Nuclear structure & decays is a research area in nuclear physics that investigates the internal configuration, quantum states, and dynamical behavior of atomic nuclei, along with the mechanisms by which unstable nuclei transform via radioactive decay. It encompasses the development and application of models such as shell, collective, and mean-field theories to describe nucleon distributions, energy levels, and transition probabilities, and studies decay modes including alpha, beta, gamma, and fission processes. The field integrates experimental spectroscopy, reaction studies, and advanced many-body calculations to elucidate nuclear forces, shape coexistence, isomerism, and the evolution of structure far from stability, informing both fundamental theory and applications in astrophysics and nuclear technology.
Protons and neutrons–known collectively as nucleons–are both the building blocks of matter, but one of these particles has received a bit more attention in certain types of nuclear physics experiments.
General Physics
Nov 22, 2024
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Have you ever wondered how long it took our sun to form in its stellar nursery? An international collaboration of scientists is now closer to an answer. They succeeded in the measurement of the bound-state beta decay of fully-ionized ...
Astronomy
Nov 14, 2024
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Based on an experiment at CERN, a collaboration led by the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, can predict hitherto unchartered changes in the shape of nuclei.
General Physics
Nov 11, 2024
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University of Liverpool researchers are part of an international research collaboration that has shed light on what happens at the extremes of neutron and proton numbers, in search of where the periodic table of chemical ...
General Physics
Nov 11, 2024
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Scientists have demonstrated a new way to use high-energy particle smashups at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC)—a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility for nuclear physics research at ...
General Physics
Nov 6, 2024
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Why are there atomic clocks but no nuclear clocks? After all, an atom's nucleus is typically surrounded by many electrons, so in principle it should be less susceptible to outside noise (in the form of light). A nucleus, ...
Recent experiments at CERN have shed new light on the nuclear properties of atomic nuclei (i.e., the central regions of atoms accounting for most of their mass). A key objective of recent research into atomic nuclei has been ...
The search for new elements comes from the dream of finding a variant that is sufficiently stable to be long-lived and not prone to immediate decay. There is a theory in nuclear physics about an island of stability of superheavy ...
General Physics
Oct 24, 2024
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Neutrons are among the basic building blocks of matter. As long as they are part of a stable atomic nucleus, they can stay there for arbitrary periods of time. However, the situation is different for free neutrons: They decay—after ...
General Physics
Oct 16, 2024
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The atomic nucleus is made up of protons and neutrons, particles that exist through the interaction of quarks bonded by gluons. It would seem, therefore, that it should not be difficult to reproduce all the properties of ...
General Physics
Oct 15, 2024
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