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Recreated candidate event of a γγ →ττ process in proton-proton collisions measured by the CMS detector. The tau can decay into a muon (red), charged pions (yellow) and neutrinos (not visible); energy deposits in the electromagnetic calorimeter in green and in the hadronic calorimeter in cyan. Image credit: CMS Collaboration.

CERN Physicists Observe Two Photons Producing Two Tau-Leptons in Proton-Proton Collisions

Mar 26, 2024 by News Staff

According to physicists from the CMS Collaboration at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC), it is the first time that this process has been seen in proton-proton...

The modified Majorana module in the assembly glovebox with germanium detector crystals and tantalum samples installed. Image credit: Majorana Collaboration.

Nuclear Physicists Searching for Decay of Tantalum-180m

Mar 20, 2024 by News Staff

Tantalum-180m (180mTa), a rare isotope of tantalum whose decay has never been observed, is expected to have a lifetime approximately 1 million times longer...

This artist’s impression shows the evolution of the Universe beginning with the Big Bang on the left followed by the appearance of the Cosmic Microwave Background. The formation of the first stars ends the cosmic dark ages, followed by the formation of galaxies. Image credit: M. Weiss / Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Universe Has No Room for Dark Matter, Astrophysicist Says

Mar 19, 2024 by News Staff

University of Ottawa’s Professor Rajendra Gupta challenges the current theoretical model for the composition of the Universe by showing that, in fact,...

Miassite is one of only four minerals found in nature that act as a superconductor when grown in the lab and the only mineral known so far that reveals unconventional superconductivity in its clean synthetic form. Image credit: Paul Canfield.

Physicists Identify First Unconventional Superconductor with Composition Also Found in Nature

Mar 13, 2024 by News Staff

Solid state chemistry has produced a plethora of materials with properties not found in nature. For example, high-temperature superconductivity in copper-oxide...

LHCb experiment cavern at LHC IP8 in September 2016. Image credit: CERN.

CERN Physicists Observes New Decay Mode of Charmed Beauty Meson

Mar 11, 2024 by News Staff

Physicists from the LHCb Collaboration at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have reported the first observation of the decay of the Bc+ meson (composed...

The different rotational directions of the various ‘dumbbells’ indicate that the atoms lie in different planes. Image credit: Institute of Applied Physics, University of Bonn.

Physicists Demonstrate New Method for Determining 3D Location of Single Atoms

Mar 5, 2024 by News Staff

The new method, developed by a team of physicists from the University of Bonn and the University of Bristol, makes it possible to precisely determine the...

Position of the new isotopes, osmium-160 and tungsten-156, on the chart of nuclides. Image credit: Huabin Yang.

Physicists Synthesize New Isotopes of Osmium and Tungsten

Feb 20, 2024 by News Staff

A team of physicists in China has synthesized two new isotopes: osmium-160 and tungsten-156. Position of the new isotopes, osmium-160 and tungsten-156,...

Physicists Create Five New Isotopes of Thulium, Ytterbium and Lutetium

Feb 19, 2024 by News Staff

Physicists using the Advanced Rare Isotope Separator (ARIS) at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) have produced, separated, and identified five...

Shuai et al. used a synchronized attosecond X-ray pulse pair (pictured pink and green here) from an X-ray free electron laser to study the energetic response of electrons (gold) in liquid water on attosecond time scale, while the hydrogen (white) and oxygen (red) atoms are ‘frozen’ in time. Image credit: Nathan Johnson, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Physicists Take First Look at Electrons Moving in Real-Time in Liquid Water

Feb 16, 2024 by News Staff

A research team led by Argonne National Laboratory physicists has isolated the energetic movement of an electron while ‘freezing’ the motion of the...

A proton’s valence quarks (blue, red, and green), quark-antiquark pairs, and gluons (springs); scalar gluon activity (pink) extends beyond the electric charge radius (orange) that surrounds the gluonic energy core (yellow). Image credit: Argonne National Laboratory.

Physicists Determine Gluonic Gravitational Form Factors of Proton

Feb 15, 2024 by News Staff

The proton is one of the main building blocks of all visible matter in the Universe. Among its intrinsic properties are its electric charge, mass and spin....

