Browse Physics

A neutron-rich nucleus can emit a neutron pair as a single unit as a product of nuclear decay.

Experimentalists make considerable progress towards sustained production of superheavy elements.

A crust-busting vibration of a neutron star—induced by a merger with another dense object—may explain pre-emptive flashes for some gamma-ray bursts.

According to theoretical work, the tricks for controlling atoms with lasers should extend naturally into probing the nucleus.

Gamma-ray scattering reveals the details of an elusive nuclear resonance.

New scattering experiments provide evidence for the long-suspected existence of an excited rotational state in carbon-$12$, related to a state that’s crucial in stellar fusion reactions.

The time-dependent solution of one of the most basic models in field theory has applications from nuclear to condensed-matter physics.

Experimentalists can now determine rates of electron capture in unstable nuclei, providing crucial information for star collapse simulations.

Measurements of isospin symmetry-breaking corrections to beta-decay transitions in chlorine nuclei provide a stringent test of the standard model.

A theoretical description of phonon interactions in the crust of neutron stars could help interpret observations of the stars’ thermal and mechanical properties.

Liquid helium-4 is integral in a source of slow-moving neutrons, with a five-fold increase in yield in density.

Dense plasmas created by lasers used for inertial confinement fusion research have been used to extract precise basic nuclear physics data.

Calculations suggest that a rapidly spinning oxygen nucleus can deform into a linear configuration of four small clusters in a row–the first clear evidence for such a “linear-chain” state in any nucleus.

Paired states between neutrons and protons were thought to only occur in nuclei beyond the proton dripline, but calculations suggest they may be seen in stable nuclei, too.

The series of reactions that leads to the production of carbon in stars was predicted more than sixty years ago, but theorists have struggled to reproduce this process from first principles calculations.

A laser that emits visible light using atomic nuclei, rather than electrons, could be made from a thorium alloy. It could be a first step toward a gamma-ray laser.

New mass measurements of proton-rich nuclei will allow scientists to more accurately simulate the nucleosynthesis that occurs on the surface of neutron stars.

Dense matter containing strange quarks may significantly affect neutron star formation.

The rapid cooling of a neutron star signals a superfluid at its core.