Newswise Feature Channel: Nuclear Physics

Los Alamos Conducts First Critical Experiment Using High Assay Low Enriched Uranium in Decades

Los Alamos National Laboratory — Mon, 16 Dec 2024 20:30:53 EST

A research team at Los Alamos National Laboratory recently performed the first critical experiment with high assay low enriched uranium (HALEU) TRi-structural ISOtropic (TRISO) fuel in four decades at the National Criticality Experiments Research Center (NCERC) in Nevada. It achieved its objective of establishing an advanced reactor testbed.

Jefferson Lab Dedicates Niobium-tin Particle Accelerator Prototype

Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility — Mon, 16 Dec 2024 13:00:00 EST

Jefferson Lab has dedicated the first particle accelerator cryomodule built with niobium-tin components. The quarter cryomodule is the first designed and tested for accelerating an electron beam to 10 MeV or greater energies and marks a major milestone toward the next era of SRF particle accelerators.

Four Argonne Researchers Recognized on the American Nuclear Society's "40 Under 40" List

Argonne National Laboratory — Mon, 09 Dec 2024 18:05:20 EST

Dave Grabaskas, Paul Romano, Ben Lindley and April Novak are recognized by American Nuclear Society on Nuclear News' highly selective list of rising stars in nuclear research

Behind the Model: Visualizing SoLID with 3D Printing

Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility — Mon, 09 Dec 2024 16:25:28 EST

Jian-ping Chen, Jefferson Lab Hall A and C Staff Scientist and SoLID Project Manager, and his team created a 3D-printed model of the Solenoidal Large Intensity Device (SoLID) project. Here's why.

Calculation Sharpens Imaging of Protons' Insides

Department of Energy, Office of Science — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 15:15:58 EST

Nuclear scientists used a new theoretical approach to calculate a value essential for unraveling the three-dimensional motion of quarks within a proton. The researchers obtained a significantly more accurate picture of these internal building blocks' transverse motion. The work will aid in calculations of 3D motion of quarks and gluons in future collider experiments.

Accelerator Experiments at RHIC Inform EIC Design

Brookhaven National Laboratory — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 09:35:58 EST

When building a one-of-a-kind particle collider filled with groundbreaking technologies, it's extremely helpful to have a place to test things out. Thankfully that's the case for the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, where physicists are using the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) to test key accelerator strategies for a new state-of-the-art Electron-Ion Collider (EIC).

From Liberal Arts to Leadership in Nuclear Physics

Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 01:00:12 EST

Mark Kevin Jones is a true Renaissance man in nuclear physics. Throughout his career, he has garnered many accomplishments, and he's even worn quite a few hats in his three decades at Jefferson Lab. Now, Jones has been recognized for his work by his peers by being named a Fellow of the American Physical Society "For scientific leadership in experimental studies of the fundamental nucleon electromagnetic form factors, including the surprising discovery of significant variation in the large momentum behavior of the proton electric form factor, and for developing new detection systems enabling the studies."

A Career of Chasing Particle Beams

Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility — Wed, 27 Nov 2024 10:00:39 EST

New 2024 APS Fellow Alex Bogacz has spent his career in accelerator physics solving problems. From studying complex particle beam dynamics in particle accelerators to designing next-generation machines, his almost four decades of work have recently been recognized by his peers by being named a Fellow of the American Physical Society in October 2024.

Benchmarking CEBAF

Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility — Tue, 26 Nov 2024 16:00:37 EST

Particle accelerator scientists have made the measurements, crunched the numbers and consolidated the data on the performance of the brightest electron accelerator for nuclear physics research. In a new study, more than 100 authors have detailed the original and current operating parameters, main systems and subsystems, and capabilities and limits of Jefferson Lab's main particle accelerator, the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF).

