Theoretical nuclear physics articles from across Nature Portfolio

Advances in superheavy element studies providing insight into the nuclear and atomic structure and the chemical behaviour of these exotic short-lived systems will help push to the limit of the periodic table of elements and revise the concept of the island of stability.

Alpha particle clustering plays a significant role in lighter nuclei. Here the authors study the exotic 5α gas-like clustering state of ²⁰Ne, that is 5α condensate state.

Since the discovery of proton radioactivity in ^53mCo, there has been no direct measurement of its branching ratio. Here the authors report the first measurement of the weak proton decay in ^53mCo by combining results from advanced detection systems.

It is interesting and important to understand how the properties of nuclei and their stability change with temperature. Here the authors report their theoretical study of hot nuclei and the drip lines that limit the nuclear existence at finite temperature.

Machine-learning-based sampling strategies have been recently developed for lattice quantum chromodynamics applications. These methods are in their early stages, but have the potential to enable currently intractable first-principles calculations in particle, nuclear and condensed matter physics and also to advance machine learning.

The strong interaction is modified in the presence of nuclear matter. An experiment has now quantified with high precision and accuracy the reduction of the order parameter of the system’s chiral symmetry, which is partially restored.

Measurements of a transversely polarized target were used to probe the spin structure of the proton in the low-energy region where the interactions between the quarks cannot be ignored. These results provide a benchmark for testing our understanding of the strong force.

Bayesian history matching is a statistical tool used to calibrate complex numerical models. Now, it has been applied to first-principles simulations of several nuclei, including ²⁰⁸Pb, whose properties are linked to the interior of neutron stars.

To test the validity of theoretical models, the predictions they make must be compared with experimental data. Instead of choosing one model out of many to describe mass measurements of zirconium, Bayesian statistics allows the averaging of a variety of models.

The tin isotope ¹⁰⁰Sn is key to understanding nuclear stability, but little is known about its properties. Precision measurements of closely related indium isotopes have now pinned down its mass.

Recent measurements of observables related to proton and neutron spin properties at low energies are in disagreement with the available theoretical predictions, and continue to challenge nuclear experimentalists and theorists alike.