronomy

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How Did Our Remarkably Smooth Universe Emerge from the Quantum Universe?

Baylor researcher Anzhong Wang and collaborators identify a new quantum-gravitational mechanism through which a highly anisotropic early universe naturally evolves into the remarkably smooth cosmos we observe today.

Our universe is remarkably homogeneous and isotropic on the largest scales. Yet many cosmological models predict that the early universe should have been highly anisotropic, making the emergence of today's orderly cosmos one of the central questions in modern cosmology.

Published in Physical Review Letters, the research reports a new prediction from modified loop quantum cosmology (mLQC-I). It identifies a quantum-gravitational mechanism that naturally suppresses primordial anisotropies immediately after a quantum bounce—the event that replaces the classical Big Bang singularity. As a result, even a highly anisotropic early universe rapidly evolves into the remarkably smooth, expanding universe observed today, without requiring exotic matter or fine tuning.

The prediction distinguishes mLQC-I from other bouncing cosmological models and provides new theoretical insight into one of cosmology's longest-standing questions: How did the universe evolve from its earliest quantum state into the large-scale cosmos we observe today? The work also opens new directions for exploring potential observational signatures in the cosmic microwave background and primordial gravitational waves.

The research was recently featured by Phys.org, highlighting its significance for understanding the origin and evolution of our universe.

Learn More
Physical Review Letters
Quantum Damping of Cosmological Shear: A New Prediction from Loop Quantum Cosmologies
DOI: 10.1103/f8tr-bq61

Read the article:
https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/f8tr-bq61

Phys.org Feature
Quantum-gravitational mechanism could explain the universe's homogeneity

Read the article:
https://phys.org/news/2026-07-quantum-gravitational-mechanism-universe-homogeneity.html by @baylorphysicsastronomy

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Baylor Physics and Astronomy graduates 2026! by @baylorphysicsastronomy

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