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Advancements in nuclear physics may soon enable the creation of stable, superheavy nuclei, paving the way for new materials and insights into atomic stability.

A team of scientists has made significant advancements in the quest to create new, long-lasting superheavy nuclei. These double magic nuclei, which have a precise number of protons and neutrons that form a highly stable configuration, are exceptionally resistant to decay. Their research could deepen our understanding of the forces that bind atoms and pave the way for the development of new materials with unique properties. This work brings us a step closer to the so-called “Island of Stability,” a theoretical region in the nuclei chart where it’s believed some nuclei could exist far longer than those created so far.

The study, led by Professor Feng-Shou Zhang, has predicted promising reactions between different elements that could be used in experiments to create double magic nuclei. One key discovery involves a reaction between a special type of radioactive calcium isotope and a plutonium target, which could produce the predicted double magic nuclei ²⁹⁸ Fl. Another potential double magic nuclei, ³⁰⁴ 120, could be created by combining vanadium and berkelium, although this reaction is currently less likely to succeed.

There’s just one catch: every atom in your body would be fully disassembled to the quantum level, effectively leaving your original body totally destroyed.

When lightning strikes, the electrons come pouring down.

In a new study, researchers at CU Boulder led by an undergraduate student have discovered a new link between weather on Earth and weather in space. The group used satellite data to show that lightning storms on our planet can knock especially high-energy, or “extra-hot,” electrons out of the inner radiation belt—a region of space filled with charged particles that surrounds Earth like an inner tube.

The team’s results could help satellites and even astronauts avoid dangerous radiation in space. This is one kind of downpour you don’t want to get caught in, said lead author Max Feinland.

Researchers at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest particle accelerator, have recently made a groundbreaking advancement in exploring the laws of nature. They have observed the phenomenon of quantum entanglement between top quarks, the heaviest elementary particles, at unprecedented energy levels. This breakthrough paves the way for new possibilities in particle physics and could unveil new aspects of the fundamental forces that govern the universe.

Quantum Entanglement: A Counterintuitive Phenomenon

Quantum entanglement is one of the most enigmatic phenomena in quantum mechanics. It occurs when two or more particles become interconnected in such a way that the state of one particle instantly influences another, regardless of the distance separating them. This defies our everyday intuition and challenges some classical physics concepts, like causality.

Two researchers at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) have published a paper that demonstrates for the first time that a subluminal warp drive is possible within the bounds of known physics without the need to employ exotic unknown forms of matter or energy, while also advancing our understanding of gravity. UAH alumnus Dr. Jared Fuchs led a team of physicists that produced the paper, supported by Dr. Christopher Helmerich, also an alumnus of UAH, a part of the University of Alabama System, both working in conjunction with the New York-based Applied Propulsion Laboratory of Applied Physics (APL).

When Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre first proposed his theoretical warp drive in 1994, the concept required a bubble of ‘negative energy density’ around an object to create an imbalance in space-time, generating motion without movement of the craft, thus avoiding violations of the speed-of-light limit. But the Star Trek dream comes with a catch: it would have to be powered by either exotic particles that haven’t yet been discovered, or the mysterious dark energy thought to drive the expansion of the universe, currently viewed by most physicists as not remotely achievable.

Fuch’s team’s Constant-Velocity Subluminal Warp Drive, however, offers a new means of propulsion that allows it to operate at constant subluminal speeds, while still conforming to Einstein’s theory of general relativity, with no need for ‘unphysical’ forms of matter required by previous designs.

Polymer’s long spin relaxation time helps researchers gain spintronic insights.

A decade after the discovery of the “amplituhedron,” physicists have excavated more of the timeless geometry underlying the standard picture of how particles move.

“We can now see the moment where atomic nuclei and electrons are uniting in the afterglow,” team member Rasmus Damgaard, a researcher at the Cosmic DAWN Center, said in a statement. For the first time, we see the creation of atoms, we can measure the temperature of the matter, and we can see the microphysics in this remote explosion.”

“It is like admiring three cosmic background radiation surrounding us from all sides, but here, we get to see everything from the outside. We see before, during, and after the moment of birth of the atoms.”

Neutron stars are born when stars at least 8 times as massive as the sun exhaust their fuel for nuclear fusion and can no longer support themselves against their own gravity.

Inside a hunk of a material called a semimetal, scientists have uncovered signatures of bizarre particles that sometimes move like they have no mass, but at other times move just like a very massive particle.

By Karmela Padavic-Callaghan