What do atomic nuclei really look like? Are the protons and neutrons they contain distributed chaotically? Or do they perhaps bind into alpha clusters, that is, clumps made up of two protons and two neutrons? In the case ...
General Physics
Jun 15, 2018
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19
Scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are the first to successfully simulate an atomic nucleus using a quantum computer. The results, published in Physical Review Letters, demonstrate the ...
Quantum Physics
May 23, 2018
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222
The nucleus of thorium-229 possesses a property that is unique among all known nuclides: It should be possible to excite it with ultraviolet light. To date, little has been known about the low-energy state of the Th-229 nucleus ...
General Physics
Apr 18, 2018
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193
Atoms are composed of electrons moving around a central nucleus to which they are bound. The electrons can also be torn away via the powerful electric field of a laser, overcoming the confining force of their nucleus. A half-century ...
General Physics
Apr 16, 2018
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4374
Last year, physicists at TU Darmstadt cast doubt on our current understanding of the interplay between electrons and atomic nuclei, and are now upping the ante by proposing a solution to this so-called "hyperfine puzzle." ...
General Physics
Mar 1, 2018
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18
What is inside an atom between the nucleus and the electron? Usually there is nothing, but why could there not be other particles too? If the electron orbits the nucleus at a great distance, there is plenty of space in between ...
Quantum Physics
Feb 26, 2018
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For more than a decade, a cross-disciplinary team of chemists and physicists in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis has been chasing the atomic nucleus. With progressive studies, they moved up the element ...
General Physics
Nov 30, 2017
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Three U.S.-based scientists won the Nobel Physics Prize on Tuesday for detecting faint ripples flying through the universe—the gravitational waves predicted a century ago by Albert Einstein that provide a new understanding ...
General Physics
Oct 3, 2017
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7620
Scientists generally imagine atomic nuclei to be more or less spherical clusters of protons and neutrons, but always relatively chaotic. Experiments at the Argonne National Laboratory, inspired by physicists from the Institute ...
General Physics
Sep 8, 2017
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24
To some degree of approximation, atomic nuclei are spherical, though distorted to a greater or lesser extent. When the nucleus is excited, its shape may change, but only for an extremely brief moment, after which it returns ...
General Physics
Jul 21, 2017
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