Feature Channels: Nuclear Physics

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When scientists collide heavy nuclei, the constituent quarks and gluons melt into a quark-gluon plasma.

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Argonne’s enhanced NERDE data explorer provides community leaders with insights into local economic distress, employment and gross domestic product, local industry clusters, climate risk, and innovation to inform economic resilience planning.

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Dissecting doorbells, exploring music, mastering retail software, love of the arts and old-fashioned hard work were early paths that led five Sandia National Laboratories engineers to their callings and recently earned them national Black Engineer of the Year Awards.

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Nuclear physicists with Jefferson Lab have shattered a nearly 30-year-old record for precision in electron beam polarimetry. The groundbreaking result sets the stage for high-profile experiments that could open the door to new physics discoveries.

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Robert Petterborg saw an opportunity to improve a critical part used to test a weapons system. Using his spare time at work and with the help of his Sandia National Laboratories colleagues, he designed a new cable connector that eliminates misalignments that could interfere with testing and potentially damage hardware.

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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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Nuclear power is considered one of the ways to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, but how to deal with nuclear waste products is among the issues surrounding it.

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In creating five new isotopes, an international research team working at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, or FRIB, at Michigan State University has brought the stars closer to Earth.

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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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White blood cells known as neutrophils feature a nucleus that is structured strikingly different than most nuclei. These unique shapes permit neutrophils to travel all over the body to combat invading pathogens.

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Scientists have new evidence that gluons have a positive spin polarization, meaning the spins of individual gluons are aligned in the same direction as the spin of the proton they are in.

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People often think of radiation as the basis for carbon-free nuclear power. But radiation can also save lives.

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Fixed numbers of protons and neutrons can rearrange themselves within a nucleus. The gamma ray transitions from this reshuffling connect excited quantum energy levels, and the pattern in these connections provide a unique “fingerprint” for each isotope.

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Neutrons, known for their ability to penetrate materials deeply, are key in nondestructive material analysis. Techniques like Neutron Resonance Analysis (NRA) and its variant, Neutron Resonance Transmission Analysis (NRTA), use these properties to identify elements and isotopes inside materials without damaging them.

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Ten projects aimed at advancing next-generation science and technology have been awarded funding by Jefferson Lab for fiscal year 2024.

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Nuclear facilities, particularly during decommissioning, face significant challenges due to hazardous materials and environments. Traditional methods often rely heavily on human intervention, posing risks and inefficiencies.

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Sal Rodriguez, a nuclear engineer at Sandia National Laboratories, is forging a rocket revolution with the help of the University of New Mexico and student Graham Monroe.

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Around one million individuals worldwide become infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, each year.