Browse Physics

Collisions of neutron-rich helium nuclei with gold targets show how the internal arrangement of nucleons influences nuclear fusion reaction mechanisms.

A huge, predicted atomic parity violation has now been observed in ytterbium, further aiding tabletop experimental searches for physics beyond the standard model that complement ongoing efforts at high-energy colliders.

Experiments show that spherical and nonspherical states of a light nucleus near neutron number 28 coexist at the same energy, challenging the usefulness of the notion of stable and persistent “magic numbers.”

The critical point is one of the main features of the phase diagram of strongly interacting quark-gluon matter. Finding this critical point in the lab will require luck and an understanding of the possible experimental signatures.

Energetic particle jets created in relativistic heavy-ion collisions might create detectable shock waves as they travel through the quark-gluon plasma.

Heavy nuclei formed by fusion reactions often decay rapidly by fissioning into two fragments. Understanding how these decays occur and over what time scale provides a means to locate the superheavy “island of stability.”