Scientists have found the secret behind a property of solid materials known as ferroelectrics, showing that quasiparticles moving in wave-like patterns among vibrating atoms carry enough heat to turn the material into a thermal switch when an electrical field is applied externally.
The plasma in a fusion device can erode device walls, releasing particles in a process called sputtering. These particles can reduce a device’s performance and lifespan. In this study, researchers examined how the smoothness of device surfaces changes at small scales over time and how this affects erosion. This research will aid in the future design and operation of fusion power plants.
Experts assembling sPHENIX, a state-of-the-art particle detector at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, successfully installed a major tracking component on Jan. 19. The Time Projection Chamber, or TPC, is one of the final pieces to move into place before sPHENIX begins tracking particle smash-ups at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) this spring.
Electric space propulsion systems use energized atoms to generate thrust. The high-speed beams of ions bump against the graphite surfaces of the thruster, eroding them a little more with each hit, and are the systems' primary lifetime-limiting factor.
Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, Director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science, visited DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory on Jan. 27 to celebrate the fast-approaching debut of a state-of-the-art particle detector known as sPHENIX. The house-sized, 1000-ton detector is slated to begin collecting data at Brookhaven Lab’s Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), a DOE Office of Science User Facility for nuclear physics research, this spring.
IU physicist Adam Szczepaniak is leading a project exploring the physics of exotic hadrons — a largely unexplored group of subatomic particles — under a $1.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.
Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) initiated the competition for the management and operating (M&O) contract for the Fermi National Acceleratory Laboratory (FNAL).
Physicists from the STAR Collaboration have reported the first observation of a global spin alignment signal in heavy-ion collisions. Published in Nature on Jan. 18, the study provides a potential new avenue for understanding the strong interaction at work at the sub-nucleon level.
Citizen science projects offer the general public, or segments of that public such as school students, an opportunity to take part in scientific research.
Given the choice of three different “spin” orientations, certain particles emerging from collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), an atom smasher at Brookhaven National Laboratory, appear to have a preference. Recent results reveal a preference in global spin alignment of particles called phi mesons.
Prof. Miguel Ángel Herrada, from the University of Seville, and Prof. Jens G. Eggers, from the University of Bristol, have discovered a mechanism to explain the unstable movement of bubbles rising in water.
Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $56 million to provide research opportunities to historically underrepresented groups and institutions in STEM. The funding, through the DOE Office of Science’s Reaching a New Energy Sciences Workforce (RENEW) initiative, will support internships, mentorship, and training programs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), other Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), and other research institutions. These investments will diversify American leadership in the physical, biological, and computational sciences to ensure America’s best and brightest students have pathways to STEM fields.
Could washing our clothes without detergent become a thing of the past? Even though the research is in its early stages, an investigation as to whether washing or cleaning can be done with purified water instead of detergent solution looks promising.
Nuclear physicists have found a new way to use the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC)—a particle collider at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory—to see the shape and details inside atomic nuclei. The method relies on particles of light that surround gold ions as they speed around the collider and a new type of quantum entanglement that’s never been seen before.
Physicists, engineers, and technicians at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory are rounding out the year with key developments to a house-sized particle detector that will begin capturing collision snapshots for the first time next spring. The state-of-the-art, three-story, 1,000-ton detector—known as sPHENIX—will precisely track particles streaming from collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), a DOE Office of Science user facility for nuclear physics research.
Scientists in the STAR collaboration at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) have published a comprehensive analysis aimed at determining which factors most influence fluctuations in the flow of particles from heavy ion collisions. The results will help scientists zero in on key properties of a unique form of matter that mimics the early universe.
To prepare for the shipment of large, delicate particle accelerator components from the UK to Fermilab, the PIP-II team flew a “dummy load” across the Atlantic Ocean, recording every little bump the dummy experienced. After careful validation of all transportation data, the team will ship a 10-meter-long prototype cryomodule early next year.
Veljko Radeka, a senior scientist in the Instrumentation Division at the U. S. Department of Energy' (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, has had a long, distinguished scientific career touching several areas of research and inspiring colleagues, collaborators, and students along the way. The International Committee for Future Accelerators (ICFA) recently recognized the contributions Radeka has made in the field of instrumentation, as well as his role as a leader, with the 2022 ICFA Instrumentation Award.
Subatomic particles’ spin dictates how they propagate, interact, and form bound states. But how proton spin arises from quarks and gluons is a mystery, and experimental measurements of the individual contributions of quark and gluon spin don’t add up to the proton’s total spin. The orbital motion of quarks and gluons in the proton may account for the rest. Theorists have now proposed a way to measure this property using the future Electron-Ion Collider.
He has been named a member of the Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee, which advises the director of the United States Office of Science on complex scientific and technical matters related to America’s fusion energy sciences research program.
