Researchers develop novel approach to modeling as-yet-unconfirmed rare nuclear processAround the WebResearch & ApplicationsJuly 8, 2020, 4:49PM|Nuclear News StaffAccording to a recent story published by AAAS, researchers from the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams Laboratory at Michigan State University have taken a major step toward a theoretical first-principles description of neutrinoless double-beta decay.The binary code (1, 0) on the particles in the graphic symbolizes the computer simulations which will be performed to better understand neutrinoless double-beta decay. Certain nuclei decay by emitting electrons (e) and neutrinos (ν), but the existence of a neutrinoless double-beta decay has been hypothesized. Credit: Facility for Rare Isotope BeamsWhat is neutrinoless double-beta decay? If it exists, it’s when two protons simultaneously transform into neutrons without emitting the two neutrinos that appear in more typical weak-interaction processes. It would be an extremely rare decay, expected to have a half-life greater than 10 septillion years (a 1 with 25 zeroes).What does it mean? The work marks an important milestone toward a theoretical calculation of neutrinoless double-beta decay rates with fully controlled and quantified uncertainties. Observation of this reaction would demonstrate that neutrinos are their own antiparticles, leading to a possible explanation for why the universe contains more matter than antimatter. The observation would also direct efforts to complete the Standard Model of particle physics.The research team presented their results in an article recently published in Physical Review Letters.Tags:aaasfacility for rare isotope beamsfribneutrinoless double-beta decayneutrinosnuclear physicsShare:LinkedInTwitterFacebook
Manhattan Project scientist Chien-Shiung Wu honored with Forever StampTo mark the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, the U.S. Postal Service today issued a commemorative Forever stamp recognizing influential nuclear physicist and professor Chien-Shiung Wu (1912–1997).A great honor: The stamp was dedicated during a virtual ceremony that can be viewed on the Postal Service Facebook and Twitter pages. USPS official Kristin Seaver was joined for the ceremony by Vincent Yuan, a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory and son of the honoree; Jada Yuan, granddaughter of the honoree; and Brian Greene, professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University. The stamp is available for purchase at Post Office locations nationwide and online.“I am elated to have my mother honored by USPS on a postage stamp because I believe it goes beyond recognizing her scientific achievements; it also honors the determination and moral qualities that she embodied,” said Vincent Yuan. “It’s even more profound that the recognition comes from America, the country of her naturalization that she loved.”Go to Article
Jack Steinberger, Nobel laureate in physics, dies at 99Jack Steinberger, a Nobel Prize–winning scientist with a distinguished career in experimental physics, died December 12. He was 99.Steinberger was most famous for his co-discovery of a new type of ghostlike particle called the muon neutrino—a breakthrough that earned him, Leon Lederman, and Melvin Schwartz the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1988. Steinberger studied the basic particles that make up the universe, and the elemental forces that govern their interactions, over a long scientific career that was jump-started by Enrico Fermi at the University of Chicago.Go to Article
Is proximity key to understanding interactions on the nuclear scale?An MIT-led team found that the formulas describing how atoms behave in a gas can be generalized to predict how protons and neutrons interact at close range. Image: Collage by MIT News. Neutron star image: X-ray (NASA/CXC/ESO/F.Vogt et al); Optical (ESO/VLT/MUSE & NASA/STScI)In an MIT News article playfully titled “No matter the size of a nuclear party, some protons and neutrons will always pair up and dance,” author Jennifer Chu explains that findings on the interactions of protons and neutrons recently published in the journal Nature Physics show that the nucleons may behave like atoms in a gas.A Massachusetts Institute of Technology–led team simulated the behavior of nucleons in several types of atomic nuclei using supercomputers at Los Alamos National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory. The team investigated a range of nuclear interaction models and found that formulas describing a concept known as contact formalism can be generalized to predict how protons and neutrons interact at close range.Go to Article
