Theoretical nuclear physics articles within Nature Physics

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• News & Views | 23 March 2023

  Modified in medium

  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.

  • Sean Freeman

• Article | 23 March 2023

  Chiral symmetry restoration at high matter density observed in pionic atoms

  In quantum chromodynamics, the condensation of quark–antiquark pairs breaks the chiral symmetry of vacuum. Experiments with pionic tin atoms demonstrate that the symmetry is partially restored at high densities.

  • Takahiro Nishi
  • , Kenta Itahashi
  •  & Koichi Yoshida

• Research Briefing | 17 October 2022

  Testing the theory of the strong force by measuring proton spin polarizabilities

  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.

• Article | 13 October 2022

  Proton spin structure and generalized polarizabilities in the strong quantum chromodynamics regime

  Measurements of the proton’s generalized spin polarizabilities provide discriminating power between effective descriptions of the strong interaction at low energy.

  • D. Ruth
  • , R. Zielinski
  •  & X. Zheng

• News & Views | 06 October 2022

  A historic match for nuclei and neutron stars

  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.

  • Arnau Rios

• Article
  22 August 2022 | Open Access

  Ab initio predictions link the neutron skin of ²⁰⁸Pb to nuclear forces

  Predictions of the properties of ²⁰⁸Pb from first principles augmented by statistical learning techniques reproduce those seen in experiments but rule out very thick neutron skins.

  • Baishan Hu
  • , Weiguang Jiang
  •  & Ian Vernon

• News & Views | 25 November 2021

  No need to decide

  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.

  • Alessandro Pastore

• Article | 25 November 2021

  Precision mass measurement of lightweight self-conjugate nucleus ⁸⁰Zr

  High-precision mass measurements of exotic zirconium nuclei are reported, and reveal a double-shell closure for the deformed nucleus ⁸⁰Zr, which is more strongly bound than previously thought.

  • A. Hamaker
  • , E. Leistenschneider
  •  & I. T. Yandow

• News & Views | 23 September 2021

  Close to the edge

  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.

  • Nunzio Itaco

• Letter
  23 September 2021 | Open Access

  Mass measurements of ^99–101In challenge ab initio nuclear theory of the nuclide ¹⁰⁰Sn

  Accurate mass measurements of the indium isotopes adjacent to the doubly magic ¹⁰⁰Sn provide critical benchmarks for ab initio theory, which withstands the challenge.

  • M. Mougeot
  • , D. Atanasov
  •  & K. Zuber

• News & Views | 31 May 2021

  Nucleon spins surprise

  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.

  • Mohammad W. Ahmed

• Letter | 31 May 2021

  Measurement of the generalized spin polarizabilities of the neutron in the low-Q² region

  Measurements of observables sensitive to the neutron’s spin precession are extended to a regime that probes distances of the size of the nucleon. They are found to disagree with predictions from chiral effective field theory.

  • Vincent Sulkosky
  • , Chao Peng
  •  & Lingyan Zhu

• Article | 12 April 2021

  Measurement of the proton spin structure at long distances

  Measurements of the proton’s spin structure in experiments scattering a polarized electron beam off polarized protons in regions of low momentum transfer squared test predictions from chiral effective field theory of the strong interaction.

  • X. Zheng
  • , A. Deur
  •  & Z. W. Zhao

• News & Views | 02 April 2021

  Knock-out interpretability

  A detailed analysis of a nucleon-knockout experiment has put forward a methodological roadmap for overcoming ambiguities in the interpretation of the data — promising access to the nuclear wave functions in unstable nuclei.

  • Jan Ryckebusch

• Letter | 29 March 2021

  Unperturbed inverse kinematics nucleon knockout measurements with a carbon beam

  Initial- and final-state interactions distort the kinematics in particle knockout scattering experiments, complicating their interpretation. These effects are suppressed by detecting ¹¹B nuclei in quasi-free scattering of ¹²C ions from hydrogen.

