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2024 DNP Dissertation Award Awarded to Evan Rule
Evan Rule, a former graduate student in the UC Berkeley Physics Department has been awarded the 2024 Dissertation Award in Nuclear Physics by the American Physical Society (APS). Dr. Rule conducted his graduate research at UC Berkeley under the supervision of Prof. Wick Haxton who is a faculty member in the UC Berkeley Physics Department, and…
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New DOE funding for AI/ML projects in the Nuclear Science Division
Berkeley Lab’s Nuclear Science Division has received two Department of Energy (DOE) funding awards for two-year projects focused on artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML). A collaboration of Nuclear Science Division (NSD) scientists from the Low-Energy Nuclear Physics, 88” Cyclotron, and Applied Nuclear Physics programs will develop new methods to optimize a large gamma-ray spectrometer and an ion source for low-energy nuclear…
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New Insights into How Strange Matter Interacts with Ordinary Matter
Scientists reported the first observations of how nuclei containing strange quarks flow from particle collisions that smash atomic nuclei together at high energies. They specifically tracked the flow patterns of so-called hypernuclei. These hypernuclei contain particles called hyperons (made of at least one strange quark) in addition to ordinary protons and neutrons (known as nucleons).
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In Preparation for DUNE, Scientists Examine Modern Nuclear Theory for Neutrino Oscillation Physics
The U.S. particle physics community is preparing for a major research program with the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). DUNE will study neutrino oscillations. These quantum mechanical oscillations are only possible because neutrinos have mass, albeit it very small masses. Research at DUNE will address key questions about neutrinos, such as whether they and their…
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Spin alignment of vector mesons in heavy-ion collisions as a barometer for fluctuation of strong force fields
Xin-Nian Wang, a senior scientist in the Nuclear Theory Group in Berkeley Lab’s Nuclear Science Division (NSD), and his collaborators have recently published new research (out today in Physical Review Letters) that explains the spin alignment of vector mesons in heavy-ion collisions, as observed by the STAR Collaboration at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC).
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STAR experiment observes directed flow of hypernuclei connected to neutron stars
June 7, 2023 ~ In research recently published in Physical Review Letters, the STAR collaboration has released the first observations of directed flow of hypernuclei. Xin Dong and Nu Xu, senior scientists in the Relativistic Nuclear Collisions group in Berkeley Lab’s Nuclear Science Division (NSD), are actively involved in this new research.
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A Low-Energy ‘Off Switch’ for Quark-Gluon Plasma
June 5, 2023 ~ Physicists can create an exotic state of matter known as a quark-gluon plasma (QGP) by colliding gold nuclei together. By systematically varying the amount of energy involved in the collision, scientists have shown that the QGP exists in collisions at energies from 200 billion electron volts (GeV) down at least to…
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Applications Now Open for New Darleane Hoffman Fellowship
May 15, 2023 ~ Applications for a new fellowship named for Nuclear Science Division scientist Darleane Hoffman are now being accepted. The fellowship is open to all postdocs who are working in fields related to the Department of Energy’s nuclear nonproliferation mission.
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SNO+ researchers unveil new findings: reactor neutrinos detected by water
May 15, 2023 ~ In this new paper in Physical Review Letters, researchers in the SNO+ Collaboration – including Gabriel Orebi Gann (Nuclear Science Division and UC Berkeley Physics Department) and Logan Lebanowski (UC Berkeley Physics and NSD Affiliate) – have reported the first signals in a water-filled Cherenkov neutrino detector from neutrinos emitted by…
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First Experimental Results from FRIB Led by NSD
April 12, 2023 ~ A new DOE Office of Science Highlight features the first experimental results from FRIB from a team led by NSD’s Heather Crawford.
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Understanding the Origin of Matter with the CUORE Experiment
Physicists use a detector under an Italian mountain to search for rare nuclear processes to explain why our Universe has more matter than antimatter. There is so much that we do not yet know about neutrinos. Neutrinos are very light, chargeless, and elusive particles that are involved in a process named beta decay and that can help…
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Darleane Hoffman Receives the Enrico Fermi Presidential Award
Today, the Biden-Harris Administration announced Darleane Hoffman and Gabor Somorjai as recipients of the Enrico Fermi Presidential Award, one of the oldest and most prestigious science and technology honors bestowed by the U.S. government.
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Volker Koch honored as a 2023 Physics Review ‘Outstanding Referee’
Volker Koch, a Senior Scientist in the Nuclear Theory Group, has been selected as a 2023 Outstanding Referee of the Physical Review journals.
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STAR Collaboration researchers report that QGP production ‘turns off’ at low energy
Physicists in the STAR Collaboration – including Nu Xu, a senior scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Nuclear Science Division (NSD) – have recently reported new evidence that production of an exotic state of matter in collisions of gold nuclei at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) – an atom-smasher at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory…
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Particles Pick Pair Partners Differently in Small Nuclei
The protons and neutrons that build the nucleus of the atom frequently pair up in fleeting partnerships called short-range correlations. Correlations can form between a proton and a neutron, between two protons, or between two neutrons.
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NSD Theory Group researchers receive DOE funding awards for topical theory collaborations in nuclear physics
Researchers in Berkeley Lab’s Nuclear Theory Group, part of the Nuclear Science Division (NSD), have received DOE funding support for topical theory collaborations in nuclear physics. Theory Group researchers will be involved in all of the five project teams chosen to receive awards as part of this program.
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Agnieszka Sorensen receives 2023 APS Dissertation Award in Nuclear Physics
Agnieszka Sorensen, who carried out a substantial amount of her research at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) under the supervision of NSD’s Volker Koch, has received the American Physical Society’s 2023 Dissertation Award in Nuclear Physics for her work using an innovative approach to study the speed of sound in dense nuclear matter.
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Nuclear Science Division’s New Division Deputy, Science
Dr. Reynold (Ren) Cooper, Staff Scientist and Deputy Program Head of the Applied Nuclear Physics Program, announced as new Division Deputy of Science for the Nuclear Science Division
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Former Berkeley Lab Scientist John Clauser Among Three Awarded the 2022 Nobel for Physics for Work on Quantum Mechanics
Clauser’s work with NSD’s Stuart Freedman in the early 1970s helped lay the groundwork for conventional quantum mechanics. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics to Alain Aspect, John Clauser, and Anton Zeilinger “for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science.” Read…
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NSD Teaching Scholar to be Recognized
Teaching Scholars Lisa Claus (Applied Math & Comp Sci) and Rebecca Carney (Nuclear Science), who have completed over 100 hours of service dedicated to various K-12 programs and Career Pathways Office professional development activities, will be honored during the Teaching Scholars Recognition Event on Nov. 2.
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88-Inch Cyclotron accelerates titanium for heavy-element search
Many of the superheavy elements discovered in the last few decades were produced by bombarding heavy-element targets with high-current beams of neutron-rich isotopes like 48Ca. We need ion beams of yet-more-massive neutron-rich elements to extend the periodic table further using similar methods. The Ion Source Group in Building 88 has been using the superconducting electron…
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In Memoriam – Art Poskanzer
Art Poskanzer, Distinguished Senior Scientist Emeritus in the Nuclear Science Division at LBNL, died peacefully at home on June 30 after a long illness, two days after his 90th birthday. Art was an outstanding scientist, who maintained an active research career for over sixty years. He began his career as a nuclear chemist at Brookhaven National…
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ANP Article Featured in PRR
The Applied Nuclear Physics Program recently had an article, “Determining urban material activities with a vehicle-based multi-sensor system”, featured in Physical Review Research (PRR).