Latest Neutron Stories

The detectors will become part of the Advanced Gamma Tracking Array (AGATA) experiment, currently based in Italy, which aims to create a 'fingerprint' of the inside of the atomic nucleus to understand the structure of all matter in the Universe, including human beings and the stars.The experiment will help scientists analyse particle interactions that produce gamma rays, which are also commonly used for their penetrating properties in medical diagnostics and treatments such as PET scans and...

Ytterbium was discovered in 1878, but until it recently became useful in atomic clocks, the soft metal rarely made the news. Now ytterbium has a new claim to scientific fame. Measurements with ytterbium-174, an isotope with 70 protons and 104 neutrons, have shown the largest effects of parity violation in an atom ever observed "“ a hundred times larger than the most precise measurements made so far, with the element cesium."Parity" assumes that, on the atomic scale, nature behaves...

Japanese-led researchers say they've created the strongest neutron beam in the world, enabling the exploration of laws governing all matter in the universe. The creation of the beam is the first major experimental achievement at the Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory, part of the Japan-funded Riken Nishina Center for Accelerator-Based Science near Tokyo. Researchers said the new beam can achieve in eight hours what it would take other scientists more than six months to accomplish. The...

 A new calculation clarifies the complicated relationship between protons and neutrons in the atomic nucleus and offers a fascinating resolution of the famous NuTeV Anomaly.The calculation, published in the journal Physical Review Letters on June 26, was carried out by a collaboration of researchers from the Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, Tokai University and the University of Washington. It grew out of attempts to make sense of the complex...

Composite materials such as fiberglass, which take on a mix of properties of their constituent compounds, have been around for decades. Now, an MIT materials scientist is taking composites to the nanoscale, where entirely new properties, not found in any of the original compounds, can emerge.Michael Demkowicz, an assistant professor in MIT's Department of Materials Science and Engineering, is part of a team based at Los Alamos National Laboratory that recently received a federal Energy...

U.S. physicists say they've determined the crusts of neutron stars are 10 billion times stronger than steel or any other metal alloy found on Earth. The scientists said a neutron star is a star that collapsed when its core ceased nuclear fusion. Exhibiting extreme gravity while rotating as fast as 700 times per second, a teaspoonful of neutron star matter would weight about 100 million tons, the researchers said. Indiana University Professor Charles Horowitz and colleagues conducted...

Research by a theoretical physicist at Indiana University shows that the crusts of neutron stars are 10 billion times stronger than steel or any other of the earth's strongest metal alloys. Charles Horowitz, a professor in the IU College of Arts and Sciences' Department of Physics, came to the conclusion after large-scale molecular dynamics computer simulations were conducted at Indiana University and Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The research will appear Friday (May 8) in...

A small, dense object only twelve miles in diameter is responsible for this beautiful X-ray nebula that spans 150 light years. At the center of this image made by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is a very young and powerful pulsar, known as PSR B1509-58, or B1509 for short. The pulsar is a rapidly spinning neutron star which is spewing energy out into the space around it to create complex and intriguing structures, including one that resembles a large cosmic hand. In this image, the lowest...

A U.S. Navy laboratory has produced "significant" evidence of the controversial energy source known as cold fusion, the Associated Press reported.Researchers are calling it the first clear visual evidence that low-energy nuclear reaction (LENR), or cold fusion devices can produce neutrons capable of nuclear reactions.Analytical chemist Pamela Mosier-Boss of the U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center (SPAWAR) in San Diego, California, called the finding "very significant."She...

New evidence for existence of controversial energy sourceResearchers are reporting compelling new scientific evidence for the existence of low-energy nuclear reactions (LENR), the process once called "cold fusion" that may promise a new source of energy. One group of scientists, for instance, describes what it terms the first clear visual evidence that LENR devices can produce neutrons, subatomic particles that scientists view as tell-tale signs that nuclear reactions are...