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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced plans to provide $30 million for Quantum Information Science (QIS) research that helps scientists understand how nature works on an extremely small scale—100,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. QIS can help our nation solve some of the most pressing and complex challenges of the 21st century, from climate change to national security.

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Scientists can now study the strong force with a novel method of accessing the space between protons and neutrons within a nucleus. The first direct probes have tested the validity of leading theories that describe the interactions between protons and neutrons in nuclei. This research confirms that current theoretical models describe the behavior of protons and neutrons quite well.

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In principle, the universe should contain objects composed only of gluons in a sea of quark-antiquark pairs. However, scientists’ experiments have never definitively confirmed these hypothetical objects, called “glueballs.” Now, scientists are using the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider to search for signs of these glueballs.

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Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory’s Aaron Chou developed the Holometer experiment to measure noise (unwanted data on a transmitted signal) more precisely. He now develops equipment for ultrasensitive dark matter detection and quantum information science devices.

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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced up to $24 million for research into technology that captures carbon emissions directly from the air, replicating the way plants and trees absorb carbon dioxide (CO2).

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Many chemical processes require liquids as solvents, but the liquids often vaporize and release hazardous emissions in the process. Ionic liquids offer a solution because they have low volatility but can have melting points too high for practical use. New research used molecular simulations and experiments to demonstrate how changing the structure of ionic liquids changes their melting point.

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Research has shown that the topology of the electronic states in a Weyl semimetal can leave fingerprints on their phonon properties. This happens because of a type of electron-phonon interaction called the Kohn anomaly that impacts how electrons screen phonons through a material. This instability can lead to new electronic properties in materials.

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The cell membrane is the wall-like outer layer consisting primarily of lipids and proteins that separates the inside of a cell from its surrounding environment. Scientists have now used X-ray and neutron scattering techniques to develop a disc-shaped artificial membrane that shows how proteins can exhibit different properties when embedded in membranes with different lipid compositions.

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Based on input from the fusion and plasma research community, the Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee has put forth a new vision and goal. Based on decades of advances in fusion research, they propose working to launch an economically-viable pilot fusion power plant by the 2040s.

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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced plans to invest $25 million in fundamental science to lay the groundwork for technology that finds reuses for plastic waste, makes strides toward addressing the global plastic waste crisis, and reduces the climate impacts of plastic production.

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Timothy Bertram of the Department of Chemistry and the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of Wisconsin – Madison is studying the role atmospheric chemistry plays in regulating concentrations of air pollutants, greenhouse gases, and aerosol particles.

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New computer design methods pave the way for scientists to design and assemble bundles of peptides with specific size, shape, and display characteristics. Scientists can then link these customizable building blocks, called bundlemers, to produce a huge array of polymers.

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Scientists recently investigated the factors that control fluorescent light signals from metal organic frameworks (MOFs). The light may turn on due to structural changes in the MOF and turn off due to reorganization of the electrons in the MOF. Understanding these factors advances researchers’ ability to design and use MOFs as chemical sensors.

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Scientists have created a new type of electricity-conducting polymer containing both linear and ring elements. The new polymers have very different electronic properties than scientists would expect if the polymers simply added the contributions from each linear and ring component. The polymers open new avenues for moving energy within and between polymers.

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Recent research on the neutron-proton (np) reaction could help us understand the age of the Earth and build less expensive nuclear power plants. The np reaction plays a role in potassium-argon dating and in the removal of neutrons from nuclear reactor cores, leading to core shutdown. In recent studies, nuclear scientists used a new neutron source to show that np reaction rates occur in ways very different from scientists’ initial expectations.

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Scientists have identified three distinct shapes in stable nickel-64 that appear as energy is added to the nucleus. The nucleus in the lowest-energy state is spherical, then takes elongated (prolate) and flattened (oblate) shapes as the protons and neutrons surrounding the nucleus gain energy. This demonstrates profound changes in the way protons and neutrons can arrange themselves.

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One of the great challenges in fusion tokamaks is how to keep the core of a plasma hot enough that fusion can occur while maintaining a temperature at the edge of the plasma low enough that it doesn’t melt the tokamak’s walls. This requires dissipating the heat and particles flowing towards the wall without reducing the performance of the core. Researchers recently developed a pathway to addressing this core-edge integration challenge.