2D display of the quark contribution to the distribution of forces in the proton as a function of the distance from the proton’s center. The light gray shading and longer arrows indicate areas of stronger forces, while the dark shading and shorter arrows indicate areas of weaker forces. Left panel: normal forces as a function of distance from the center; the arrows change magnitude and always point radially outward. Right panel: tangential forces as a function of distance from the center; the force changes direction and magnitude as indicated by the direction and length of the arrow; the forces change sign near 0.4 fm from the proton center. Image credit: Burkert et al., doi: 10.1103/RevModPhys.95.041002.

Physicists Determine Distribution of Strong Force inside Proton

Jan 24, 2024 by News Staff

The physics of the gravitational form factors of the proton, as well as their understanding within quantum chromodynamics, has advanced significantly in...

Cardillo-Zallo et al. report on a nanoscale system consisting of endohedral fullerenes encapsulated within single-walled carbon nanotubes, capable of the delivery and release of krypton atoms on-demand, via coalescence of host fullerene cages under the action of the electron beam (in situ) or heat (ex situ). Image credit: Cardillo-Zallo et al., doi: 10.1021/acsnano.3c07853.

Physicists Create One-Dimensional Noble Gas

Jan 23, 2024 by News Staff

Using advanced transmission electron microscopy (TEM) methods, physicists at the University of Nottingham have successfully trapped atoms of krypton inside...

Xenon nanoclusters between two graphene layers, with sizes between two and ten atoms. Image credit: Manuel Längle.

Physicists Capture Direct Images of Noble Gas Nanoclusters at Room Temperature

Jan 11, 2024 by News Staff

Physicists have, for the first time, directly imaged small clusters of noble gas atoms at room temperature. This achievement opens up exciting possibilities...

An artist’s impression of the different layers inside a massive neutron star, with the red circle representing a sizable quark-matter core. Image credit: Jyrki Hokkanen, CSC.

Massive Neutron Stars Could Contain Cores Made of Deconfined Quark Matter

Dec 28, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Neutron-star cores contain matter at the highest densities in our Universe. This highly compressed matter may undergo a phase transition where nuclear...

Nucleon densities for several low-lying states of carbon-12; each image is labeled with the spin (0 to 3), the sign under parity inversion (+ or -), and the excitation number (1 to 3). Image credit: Shihang Shen.

New Research Sheds Light on Structure of Carbon Nucleus

Dec 27, 2023 by News Staff

The carbon atom provides the backbone for the complex organic chemistry composing the building blocks of life. The physics of the carbon nucleus in its...

Sketch of a Rydberg molecule (a): the coordinates of the Rydberg electron (blue) and ground state atom (green) relative to the Rydberg core (red) are denoted with black arrows; the relevant spins are that of the Rydberg electron s1, the electron of the ground state atom s2 and the nuclear spin of the ground state atom I. Sketch of a trilobite molecule (b): the Rydberg core and the ground state atom are shown (with exaggerated size) as red and green spheres respectively; the electronic probability density projected to 2D is indicated by the density of blue dots. Image credit: Althön et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-43818-7.

Physicists Observe Trilobite Rydberg Molecules

Dec 18, 2023 by News Staff

A team of physicists at the Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau has produced pure trilobite molecules in rubidium over...

The merger of two neutron stars is among the leading candidate sites for synthesizing the heavier elements on the periodic table through the r-process. Image credit: Matthew Mumpower, Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Ancient Stars were Capable of Producing Elements with Atomic Masses Greater than 260, Scientists Say

Dec 11, 2023 by News Staff

The rapid neutron capture process, or the so-called r-process, occurs in neutron-rich environments such as neutron star mergers or certain types of supernovae....

An artist’s illustration of the Amaterasu particle observed by a surface detector array of the Telescope Array experiment. Image credit: Osaka Metropolitan University / L-INSIGHT, Kyoto University / Ryuunosuke Takeshige.

Astrophysicists Detect Second Highest-Energy Cosmic Ray Ever

Nov 23, 2023 by News Staff

Astrophysicists using the Telescope Array experiment in Utah, the United States, have detected the second-highest extreme-energy cosmic ray. An artist’s...

Spatial wavefront of a narrowband laser beam is shaped by a spatial light modulator and excites many modes in a multimode fiber. Image credit: Chen et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-42806-1.

Physicists Find New Way to Increase Power of Fiber Lasers

Nov 21, 2023 by News Staff

An international team of physicists has demonstrated the potential use of multimode optical fiber to scale up power in fiber lasers by three-to-nine times...