  • M. Patsyuk
  • , J. Kahlbow
  •  & M. Zuev

• News & Views | 28 January 2021

  The case of the exotic isotopes

  With increasing neutron number, the size of a nucleus grows, subject to subtle effects that act as fingerprints of its internal structure. A fresh look at potassium calls for theory to decipher the details.

  • Gianluca Colò

• Letter
  28 January 2021 | Open Access

  Charge radii of exotic potassium isotopes challenge nuclear theory and the magic character of N = 32

  The charge radii of potassium isotopes up to ⁵²K are measured, and show no sign of magicity at 32 neutrons as previously suggested in calcium. The observations are interpreted with coupled cluster and density functional theory calculations.

  • Á. Koszorús
  • , X. F. Yang
  •  & S. G. Wilkins

• News & Views | 09 November 2020

  Contact between nucleons

  The contact formalism describes short-range correlations, which play a crucial role in nuclear systems. Initially introduced for ultracold atoms, its generalization to the nuclear case was now validated by ab initio calculations.

  • Michael Urban

• Letter | 09 November 2020

  Many-body factorization and position–momentum equivalence of nuclear short-range correlations

  Effects of nucleon–nucleon correlations are studied with the generalized contact formalism and ab initio quantum Monte Carlo calculations. For nuclei from deuteron to ⁴⁰Ca, the many-body nuclear wave function is shown to factorize at short distances.

  • R. Cruz-Torres
  • , D. Lonardoni
  •  & O. Hen

• Letter
  13 April 2020 | Open Access

  Measurement and microscopic description of odd–even staggering of charge radii of exotic copper isotopes

  Isotopes with an odd number of neutrons are usually slightly smaller in size than their even-neutron neighbours. In charge radii of short-lived copper isotopes, a reduction of this effect is observed when the neutron number approaches fifty.

  • R. P. de Groote
  • , J. Billowes
  •  & X. F. Yang

• Letter | 30 March 2020

  Thermodynamics of hot strong-interaction matter from ultrarelativistic nuclear collisions

  The quark–gluon plasma, in which quarks and gluons are deconfined, is a transient state created in collisions of heavy nuclei. By defining an effective temperature, this temperature and the system’s entropy density and speed of sound are determined.

  • Fernando G. Gardim
  • , Giuliano Giacalone
  •  & Jean-Yves Ollitrault

• Research Highlight | 04 November 2019

  Of all shapes

  • Stefanie Reichert

• News & Views | 12 August 2019

  Nearly perfect quark–gluon fluid

  A statistical analysis of data from ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions has uncovered the specific viscosities of the quark–gluon plasma — suggesting that the hottest matter in the current Universe behaves like a near-perfect fluid.

  • Kari J. Eskola

• Letter | 12 August 2019

  Bayesian estimation of the specific shear and bulk viscosity of quark–gluon plasma

  As the quark–gluon plasma is a short-lived state of matter, its properties cannot be measured directly. A Bayesian parameter estimation method now provides a reliable estimation of the temperature-dependent specific shear and bulk viscosities.

  • Jonah E. Bernhard
  • , J. Scott Moreland
  •  & Steffen A. Bass

• Research Highlight | 03 June 2019

  It’s magic

  • Stefanie Reichert

• Research Highlight | 01 April 2019

  The size of the proton

  • Stefanie Reichert

• News & Views | 12 March 2019

  Beta decay gets the ab initio treatment

  One of the fundamental radioactive decay modes of nuclei is β decay. Now, nuclear theorists have used first-principles simulations to explain nuclear β decay properties across a range of light- to medium-mass isotopes, up to ¹⁰⁰Sn.

  • Arnau Rios

• Letter | 11 March 2019

  Discrepancy between experimental and theoretical β-decay rates resolved from first principles

  The difference between the β-decay rate predicted for free neutrons and that measured in real nuclei is explained by first-principles calculations to arise from strong correlations and the weak-force coupling between nucleons.

  • P. Gysbers
  • , G. Hagen
  •  & K. A. Wendt

• Letter | 11 February 2019

  Proton superfluidity and charge radii in proton-rich calcium isotopes

  Spectral study on ^36,37,38Ca isotopes and calculations based on density functional theory reveal the interplay between charge radii and nucleonic pairing correlations.