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Plastic waste is a major environmental issue. New research into plastics’ fundamental chemistry may help industry transform waste into useful products and make cyclical plastics that can be recycled over and over again.

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Physicists long dreamed of producing X-ray laser pulses that probe matter at the level of atoms and molecules. Scientists realized this dream in 2009 with the hard X-ray free-electron laser at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS). But each LCLS X-ray pulse has a slightly different intensity and wavelength distribution. A new oscillator design overcomes these problems with an approach inspired by optical lasers.

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One of the greatest mysteries in the universe is why the matter and anti-matter from the Big Bang did not all annihilate into pure energy. One scenario suggests a hypothetical, extremely rare nuclear decay where an atomic nucleus decays by emitting two electrons, creating additional matter. This paper reports on recent progress on related experiments.

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Sediments on the ocean floor contain large amounts of methane. Two groups of microbes work together in symbiosis to break down this methane in oxygen-deprived sediments. New research shows that both groups can fix nitrogen to satisfy their need for nutrients from methane. This helps the microbes hedge against changes in their environment.

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Scientists researching carbenes examine the reactions that lead to specific types of carbenes. In this research, scientists studied carbenes under single collision conditions—before the molecules can react. They collided beams of two different molecules and combined this data with calculations and simulations to reveal chemical reactions step by step.

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Researchers have established a quantitative understanding of how nano-sized dipole particles assemble and crystalize. The driving force is the weak long-range attractive interaction between the dipoles that aligns the crystal faces of the particles prior to their collision. Stronger attractive forces then drive the final jump to connect the particles.

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Professor Patrick Huber is the director of Virginia Tech’s Center for Neutrino Physics. His research develops and advances theoretical tools to analyze data from neutrino experiments, the results of which will improve our understanding of neutrinos' properties and their role in the cosmos.

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Forty years of the Office of Science’s investments in applied mathematics and computational sciences are paying off in world-class infrastructure and research, as described in the ASCR@40 report.

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University of Alabama Birmingham professor Suzanne Lapi founded and heads a research group focused on the radiochemistry and development of production techniques of isotopes for medical imaging and therapy.

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The Department of Energy is finding new ways to partner with NASA. Together, we are using research to enable space travel as well as conduct research that is only possible in space.

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When Kawtar Hafidi first started researching the structure of the proton, other scientists told her the project she proposed was impossible. Now she and the scientists she’s trained are pursuing the next generation of that “impossible” experiment.

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Ryan Hayward studies the performance of certain organic polymers and molecules that conduct electricity by precisely packing them into well-formed crystalline structures. Discoveries are leading to simpler, less expensive, and cleaner processes, as in electronic devices.

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An interdisciplinary research team has identified new, narrower limits on the radii of neutron stars—close to 11 kilometers. The novel approach combined two sources of information: the first gravitational-wave and electromagnetic observations of a binary neutron-star collision, and modern nuclear-theory calculations of uncertainty. The results suggest that neutron-star black-hole collisions can swallow neutron stars whole.

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Scientists use incredibly bright and fast pulses of X-rays produced by an X-ray free electron laser to study some of the fastest reactions and processes in materials. Scientists recently developed a new X-ray imager with much greater precision and accuracy than possible before. The new levels are less than one hundredth of an X-ray wavelength, even smaller than an Angstrom.

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Researchers have achieved a tiny laser that operates in the terahertz frequencies for potential applications in imaging and scanning applications. Previous terahertz lasers required bulky laboratory equipment to stay cool enough to function. The new devices are the first to simultaneously reach three key performance goals—high power, tight beam, and broad frequency tuning—in a design that can work outside a laboratory and even in space.

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Daniel Frederickson, a professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is studying metallics to develop strategies for creating new materials able to merge different functional domains at the nanometer scale.

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Neighboring isotopes of the heaviest elements often have very similar properties. To differentiate these isotopes by their differing masses, scientists use a device called FIONA (For the Identification of Nuclide A) to measure the masses of heavy-element isotopes. For the first time, scientists have used FIONA to discover a new heavy-element isotope, mendelevium-244.

