For centuries, the quest for new elements was a driving force in many scientific disciplines. Understanding an atom's structure and the development of nuclear science allowed scientists to accomplish the old goal of alchemists—turning ...
Space Exploration
Oct 27, 2023
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Scientists can use powerful colliders to smash atomic nuclei together to create a quark-gluon plasma (QGP). This "soup" of quarks and gluons, some of the fundamental building blocks of matter, filled the early universe. Tracking ...
Quantum Physics
Aug 10, 2023
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7
To study atomic nuclei and subatomic particles, scientists use the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to collide heavy ions—atomic nuclei completely stripped of their surrounding electrons. In these collisions, the quarks and ...
General Physics
Apr 14, 2023
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78
It may be hard to imagine that the debris of violent heavy ion collisions—which dissolve the boundaries of protons and neutrons and produce thousands of new particles—can be used to gain detailed insight into the properties ...
General Physics
Sep 22, 2022
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15
The action of neutrinos in supernovae is poorly understood. When the core of a massive star at the end of its life collapses on itself under the effect of gravity, the electrons in the atoms combine with the protons in their ...
General Physics
Nov 9, 2020
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A research team from Bochum has determined the size of neutrons in a more direct way than ever before, thus correcting previous assumptions.
General Physics
Feb 26, 2020
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Many heavy elements, such as gold, are thought to form in cosmic environments rich in neutrons—think supernovae or mergers of neutron stars. In these extreme settings, atomic nuclei can rapidly capture neutrons and become ...
General Physics
Feb 5, 2020
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12
Sizes and shapes of nuclei with more than 100 protons were so far experimentally inaccessible. Laser spectroscopy is an established technique in measuring fundamental properties of exotic atoms and their nuclei. For the first ...
General Physics
Jun 27, 2018
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4
The nuclei of atoms of heavy elements are not necessarily spherical; they may be variously extended or flattened along one, two or even three axes. An international team of physicists, led by scientists from the Institute ...
General Physics
Oct 20, 2016
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The hottest matter that existed in the early universe after the Big Bang is created in collisions of high-energy nuclei. Using information on the propagation and attenuation of fast particles coming from the collisions, nuclear ...
General Physics
Aug 1, 2016
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