An international team of scientists, including researchers at the University of Adelaide, have gathered new evidence about the energetic core of an active galaxy millions of lights years away by detecting neutrino particles emitted by it.
Peering inside common atmospheric particles is providing important clues to their climate and health effects, according to a new study by University of British Columbia chemists.
New research looks at planned particle accelerators that will follow the retirement of the Large Hadron Collider— the world’s most powerful particle accelerator.
Physicists have created the first Bose-Einstein condensate — the mysterious ”‘fifth state” of matter — made from quasiparticles, entities that do not count as elementary particles but that can still have elementary-particle properties like charge and spin.
Berkeley Lab scientists have developed new machine learning algorithms to accelerate the analysis of data collected decades ago by HERA, the world’s most powerful electron-proton collider that ran at the DESY national research center in Germany from 1992 to 2007.
Optical tweezers (OTs), also known as optical traps, are highly focused laser beams that can be used to trap and manipulate microscopic objects with a noncontact force.
William M. Morse of the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory and Bradley Lee Roberts of Boston University will receive the American Physical Society's 2023 W.K.H. Panofsky Prize in Experimental Particle Physics for their leadership of the muon g-2 experiment at Brookhaven Lab and its role in sparking a worldwide search for new physics.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility has appointed Patrick Carsten Achenbach as the new leader of Jefferson Lab’s Experimental Hall B. The appointment comes after an international search.
Physicists at UC Santa Barbara and the University of Maryland, and also at the University of Washington have found an answer to the longstanding physics question: How do interparticle interactions affect dynamical localization?
It is believed to be exceedingly rare and slow, but if it actually exists, it would redefine the laws of physics: it’s called neutrinoless double beta decay (NDBD). Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Ethan Brown, associate professor of physics, applied physics, and astronomy, has received a $285,000 grant from the Department of Energy to contribute to the nEXO experiment to prove that NDBD exists.
For decades, scientists have been trying to solve a vexing problem about the weather in outer space: At unpredictable times, high-energy particles bombard the earth and objects outside the earth’s atmosphere with radiation that can endanger the lives of astronauts and destroy satellites’ electronic equipment.
A charge stripper is an important component in the process the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) uses to create rare isotopes for scientific research. However, FRIB’s particle beam is too powerful for a conventional charge stripper. Researchers developed a new liquid-lithium charge stripper that can produce as high a charge state as a conventional solid charge stripper and last indefinitely.
Berkeley Lab researchers have completed a major expansion of one of the world’s most powerful laser systems, creating new opportunities in accelerator research. The expansion created a second beamline for the petawatt laser at the Berkeley Lab Laser Accelerator (BELLA) Center, enabling the development of next-generation particle accelerators for applications in science, medicine, security, and industry.
A joint research team led by Dr. Jingkun Jiang from Tsinghua University and Dr. Markku Kulmala from the University of Helsinki has reported an efficient mechanism for gaseous sulfuric acid and bases to form atmospheric ultrafine particles.
The protons and neutrons that build the nucleus of the atom frequently pair up. Now, a new high-precision experiment conducted at Jefferson Lab has found that these particles may pick different partners depending on how packed the nucleus is. The data also reveal new details about short-distance interactions between protons and neutrons in nuclei and may impact results from experiments seeking to tease out further details of nuclear structure.
Recent observations by the James Webb Space Telescope have not disproven the widely regarded Big Bang Theory, despite certain articles claiming otherwise.
With a picturesque backdrop of Mt. Rainier, particle physicists from across the United States gathered in Seattle (with more tuning in virtually) to assess the most important science opportunities in their field over the next decade. The Particle Physics Community Planning Exercise was held July 17-26, 2022, at the University of Washington.
A new method for shaping matter into complex shapes, with the use of ‘twisted’ light, has been demonstrated in research at the University of Strathclyde.
Scientists at America’s premier accelerator laboratory have successfully used a new technique, called optical stochastic cooling, to cool a particle beam and make it denser. The new method may enable future experiments to create more particle collisions. Denser particle beams provide researchers a better chance of exploring rare physics phenomena that help us understand our universe.
Una nueva imagen capturada por el telescopio Gemini Norte, en Hawai‘i, registra un par de galaxias espirales chocando entre sí y comenzando un proceso de fusión a 60 millones de años luz de distancia. Se trata de NGC 4568 y de NGC 4567, dos galaxias que están enlazadas por sus campos gravitatorios y que finalmente se unirán para formar una inmensa galaxia elíptica en 500 millones de años más. La imagen también revela los vestigios de una supernova que fue detectada en 2020.
Some cosmological models propose that the universe expands and contracts in infinite cycles, but new research finds a crucial flaw in the latest version of this theory.