News by Subject Chemistry & Physics

A detailed examination of the challenges and tradeoffs in the development of a compact fusion facility with high-temperature superconducting magnets.

A new technique developed at MIT uses quantum sensors to enable precise measurements of magnetic fields in different directions.

New data from the STAR experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) add detail -- and complexity -- to an intriguing puzzle that scientists have been seeking to solve: how the building blocks that make up a proton contribute to its spin. The results reveal that different 'flavors' of antiquarks contribute differently to the proton's overall spin -- and in a way that's opposite to those flavors' relative abundance.

An international collaboration including scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory solved a 50-year-old puzzle that explains why beta decays of atomic nuclei are slower than what is expected based on the beta decays of free neutrons. The findings, published in Nature Physics, fill a longstanding gap in physicists' understanding of beta decay, an important process stars use to create heavier elements, and emphasize the need to include subtle effects--or more realistic physics--when predicting certain nuclear processes.

Beta decay plays an indispensable role in the universe. And for 50 years it has held onto a secret that puzzled nuclear physicists. With ever-advancing computing power at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a team of researchers has solved that mystery, with the results appearing in Nature Physics.

A new tungsten-based alloy developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory can withstand unprecedented amounts of radiation without damage. Essential for extreme irradiation environments such as the interiors of magnetic fusion reactors, previously explored materials have thus far been hobbled by weakness against fracture, but this new alloy seems to defeat that problem.

MIT physicists now have an answer to a question in nuclear physics that has puzzled scientists for three decades: Why do quarks move more slowly inside larger atoms?