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The short-lived hadron resonance lambda 1405 was predicted in the late 1950s and early 1960s, then confirmed experimentally later in the 1960s. This resonance has unusual properties that make it an important subject for nuclear physics studies. In this project, researchers used quantum chromodynamics and supercomputing facilities to determine that the lambda 1405 resonance represents two hadrons, not one.

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Neutrinos, elusive fundamental particles, can act as a window into the center of a nuclear reactor, the interior of the earth, or some of the most dynamic objects in the universe.

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Upgrades and new research at Argonne National Laboratory are helping physicists push boundaries, from basic science to the development of new technologies.

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When the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) was being constructed in the early 1990s, scientists and engineers needed a way to test the recirculating properties of the racetrack-shaped beam. So, they built a scale model of the research machine using the first cryomodules to be installed.

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The sigma meson exists only for a fleeting moment before decaying into a pair of pions, making it hard to study. Nuclear physicists recently combined modern supercomputer calculations with more traditional theoretical tools to study the sigma meson, producing the first accurate theoretical view of the sigma as a system of quarks and gluons. This will aid in understanding the role the sigma meson plays in proton-neutron interactions and other phenomena.

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Physicists have shown that particles produced in collimated sprays called jets retain information about their origins in subatomic particle smashups.

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Researchers demonstrated a new way to reveal the shapes of atomic nuclei. The method analyzes the flow and momentum of particles from high-energy collisions of nuclei. Those flow patterns are linked to the shape of nuclear matter created in these collisions, and the shape of the nuclear matter is in turn determined by the shapes of the colliding nuclei. The researchers compared observed flow patterns with flow models for different sizes and shapes of melted matter to reconstruct the highly deformed shapes of colliding uranium nuclei. STAR Collaboration

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Researchers recently created two atoms of livermorium (element 116) using a new approach that offers a path to discovering even heavier elements. This brings scientists closer to creating a new element with 120 protons, which would push the boundaries of the periodic table to a new eighth row and move closer to the 鈥渋sland of stability.鈥�

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Real-time monitoring of advanced nuclear fuel now possible with new test bed

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In its March/April issue, CoVaBIZ magazine has named Jefferson Lab Director Kimberly Sawyer as one of its 150 most influential people in coastal Virginia.

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Four MSU researchers named AAAS Fellows

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Through the weak nuclear force, one quark flavor can transmute into another. However, current data and theory indicate that the probabilities of quark flavor transmutation do not add up to 100%, as predicted by the Standard Model of Particle Physics. To understand whether this is due to physics beyond the Standard Model or underestimated uncertainties, nuclear theorists laid out a new framework needed to extract the up-down quark flavor mixing with a precision of a few parts in ten thousand from certain nuclear beta decays.

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U.S. Department of Energy approves start of execution of $49.7M project: High Transmission Beam Line at FRIB

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Today, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility for nuclear physics research at DOE's Brookhaven National Laboratory, entered its 25th and final year of operations, smashing together the nuclei of gold atoms traveling close to the speed of light.

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Atomic nuclei with 鈥渕agic numbers鈥� of protons or neutrons in their nuclear shells are extremely stable. Nuclear physicists are especially interested in nuclei with doubly magic numbers鈥攖hose that have full shells for both protons and neutrons. One example is the tin isotope Sn-100, which has 50 protons and 50 neutrons. To prepare for future work on Sn-100, researchers studied the properties of isotopes of indium as they approached 50 neutrons. This helps to demonstrate how adding single particles changes the properties of a nucleus.

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Simulations of equations from the Standard Model of particle physics are too difficult for classical supercomputers. In this research, scientists for the first time created scalable quantum circuits to prepare a simulation of the starting state for a particle accelerator collision to test aspects of strong interactions. The researchers first determined these circuits for small systems using classical computers, then scaled the quantum circuits to a large system on more than 100 qubits of IBM鈥檚 quantum computers.

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KINGSTON, R.I. 鈥� March 6, 2025 鈥� Observations of the merger of binary neutron stars are vital to the growing field multi-messenger astronomy. The collision of these massive star remnants, occurring millions of light years from Earth, emit gravitational waves followed by light. They provide unique opportunities for the study of gravity and matter under extreme conditions, with exciting implications for nuclear physics and cosmology.

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Two experiment collaborations, the g2p and EG4 collaborations, combined their complementary data on the proton鈥檚 inner structure to improve calculations of a phenomenon in atomic physics known as the hyperfine splitting of hydrogen. An atom of hydrogen is made up of an electron orbiting a proton. The overall energy level of hydrogen depends on the spin orientation of the proton and electron. If one is up and one is down, the atom will be in its lowest energy state. But if the spins of these particles are the same, the energy level of the atom will increase by a small, or hyperfine, amount. These spin-born differences in the energy level of an atom are known as hyperfine splitting.