AI decodes dusty plasma mystery and describes new forces in nature

Scientists at Emory University developed a custom AI neural network that successfully discovered new physical laws governing dusty plasma, a complex state of matter consisting of electrically charged gas with tiny dust particles. Unlike typical AI applications that predict outcomes or clean data, this AI was trained on detailed experimental data capturing three-dimensional particle trajectories within a plasma chamber. By integrating physical principles such as gravity and drag into the model, the AI could analyze small but rich datasets and reveal precise descriptions of non-reciprocal forces—interactions where one particle’s force on another is not equally reciprocated—with over 99% accuracy. This breakthrough corrected long-standing misconceptions in plasma physics, including the nature of electric charge interactions between particles. The study demonstrated that when one particle leads, it attracts the trailing particle, while the trailing particle pushes the leader away, an asymmetric behavior previously suspected but never accurately modeled. The AI’s transparent framework not only clarifies these complex forces but also offers a universal approach applicable to other many-body systems, from living