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Companies Cooperate to Upgrade Laser System of ELI for Nuclear Physics

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Advanced technology corporation Thales has partnered with German fusion technology company Marvel Fusion and the ELI-NP (Extreme Light Infrastructure - Nuclear Physics) in Romania to upgrade the laser system and to perform research relevant to nuclear fusion as a future energy source. Over the course of 2023, the partners intend to enhance parameters of the laser system, such as the temporal laser pulse contrast, to enable unique research capabilities of laser-based fusion processes. As part of an ongoing cooperation with ELI-NP, Thales will supply a new stretcher unit that is used to stretch laser pulses over time, which initially reduces their peak power. The stretched, less powerful pulses can then be amplified and then compressed again. This process is part of the chirped pulse amplification, the development of which earned Donna Strickland and Gerard Mourou the Nobel Prize in physics in 2018. Mourou is part of Marvel Fusion’s Science and Technology Board. Marvel Fusion, which wil...
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Dynamic nuclear polarization: how a technique from particle physics is transforming medical imaging

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An experimental technique that started life in nuclear and particle physics is now being used to measure chemical reactions inside the human body and to help diagnose cancer and heart disease in almost 50 clinical trials. Jack Miller charts the unexpected rise of dynamic nuclear polarization, which is vastly improving the quality of magnetic resonance imaging Life, for physicists, is an odd thing, seeming to create order in a universe that mostly tends towards disorder. At a biochemical level, life is even stranger – controlled and thermodynamically powered by a myriad of different molecules that most of us have probably never heard of. In fact, there’s one molecule – pyruvic acid – that’s crucial in keeping us alive. When burned, pyruvic acid releases carbon dioxide and water. If you’re exercising hard and your muscles are running low on oxygen, it’s converted anaerobically into lactic acid, which can give you a painful stitch. Later, your liver recycles the lactic acid back into suga...
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Researchers unveil issues with nuclear theory, observe no magic behavior at N=32 in charge radii of potassium isotopes

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  International Conference on Nuclear Physics and Particle Physics Research Excellence Measuring the size of atomic nuclei has sometimes been useful to probe aspects of nucleon-nucleon interaction and the bulk properties of nuclear matter. The charge radius of atomic nuclei, which can be extracted using laser spectroscopy techniques, is sensitive to both the bulk properties of nuclear matter and particularly subtle details of the interactions between protons and neutrons. Many recent studies have thus examined the properties of nuclei with unbalanced proton-to- neutron ratios, known as exotic nuclei. These exotic nuclei have been found to exhibit new phenomena and thus have proved valuable for testing nuclear theory and improving the current understanding of nuclear forces. Among other things, examining exotic nuclei can help to identify new magic numbers. In this context, the term 'magic numbers' refers to the number of protons or neutrons that correspond to completely filled...
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Planning the next-generation collider

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  International Conference on Nuclear Physics and Particle Physics Research Excellence While most of us are still trying to grasp the concept of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) – the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator, located at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) – the scientific community has already been planning its successor. A 2023 conference organised with support from the EU-funded FCCIS project is once again bringing together experts from around the world to share their latest research on tomorrow’s particle collider – the FCC. The 9th edition of the FCC Conference is taking place at the Millennium Conference Centre in London, United Kingdom, from 5 to 9 June 2023. As reported in a news item posted on the website of FCCIS project coordinator CERN, the event “will offer ample opportunities to share results, build new collaborations and solidify the vision of a post-LHC circular particle collider. It will provide an important occasion t...
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Unique Planetary System With Rhythmic Orbital Resonance Revealed by Exoplanet Watcher Cheops

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  International Research Awards on Nuclear and Particle Physics ESA’s exoplanet mission Cheops has revealed a unique planetary system consisting of six exoplanets, five of which are locked in a rare rhythmic dance as they orbit their central star. The sizes and masses of the planets, however, don’t follow such an orderly pattern. This finding challenges current theories of planet formation. The discovery of increasing numbers of planetary systems, none like our own Solar System, continues to improve our understanding of how planets form and evolve. A striking example is the planetary system called TOI-178, some 200 light-years away in the constellation of Sculptor.   Astronomers already expected this star to host two or more exoplanets after observing it with NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). New, highly precise observations with Cheops, ESA’s Characterising Exoplanet Satellite that was launched in 2019, now show that TOI-178 harbors at least six planets and...
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How does radiation travel through dense plasma

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International Research Awards on Nuclear and  Particle Physics First-of-its-kind experimental evidence defies conventional theories about how plasmas emit or absorb radiation. Most people are familiar with solids, liquids, and gases as three states of matter. However, a fourth state of matter, called plasmas, is the most abundant form of matter in the universe, found throughout our solar system in the sun and other planetary bodies. Because dense plasma—a hot soup of atoms with free-moving electrons and ions—typically only forms under extreme pressure and temperatures, scientists are still working to comprehend the fundamentals of this state of matter. Understanding how atoms react under extreme pressure conditions—a field known as high-energy-density physics (HEDP)—gives scientists valuable insights into the fields of planetary science, astrophysics, and fusion energy. One important question in the field of HEDP is how plasmas emit or absorb radiation. Current models depicting rad...
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The Sun Has Been Emitting High-Energy Gamma Rays In Huge Quantities, But Nobody Noticed — Until Now

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  International Conference on Nuclear Physics and Particle Physics Research Excellence You’d think that for something as huge and overt as the Sun, hiding things about itself might not be possible, especially when there’s multiple probes and telescopes measuring its every activity. And yet, researchers recently found something very surprising about the star. For years now, the Sun has reportedly been emitting highly bright light in the form of an extraordinary amount of gamma rays — which carry the most energy out of any other wavelength in the electromagnetic spectrum. The emissions equate to approximately 1 trillion electron volts, making it the highest-energy radiation to ever be documented from our solar system’s star! While these gamma rays cannot harm us and do not quite reach Earth, their telltale signatures are discernable, provided one is using the right tools, such as the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov Observatory, or HAWC. Considering how it operates 24/7, the HAWC has an...
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