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Linear accelerator operators use computer algorithms to automate some parts of the machine tuning process. These algorithms make fast decisions, but they have not previously incorporated fundamental physics or learned from past mistakes. A new machine learning algorithm learns both from experience and physics simulations to reduce the time needed for a part of the machine tuning process by 65 percent.

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Responding to COVID-19 has required a huge coordinated effort from the scientific community. The Department of Energy’s Office of Science has spearheaded several scientific efforts, including the National Virtual Biotechnology Laboratory.

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Hadronization occurs when particles called quarks and gluons combine to form hadrons, composite subatomic particles made of two or three quarks. Once combined, quarks and gluons are “confined,” or trapped, in hadrons. Researchers studying particles containing heavy “charm” quarks have found that there are many more three-quark hadrons than expected under a widely accepted explanation of how hadrons can form.

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Kalyan R S Perumalla is a Distinguished Research and Development Staff Member at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, whose work on reversible computing for exascale computers also provides insights applicable to next generation programming.

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From quantum computing to facemask filtering, the Office of Science supported a variety of research in 2020.

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Physics professor Jeffrey Newman at the University of Pittsburgh is improving the methods for calculating the distances and developing target strategies for Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument experiments. These activities are supporting the search for answers about dark energy.

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Nathan McDowell, a staff scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, used his 2010 Early Career Award to study how trees survive and die during drought because vegetation plays a major role in the global carbon cycle.

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Combining large-scale atmospheric models and observations is a long-standing challenge, in part because of the mismatch between different spatial and temporal scales. For example, shallow convective clouds are so small that typical atmospheric models cannot represent individual clouds. The Department of Energy’s Large-Eddy Simulation Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Symbiotic Simulation and Observation activity seeks to bridge these scale gaps.

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For the first time since superconductivity was discovered in 1911, scientists have created the world’s first superconductor that works at room temperature. To do so, they engineered a new material never before found on earth using a photochemical process to create a starting framework of hydrogen-rich materials. The finding has important implications for quantum computing and energy storage and production.

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Researchers have observed the production of electronic excitations near a single atom in a molecule. This is caused by impulsive stimulated X-ray Raman scattering of X-ray pulses that last less than a femtosecond. The combination of X-ray Raman scattering and the ability produce sub-femtosecond X-ray pulses allows scientists to view motion in molecules at atom-scale resolution and helps them understand chemical reactions involving light.

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Researchers used two advanced microscopy techniques to learn how crystal defects affect the performance of crystalline solar cells called lead halide perovskite cells. The research used two microscopy techniques: electron backscattering diffraction to view crystal quality at scales of 100 nanometers and ultrafast microscopy to examine how electrons move. The research shows that microscopic defects that form when the crystals are made can reduce how fast electrons move by a factor of almost 10.

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Novel hot-carrier solar cells convert sunlight to electricity more efficiently than conventional solar cells by harnessing charge carriers before they lose their energy to heat. A key to keeping electric charges hot longer is to slow the phonons that transport heat. Recent research shows that thermal transport—and thus performance—in hot-carrier solar cells can be reduced by replacing hydrogen atoms with heavier deuterium atoms.

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Combining two different semiconductors can create new properties. The way these combinations work depends on how the semiconductors are arranged and contact one another. Researchers have developed a new way to grow semiconductor crystals about 100,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. This new synthesis method independently controls the arrangements and sizes of the crystals.

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The most powerful particle accelerators on Earth are research machines built on superconducting radiofrequency technology. These accelerators are expensive and difficult to operate. Scientists have now built an accelerator prototype that uses off-the-shelf support systems that demonstrates it is possible to build and run powerful non-research accelerators at a fraction of the cost of research accelerators.

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Scientists use beams of electrons to study materials’ properties. Shorter beams produce higher-resolution views. To make shorter beams, the electrons at the tail of the beam need to catch up to the head of the beam. This is accomplished by giving the electrons at the tail extra energy, a so-called “energy chirp.” Scientists have now used a terahertz laser pulse to create this energy chirp.

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University of Pennsylvania physics professor Christopher Mauger measures neutrino properties, investigating the transformation of neutrinos between types. His work supports the long-baseline neutrino physics program DUNE - Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment - based in Illinois and South Dakota.