News Feature Channel: Nuclear Physics

Researchers Use Summit to Track Down Nuclear Fission's Elusive Scission Neutron

Oak Ridge National Laboratory — Fri, 25 Oct 2024 14:50:48 EST

Researchers from the University of Washington, Seattle, or UW, and Los Alamos National Laboratory used the Summit supercomputer at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory to answer one of fission's biggest questions: What exactly happens during the nucleus's "neck rupture" as it splits in two?

Bridging the Gap Between Physics and Computing

Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 13:30:41 EST

Jefferson Lab's Experimental Physics Software and Computing Infrastructure (EPSCI) group develops centralized computing software that can be shared by any of the lab's experimental halls and used for future projects.

Honoring a Career of Outstanding Achievement

Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 10:00:24 EST

This year, the U.S. Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility celebrates the 40th anniversary of its founding to probe the secrets of the subatomic universe. And for 39 of those years, esteemed physicist Volker D. Burkert has been an important part of its mission. Now, Burkert is being honored for his contributions to advancements in experimental physics with the prestigious Tom W. Bonner Prize in Nuclear Physics. The citation reads: "For exemplary leadership in the development of high-performance instrumentation for large acceptance spectrometers that have enabled breakthroughs in fundamental nuclear physics through electroproduction measurements of exclusive processes."

Making Difficult Quantum Many-Body Calculations Possible

Department of Energy, Office of Science — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 15:05:44 EST

One of the methods scientists use to study quantum many-body systems is the ab initio approach, but some ab initio methods run into severe computational problems when using realistic interactions. This study introduces wavefunction matching and uses it to perform lattice simulations with realistic interactions. This allows scientists to make calculations that were once impossible.

High-Voltage Gun Accelerates Electrons from Zero to 80 ... Percent the Speed of Light

Brookhaven National Laboratory — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 05:00:00 EST

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have designed and tested the world's highest voltage polarized electron gun, a key piece of technology needed for building the world's first fully polarized Electron-Ion Collider (EIC).

Scientists Accelerate Uranium Beam with Record Power

Department of Energy, Office of Science — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 14:05:26 EST

Researchers at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams reached a new milestone in isotope studies, accelerating a high-power beam of uranium ions to a record 10.4 kilowatts of continuous beam power to a target. The beam enabled scientists to produce and identify three new isotopes, gallium-88, arsenic-93, and selenium-96.

Department of Energy Announces $49 Million for Research on Foundational Laboratory Fusion

Department of Energy, Office of Science — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 11:05:13 EST

As the Department of Energy (DOE) continues to accelerate a clean-energy future that includes fusion technology, a total of $49 million in funding for 19 projects was announced today in the Foundational Fusion Materials, Nuclear Science, and Technology programs.

Brookhaven's Computing Center Reaches 300 Petabytes of Stored Data

Brookhaven National Laboratory — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 09:05:13 EST

The Scientific Data and Computing Center (SDCC) at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory now stores more than 300 petabytes of data. That's far more data than would be needed to store everything written by humankind since the dawn of history -- or, if you prefer your media in video format, all the movies ever created.

Argonne Researchers Crack a Key Problem with Sodium-Ion Batteries for Electric Vehicles and Grid Energy Storage

Argonne National Laboratory — Thu, 26 Sep 2024 15:05:31 EST

New method for cathode preparation prevents the particle cracking that caused performance decline with cycling of sodium-ion batteries, which offer a cheaper, more abundant alternative to lithium-ion batteries.

Nuclear Physics Experiment Helps Identify Conditions for a New Astrophysical Process

Department of Energy, Office of Science — Thu, 26 Sep 2024 14:05:14 EST

A new stellar process, the intermediate "i" process, has been proposed to explain new astronomical observations on nucleosynthesis. Scientists recently reported on the measurement of a nuclear reaction that affects the production of lanthanum in the i process. The measurement will help to improve scientific understanding of nucleosynthesis.

Smoother Surfaces Make for Better Particle Accelerators

Department of Energy, Office of Science — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 15:05:29 EST

A new toolkit helps researchers build optimal superconducting radiofrequency (SRF) cavities that form the backbone of advanced particle accelerators. The cavities' cleanliness, shape, and roughness of their inner surfaces contribute to their efficiency. In tests of the toolkit, scientists found that smoother cavities function more efficiently.

Mapping Out Matter's Building Blocks in 3D

Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 15:30:00 EST

Deep inside what we perceive as solid matter, the landscape is anything but stationary. The interior of the building blocks of the atom's nucleus -- particles called hadrons that most of us would recognize as protons and neutrons -- are made up of a seething mixture of interacting quarks and gluons, known collectively as partons. The HadStruc collaboration has now come together to map out these partons and disentangle how they interact to form hadrons. Their latest findings were recently published in the Journal of High Energy Physics.

Four Argonne Scientists Receive 2024 DOE Early Career Research Awards

Argonne National Laboratory — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 13:05:29 EST

As winners of the 2024 U.S. Department of Energy's Early Career Research Program, four scientists from Argonne National Laboratory are each receiving an award of $550,000 a year for five years to help them answer complex questions.

Unraveling the mystery surrounding the creation of heavy elements in stars

Argonne National Laboratory — Thu, 12 Sep 2024 14:05:37 EST

Scientists uncover new experimental data that will help them better understand how heavy elements are created in stars and the processes that shape the chemical makeup of the universe.

U.S. Department of Energy Awards $138 Million to 91 Early Career Scientists

Department of Energy, Office of Science — Tue, 10 Sep 2024 11:05:21 EST

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced the selection of 91 early career scientists from across the country who will receive a combined $138 million in funding for research covering a wide range of topics including artificial intelligence, fusion energy, and quantum.

Laser-Sharp Look at Spinning Electrons Sets the Stage for New Physics Discoveries

Department of Energy, Office of Science — Mon, 09 Sep 2024 15:05:49 EST

Spin is an intrinsic property of the electron. When electrons spin in the same direction at a given time, the quantity is called polarization. Understanding polarization helps examine the structure of nuclei of heavy elements. Now, nuclear physicists have measured the polarization of an electron beam more precisely than ever before.

Postdoc Takes Multipronged Approach to Muon Detection

Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 16:05:13 EST

2024 JSA Postdoctoral Prize Winner Debaditya Biswas will combine different particle identification methods with machine learning to detect muons hidden in a sea of pions.

When it's hotter than hot, scientists know how nuclear fuel behaves, thanks to new research from Argonne

Argonne National Laboratory — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 11:05:55 EST

Experiment findings will help nuclear industry model, design and construct clean nuclear energy systems, and continue an impressive safety legacy.

Detecting the "Kick" from a Single Nuclear Decay

Department of Energy, Office of Science — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 13:05:46 EST

Scientists have for the first time mechanically detected individual nuclear decays occurring in a microparticle. The research used a new technique. Rather than detecting the radiation emitted by the nuclei, the researchers detected the occurrence of decay by measuring the tiny "kick" to the entire microparticle that contained the decaying nucleus as this radiation escaped.

Frontier simulations provide new insights into calcium-48's controversial nuclear magnetic excitation

Oak Ridge National Laboratory — Tue, 03 Sep 2024 17:05:07 EST

The world's most powerful supercomputer is helping resolve conflicting research results that have puzzled scientists for more than a decade, which could also shine new light inside collapsing stars.