Physics Division News Archive

2012
	New picture of atomic nucleus emerges When most of us think of an atom, we think of tiny electrons whizzing around a stationary, dense nucleus composed of protons and neutrons, collectively known as nucleons. A collaboration between the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne and Thomas Jefferson National Laboratories has demonstrated just how different reality is from our simple picture. More »
	Krypton-81 isotope can help map underground waterways Cataloguing underground waterways, some of which extend for thousands of miles, has always been difficult—but Argonne scientists are mapping them with some unusual equipment: lasers and a rare isotope. More »
2011
	Argonne's CARIBU facility opens to study rare nuclei A stream of highly unusual ions shot through a tiny nozzle at 76 million miles per hour—and CARIBU, a facility designed to study special nuclei normally only created in stars, officially opened for business. See the corresponding Argonne News article for more information. CARIBU has also been featured on DOE's EnergyBlog.
	Atom Trap Trace Analysis of 39Ar Atom Trap Trace Analysis has reached new sensitivity limits in measuring the abundance of argon-39, a desirable isotope for dating environmental samples on the time scale of a few hundred years. More »
2010
	Void that is truly empty solves dark energy puzzle "New Scientist" reports on a recent publication in Physical Review C concerning the contribution of quarks and gluons to the vacuum energy of the universe. "In our picture, quarks and gluons can't flutter in and out of existence unless they are inside hadrons" explains co-author Craig Roberts of Argonne National Laboratory. This insight might help in solving the puzzle of dark energy. more ...
	Argonne's CARIBU charge breeder breaks world record for efficiency Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have pushed the limits of charge breeding and broken a long-standing world record for ionization efficiency of solids. more ...
	First Experiment with HELIOS: The Structure of 13B The helical orbit spectrometer, HELIOS, at the Argonne Tandem Linac Accelerator System is a new device designed to study reactions of unstable nuclei with high energy resolution. In a paper appearing in Physical Review Letters, the HELIOS collaboration now presents the results of a first experiment demonstrating HELIOS’ capabilities. This work is featured in APS Physics and IOP physicsworld.com.

2009

2010 Tom W. Bonner Prize awarded to Steven Pieper and Robert Wiringa

Quarks influenced by their neighborhood

Fission for the future

Nuclear star gazing

Zheng-Tian Lu earns Francis M. Pipkin Award for work with radioactive atomic species and applications

Ions stopped, reaccelerated in charge breader for CARIBU

2008

Journey to the center of the neutron

New component design could reduce cost of proposed Facility for Rare Isotope Beams

Argonne scientists develop way to predict properties of light nuclei

Helium-8 study gives insight into nuclear theory, neutron stars

Chicago mayor, council honor Argonne physicists for creating innovative science program at city high school

2007

Argonne's Walter Henning receives award from German president

Argonne scientists take giant step forward in understanding exotic nuclei

ATLAS upgrade allows scientists to reach even further for the stars

Laser-trapping of rare element gets unexpected assist