Experimental Physics Leads to Award-Winning Research
Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator FacilityJefferson Lab Staff Scientist Holly Szumila-Vance earns the 2024 Guido Altarelli Award for outstanding contributions to experimental physics.
Jefferson Lab Staff Scientist Holly Szumila-Vance earns the 2024 Guido Altarelli Award for outstanding contributions to experimental physics.
Nuclear physicists have long been working to reveal how the proton gets its spin. Now, a new method that combines experimental data with state-of-the-art calculations has revealed a more detailed picture of spin contributions from the very glue that holds protons together.
Splash a few drops of water on a hot pan and if the pan is hot enough, the water will sizzle and the droplets of water seem to roll and float, hovering above the surface.
For the first time, nuclear physicists made precision measurements of the short-lived radioactive molecule, radium monofluoride (RaF). The researchers combined ion-trapping and specialized laser systems to measure the fine details of the quantum structure of RaF. This allowed them to study the rotational energy levels of RaF and determine its laser-cooling scheme.
Scientists have uncovered the properties of a rare earth element that was first discovered 80 years ago at the very same laboratory, opening a new pathway for the exploration of elements critical in modern technology, from medicine to space travel.
Jefferson Lab Director Stuart Henderson has been named to the 2024 Hampton Roads Power List, compiled by Inside Business. This is Henderson’s 6th appearance on the list.
Scientists have the first direct evidence that the powerful magnetic fields created in off-center collisions of atomic nuclei induce an electric current in “deconfined” nuclear matter. The study used measurements of how charged particles are deflected when they emerge from the collisions. The study provides proof that the magnetic fields exist and offers a new way to measure electrical conductivity in quark-gluon plasma.
Two physicists at Jefferson Lab have been selected as fellows for the distinguished Oppenheimer Science and Energy Leadership Program (OSELP), considered the highest honor for leadership training among national labs.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has approved Critical Decision 3A (CD-3A) — the go-ahead for long-lead procurements — for the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC). EIC is a state-of-the-art particle collider for nuclear physics research that will be located at DOE's Brookhaven National Laboratory and built in partnership with DOE's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab).
Entanglement entropy quantifies the amount of entanglement between two subsystems. In many systems, the entanglement entropies increase as the area that separates them from their environment increases.
When scientists collide heavy nuclei, the constituent quarks and gluons melt into a quark-gluon plasma.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced a call for nominations for the 2025 Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award, one of the longest running and most prestigious science and technology awards given by the U.S. government.
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.
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.
Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) initiated the competition for the management and operating contract for the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (TJNAF).
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.
People often think of radiation as the basis for carbon-free nuclear power. But radiation can also save lives.
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.
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.
Ten projects aimed at advancing next-generation science and technology have been awarded funding by Jefferson Lab for fiscal year 2024.
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.
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.
Around one million individuals worldwide become infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, each year.
For the first time in two decades, Idaho National Laboratory, the nation’s nuclear energy laboratory, has received a shipment of used next-generation light water reactor fuel from a commercial nuclear power plant to support research and testing.
Magnetic plasma confinement in tokamaks is subject to effects from instabilities in the hot plasma.
New research conducted by nuclear physicists at Jefferson Lab is using a method that connects theories of gravitation to interactions among the smallest particles of matter.
Conducting neutron scattering experiments at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, ORNL and Corning scientists discovered that as the number of smaller, less-stable atomic rings in a glass increases, the instability, or liquid fragility, of the glass also increases.
Sometimes a single atomic nucleus can take many shapes, shifting between spherical and deformed states.
Studies of neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) could shed light on the mass of neutrinos and whether they exist as both matter and antimatter.
An international team of astronomers have found a new and unknown object in the Milky Way that is heavier than the heaviest neutron stars known and yet simultaneously lighter than the lightest black holes known.
Scientists have developed a new way to study the shapes of atomic nuclei and their building blocks by modeling the production of particles produced in high-energy electron-nucleus collisions in the future Electron-Ion Collider (EIC).
10 postdoctoral researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory were recently recognized at the laboratory’s 2023 Postdoctoral Performance Awards, which were presented in a ceremony on Nov. 9.
Burning fusion plasmas host a wide array of electromagnetic waves that can push energetic ions out of the plasma.
Recent research, published in the New Journal of Physics on November 17, 2023, shows that these experiments don’t actually show particles splitting from their properties, but instead display another counterintuitive feature of quantum mechanics — contextuality.
Scientists have confirmed possible evidence of a new elementary particle, the sterile neutrino. The results from the Baksan Experiment on Sterile Transitions (BEST) found that the germanium 71 yield was 20% to 24% lower than expected based on the intensity of the neutrino source and on scientists’ knowledge of how neutrinos are absorbed. This is consistent with earlier results on the so-called gallium anomaly.
Tetraneutron is an elusive atomic nucleus consisting of four neutrons, whose existence has been highly debated by scientists. This stems primarily from our lack of knowledge about systems consisting of only neutrons, since most atomic nuclei are usually made of a combination of protons and neutrons.
Since starting operation in May 2022, the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB), a Department of Energy Office of Science user facility at Michigan State University, has enabled discoveries in the science of atomic nuclei, their role in the cosmos, and the fundamental symmetries of nature.
Plasma confinement in a tokamak can potentially cause pressure gradients that lead to instabilities in the plasma, disrupting tokamak performance.
The physics of carbon-12 are extremely complex. This research computed the nuclear states of carbon-12 from first principles using supercomputers and nuclear lattice simulations.
With the rise in machine learning applications and artificial intelligence, it's no wonder that more and more scientists and researchers are turning to supercomputers. Supercomputers are commonly used for making predictions with advanced modeling and simulations. This can be applied to climate research, weather forecasting, genomic sequencing, space exploration, aviation engineering and more.
Colliding two heavy nuclei produces quark-gluon fireballs from which subatomic particles emerge. Fluctuations in the number of these particles from collision to collision carry important information about the QGP. Researchers used an approach called the maximum entropy principle to provide a crucial connection between experimental observations and the hydrodynamics of the QGP fireball.
Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced it is accepting applications for the 2024 DOE Office of Science Early Career Research Program to support the research of outstanding scientists early in their careers.
The study of superheavy nuclei is at the forefront of nuclear physics, probing the boundaries of the nuclear landscape and the quest for new elements.