Behind the Model: Science Inspired by Legos

Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility — Tue, 26 Nov 2024 07:00:30 EST

Walt Akers, Jefferson Lab's chief systems engineer for experimental nuclear physics, created a 3D-printed model of a section of the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) on a short timeline ahead of the lab's 2024 Open House. He calls it the "Lego model."

FSU Physicists Will Study Nuclear Reactions of Stars with Support From National Science Foundation

Florida State University — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 16:30:56 EST

Trillions of miles away from our planet, nuclear reactions inside exploding stars produce most of the naturally occurring elements in the universe. Here on Earth, Florida State University physicists at the John D. Fox Superconducting Accelerator Laboratory will replicate those reactions to better understand how they work and produce elements.

Researchers Obtain the First High-Precision Mass Measurement of Aluminum-22

Department of Energy, Office of Science — Fri, 22 Nov 2024 15:05:55 EST

Researchers at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams made a high-precision mass measurement of aluminum-22, reaching the "proton dripline" of the nuclear chart. The project found that aluminum-22 formed a proton halo, where the last proton added is only loosely bound to the nucleus. This measurement helps scientists determine how tightly bound the atomic nuclei are as they get closer to the dripline.

24s: A Businesslike Name for a 'High-Performing Machine'

Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility — Fri, 22 Nov 2024 15:00:54 EST

The latest addition to the computational arsenal of Jefferson Lab is an extraordinary machine with the admittedly ordinary name of "24s." The 24s cluster at Jefferson Lab will work to unlock the mysteries of the nucleus of the atom. It was funded by the Nuclear and Particle Physics LQCD Computing Initiative of DOE's Office of Nuclear Physics.

Accessing the Lesser Known Nucleon

Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility — Fri, 22 Nov 2024 11:00:23 EST

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. Until now. New results published in Physical Review Letters describe a first-time direct glimpse of the internal structure of the neutron thanks to the development of a special, 10-years-in-the-making detector installed in Experimental Hall B at Jefferson Lab.

Breaking Barriers: How a Fresh Perspective Helped Solve Challenges in Nuclear Safeguards

Idaho National Laboratory (INL) — Thu, 21 Nov 2024 12:45:53 EST

Breaking barriers: How a fresh perspective helped solve challenges in nuclear safeguards

Adjusting Accelerators with Help from Machine Learning

Department of Energy, Office of Science — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 10:00:03 EST

Banks of computer screens stacked two and three high line the walls. The screens are covered with numbers and graphs that are unintelligible to an untrained eye. But they tell a story to the operators staffing the particle accelerator control room. The numbers describe how the accelerator is speeding up tiny particles to smash into targets or other particles.

Scientists Gain New Insights into How Mass Is Distributed in Hadrons

Department of Energy, Office of Science — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 17:20:32 EST

The trace anomaly is one of the quantities that encodes the energy and momentum of particles built from quarks. Scientists believe the trace anomaly is crucial for keeping quarks bonded in subatomic particles. In this study, scientists calculated the trace anomaly for nucleons and pions. The calculations show that in the pion, the mass distribution is similar to the charge distribution of the neutron and in the nucleon, the mass distribution is similar to the charge distribution of the proton.

How 'Clean' Does a Quantum Computing Test Facility Need to Be? PNNL Scientists Show the Way

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 09:50:55 EST

How to keep stray radiation from "shorting" superconducting qubits; a pair of studies shows where ionizing radiation is lurking and how to banish it.

'Inside the Box' Look at Excited Hadrons Could Help Solve Mystery of Particle X(3872)

Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 15:15:28 EST

So-called "XYZ states" defy the standard picture of particle behavior and have given rise to several attempts to understand their nature.

Forging a Mathematical Path to Hybrid Mesons

Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility — Thu, 07 Nov 2024 09:45:22 EST

New 2024 American Physical Society Fellow Jozef Dudek is pursuing theoretical descriptions of exotic hadrons, a yet-untallied group of short-lived subatomic cousins of the proton and neutron, those more familiar atomic building blocks.