https://phys.org/ en-us Latest news from University of Wisconsin Department of Physics Neutrinos have always been difficult to study because their small mass and neutral charge make them especially elusive. Scientists have made a lot of headway in the field and can now detect three flavors, or oscillation states, of neutrinos. Other flavors continue to be elusive—though that could be because they don't even exist. https://phys.org/news/2025-02-tighter-constraints-elusive-sterile-neutrinos.html General Physics Thu, 27 Feb 2025 11:17:53 EST news659877466 If net-positive fusion energy is to ever be achieved, density is key: the more atomic nuclei crashing into each other, the more efficient the reaction will be. Nearly 40 years ago, Martin Greenwald identified a density limit above which tokamak plasmas become unstable, and the so-called Greenwald limit has at best been exceeded by a factor of two in the ensuing decades. https://phys.org/news/2024-07-madison-symmetric-torus-stable-plasma.html Plasma Physics Tue, 30 Jul 2024 06:42:53 EDT news641540567 Elements are the building blocks of every chemical in the universe, but how and where the different elements formed is not entirely understood. A new paper in The Astrophysical Journal by University of Wisconsin–Madison physics professor Baha Balantekin and colleagues with the Network for Neutrinos, Nuclear Astrophysics, and Symmetries (N3AS) Physics Frontier Center, shows how entangled neutrinos could be required for the formation of elements above approximately atomic number 140 via neutron capture in an intermediate-rate process, or i-process. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-entangled-neutrinos-heavier-element-formation.html Astronomy Mon, 10 Jun 2024 09:35:03 EDT news637230901