Why does nuclear fission produce pear-shaped nuclei?

Nuclear fission is a process in which a heavy nucleus split into two. Most of the actinides nuclei (plutonium, uranium, curium, etc) fission asymmetrically with one big fragment and one small. Empirically, the heavy fragment ...

Quantum storage system with long-term memory

(Phys.org) -- Credit cards which are completely fraud-proof and passports which cannot be forged: quantum physics could make both of these possible. This is explained by the fact that the quantum mechanical state of a particle, ...

Superfluids: Observation of 'second sound' in a quantum gas

Second sound is a quantum mechanical phenomenon, which has been observed only in superfluid helium. Physicists from the University of Innsbruck, Austria, in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Trento, Italy, ...

Isotope near 'doubly magic' tin-100 flouts conventional wisdom

(PhysOrg.com) -- Tin may seem like the most unassuming of elements, but experiments performed at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are yielding surprising properties in extremely short-lived isotopes ...

Physicists solve a beta-decay puzzle with advanced nuclear models

An international collaboration including scientists at the Department of Energy's (DOE's) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) solved a 50-year-old puzzle that explains why beta decays of atomic nuclei are slower than what ...

Physicists publish observation of the 'Charming Socialites'

Protons and neutrons, the particles in an atomic nucleus, are made of smaller pieces called "quarks." Some types of quarks can form particles that exhibit surprising behaviors. Mark Mattson, Ph.D., assistant professor-research, ...

page 5 from 14