Feature Channels: Particle Physics

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After years of preparation, the first neutrinos have been observed by the Short-Baseline Near Detector collaboration. The data SBND collects will expand our knowledge of how neutrinos interact with matter and will be used to search for evidence of new physics.

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Ashok Silwal, a doctoral candidate and graduate research assistant at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), a part of the University of Alabama System, has been chosen to receive a NASA Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST) scholarship to study stream interaction regions (SIRs) in the heliosphere.

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Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have trained neural networks to predict interactions between irregularly shaped particles to accelerate molecular dynamics simulations.

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A recent study shows that the superconducting edge currents in the topological material molybdenum telluride (MoTe2) can sustain large changes in the “glue” that keeps the superconducting electrons paired. To sustain these changes, the bulk and the edge of MoTe2 must behave differently. This surprise finding will help researchers create and control anyons and aid in the development of future energy-efficient electronics.

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Underground at the Switzerland-France border, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN holds the record for the world’s largest particle accelerator. Its ring alone is nearly 17 miles around. With this tool, scientists smash together subatomic particles to help them better understand the tiny building blocks of the universe. One area that scientists use the LHC to study is the quark-gluon plasma.

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Neutrinos can change their identities or “flavors” when they interact. Researchers recently found that the neutrinos in a very dense environment such as a core collapse supernova can develop strong correlations through mutual interactions. This means that over time, neutrinos with different initial flavors reach a similar equilibrium flavor and energy distribution.

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This article features the Jefferson Lab SRF Operations Department’s cryomodule assembly technicians, a team of master craftsmen who build, test and install cryomodules in particle accelerators. Their work enables scientific discoveries at Jefferson Lab and beyond.

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Building on nearly 15 years of research, physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility are exploring magnetrons as the drivers of modern particle accelerators. This could lower the carbon footprint of these energy-hungry machines and help them benefit society far beyond the realm of scientific research.

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Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility are exploring how adding oxygen to the surfaces of particle accelerator cavities, one of the most critical parts of an accelerator, can help scientists custom-tailor their properties for maximum efficiency and minimum cost.

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Improvements to the lab’s “electron camera” use AI and “time stamping” to help reveal nature’s speedy processes more accurately.

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In an effort looking for optimized air pollution control, scientists from Peking University have detected large variations in the composition and toxicity of ambient particles collected from 31 major Chinese cities located across varying latitudes. The results imply an urgent need to rethink the suitability of current air quality standard adopted, i.e., sole use of PM mass concentration.

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The Curious by Nature podcast episode, “Particle Physics with a CERN Scientist,” featuring Dr. Christina Kourkoumeli, is now available on Spotify and Apple Podcast. Dr. Kourkoumeli began her career as a scientist when our understanding of atomic particles emerged.

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Jefferson Lab Staff Scientist Holly Szumila-Vance earns the 2024 Guido Altarelli Award for outstanding contributions to experimental physics.

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Theoretical models of dark matter predict that its signals can be detected using low-background radiation detectors. By looking for specific types of dark matter and finding no signal, scientists operating the Majorana Demonstrator experiment have significantly narrowed the characteristics of potential dark matter particles. The results will help design future experiments.

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A new analysis by the STAR collaboration at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), a particle collider at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, provides the first direct evidence of the imprint left by what may be the universe’s most powerful magnetic fields on “deconfined” nuclear matter. The evidence comes from measuring the way differently charged particles separate when emerging from collisions of atomic nuclei at this DOE Office of Science user facility.

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Experiments at the Swiss Light Source SLS prove the existence of a new type of magnetism, with broad implications for technology and research.

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A proton’s core consists of three valence quarks, but they contribute only a small fraction of the proton's mass. Most of the mass emerges from intricate quark dynamics and is primarily governed by the strong force mediated by gluons.

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As part of a panel of 32 physicists, Iowa State's Amanda Weinstein helped set the priorities for the country's particle physics research agenda.