  • A. J. Miller
  • , K. Minamisono
  •  & J. Watkins

• Letter | 21 January 2019

  Interplay between nuclear shell evolution and shape deformation revealed by the magnetic moment of ⁷⁵Cu

  The magnetic moment of the neutron-rich exotic ⁷⁵Cu nucleus is measured using rare isotope beams with a high spin alignment, clarifying how the evolution of the nuclear shell and the shape deformations are connected.

  • Y. Ichikawa
  • , H. Nishibata
  •  & X. F. Yang

• News & Views | 01 October 2018

  Mercurial shapes

  Mercury isotopes are unique in exhibiting dramatic differences in their nuclear shapes. The analysis of over more than twenty Hg isotopes now shows that this follows from the influence of single-particle effects on the collective properties of a nucleus.

  • Paul Cottle
  •  & Kirby Kemper

• Letter | 01 October 2018

  Characterization of the shape-staggering effect in mercury nuclei

  Spectroscopy and shell model calculations reveal the ¹⁸¹Hg isotope as the endpoint of the shape-staggering of Hg nuclei, a consequence of neutron removal which arises from the interplay of single-particle and collective degrees of freedom.

  • B. A. Marsh
  • , T. Day Goodacre
  •  & K. Zuber

• Perspective | 04 June 2018

  The limits of nuclear mass and charge

  The addition of nihonium, moscovium, tennessine and oganesson to the periodic table are a reminder of the achievements in nuclear physics and chemistry. Witold Nazarewicz outlines the future challenges for the field.

  • Witold Nazarewicz

• Research Highlights | 04 October 2016

  Shape shifters

  • Federico Levi

• Letter | 08 February 2016

  Chiral magnetic effect in ZrTe₅

  A magnetotransport study of zirconium pentatelluride now reveals evidence for a chiral magnetic effect, a striking macroscopic manifestation of the quantum and relativistic nature of Weyl semimetals.

  • Qiang Li
  • , Dmitri E. Kharzeev
  •  & T. Valla

• Article | 08 February 2016

  Unexpectedly large charge radii of neutron-rich calcium isotopes

  Doubly magic atomic nuclei — having a magic number of both protons and neutrons — are very stable. Now, experiments revealing unexpectedly large charge radii for a series of Ca isotopes put the doubly magic nature of the ⁵²Ca nucleus into question.

  • R. F. Garcia Ruiz
  • , M. L. Bissell
  •  & D. T. Yordanov

• News & Views | 02 February 2016

  The skin of a nucleus

  Ab initio calculations of an atomic nucleus with 48 nucleons set a benchmark for computational nuclear physics and provide new insights into the properties of the atomic nucleus and strongly interacting matter.

  • Daniel P. Watts

• Article | 02 November 2015

  Neutron and weak-charge distributions of the ⁴⁸Ca nucleus

  Determining—and defining—the size of an atomic nucleus is far from easy. First-principles calculations now provide accurate information on the neutron distribution of the neutron-rich ⁴⁸Ca nucleus—and constraints on the size of a neutron star.

  • G. Hagen
  • , A. Ekström
  •  & J. Simonis

• News & Views | 02 April 2015

  Two more or less

  A recent experiment has provided tantalizing evidence in favour of the elusive 'giant pairing vibration' — an exotic excitation of the atomic nucleus.

  • Jorge Piekarewicz

• Progress Article | 28 November 2014

  Recent advances in nuclear physics through on-line isotope separation

  The on-line isotope separation technique for the production of accelerated beams of radioactive ions has led to important advances in our understanding of atomic nuclei. These are now reviewed, and further prospects are discussed.

  • David Gareth Jenkins

• News & Views | 30 April 2014

  Track it to the limit

  Powerful γ-ray detectors are revealing fresh details about the interior of the nucleus, focusing initially on cases where there is a large excess of neutrons and edging towards the neutron drip-line limit.

  • Philip Walker