Facility for Rare Isotope Beams

The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science (DOE-SC) posted a highlight titled "Scientists probe the emergent structure of the carbon nucleus" about the FRIB research paper titled "Emergent geometry and duality in the carbon nucleus" published in Nature Communications. DOE-SC posts about 200 published research findings annually, selected by their respective program areas in DOE-SC as publication highlights of special note.

Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Large Heavy Ion National Accelerator in France, and FRIB have shown that theoretical descriptions of the first excited state of helium-4 are now consistent with experimental data.

The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science (DOE-SC) posted a highlight titled “Statisticians and physicists team up to bring a machine learning approach to mining of nuclear data” about how Bayesian statistical methods help improve the predictability of complex computational models in experimentally unknown research. The authors of the publication are from FRIB and Skidmore College. Each year, scientists publish thousands of research findings in the scientific literature. About 200 of these are selected annually by their respective program areas in DOE-SC as publication highlights of special note.

A team of researchers, including a scientist from the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, published a paper describing the major challenges in the field of the superheavy elements and speculate about future directions of the periodic table of the elements.

Scientists from Australian National University, Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro in Italy, Ruđer Bošković Institute in Croatia, and FRIB challenged the current view of fusion and provided a framework for improved models of capture. Superheavy elements are synthesized at accelerator laboratories using nuclear fusion, where two atomic nuclei collide, stick together—or capture—and with low probability, evolve into a compact superheavy nucleus. Using collisions of calcium-40 and lead-208, the scientists observed 90 different partitions of protons and neutrons between projectile-like and target-like nuclei. The collisions experienced a mass and charge transfer between the nuclei before capture with an unexpectedly high probability and complexity. Since each collision is expected to have a different probability of fusion, it was concluded that the early stages of collisions may be crucial in superheavy element synthesis.

New research from North Carolina State University and the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams at Michigan State University opens a new avenue for modeling low-energy nuclear reactions, which are key to the formation of elements within stars. The research lays the groundwork for calculating how nucleons interact when the particles are electrically charged.

Practitioners of atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) physics are increasingly applying their tools to the search for physics beyond the standard model, thanks largely to advances in precision-measurement techniques. A tabletop experiment that measures nuclear recoil during beta decay to look for sterile neutrinos—hypothetical particles that interact only via gravity—has led to a follow-on, the Superconducting Array for Low-Energy Radiation. SALER, which is setting up shop at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams at Michigan State University, expands the use of rare-isotope-doped superconductors to search for a wide range of exotic new physics

The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science (DOE-SC) posted a highlight titled “The 'nested doll' nucleus nitrogen-9 stretches the definition of a nucleus to the limit” about how nitrogen-9 has only two neutrons to its seven protons and decays to an alpha particle by emitting five of its protons in stages. The experimental technique employed sequential nuclear reactions at MSU to create nitrogen-9. Each year, scientists publish thousands of research findings in the scientific literature. About 200 of these are selected annually by their respective program areas in DOE-SC as publication highlights of special note.

Researchers from Washington University in St. Louis, Fudan University in China, Western Michigan University, the University of Connecticut, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and FRIB have found evidence of an extremely unstable nucleus for which more than half of the component particles are unbound, meaning that they are not tightly connected to the dense core of the nucleus. The research team had to carefully sift through a large volume of nuclear-collision data to identify the nitrogen-9 decays. This barely bound nucleus poses a unique challenge to theories of nuclear structure.

Researchers from Washington University in St. Louis, Fudan University in China, Western Michigan University, the University of Connecticut, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and FRIB may have just spotted the elusive, ephemeral nucleus of nitrogen-9 for the first time. With seven protons and two neutrons, the lopsided atomic nucleus of nitrogen-9 pushes the limits of what can even be considered a nucleus at all. Yet signs of its existence seem to be lurking in years-old data from experiments seeking out a different unusual nucleus, researchers report in the 27 October Physical Review Letters.

SLAC National Laboratory’s newly upgraded Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS-II) heralds trailblazing research capabilities that could unlock the insights needed to create carbon-neutral steel, more sustainable fertilizer, more efficient hydrogen-powered cars or the next generation of pharmaceuticals, to name a few possibilities. LCLS-II is the result of a decade-long collaboration involving more than 1,400 individuals, including those from Fermilab, Argonne, Jefferson Lab, Berkeley Lab, the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams and Cornell University, according to LCLS-II Director Greg Hays. He also said the collaboration involved partners from outside the United States like Germany, Japan, Switzerland and France.

The nuclear reactions that power stellar explosions involve short-lived nuclei that are hard to study in the laboratory. To solve this challenge, researchers at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams used a novel technique that combines an Active Target Time Projection Chamber with a magnetic spectrometer. The work has been published in Physical Review Letters.

FRIB will use the $115 million it received through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science to fund the High Rigidity Spectrometer project.

Researchers at Michigan State University’s Facility for Rare Isotope Beams joined experts around the country as they rolled out their long-term plans for studying nuclear science. Officials say this plan is part of a bigger focus on keeping the U.S. a leader in nuclear science. The list of recommendations to the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation features MSU expertise in the field.

$115 million was awarded to a project at Michigan State University’s (MSU) Facility for Rare Isotope Beams or FRIB. The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, (DOE-SC), awarded the money for the High Rigidity Spectrometer project (HRS). Michigan State University said the HRS instrument will enable scientists to characterize the properties of isotopes that are created in rare-isotope reactions, which occur at half the speed of light.

In a recent Physical Review Letters paper (“Strong evidence for 9N and the limits of existence of atomic nuclei”), scientists from Washington University in St. Louis, Fudan University in China, Western Michigan University, the University of Connecticut, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and FRIB present strong evidence for a new light isotope of nitrogen: nitrogen-9.

A team of researchers, including a scientist from the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, published a paper in which they reviewed the progress in atomic structure theory with a focus on superheavy elements and their predicted ground state configurations important for an element’s placement in the periodic table.

As part of the Science Summit at the 78th United Nations General Assembly, European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) co-organized a session with the U.S. National Science Foundation AccelNET Program to discuss global scientific networking collaboration. FRIB’s Hendrik Schatz, director of the International Research Network for Nuclear Astrophysics, attended the event.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory is leading two nuclear physics research projects within the Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing, or SciDAC, program from the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. One of the projects is called Nuclear Computational Low-Energy Initiative, or NUCLEI. The other is Exascale Nuclear Astrophysics for FRIB, or ENAF. FRIB refers to the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, a DOE-supported research, teaching and training center located at Michigan State University.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory is leading two nuclear physics research projects within the Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) program from the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. The projects are Nuclear Computational Low-Energy Initiative (NUCLEI) and Exascale Nuclear Astrophysics for FRIB (ENAF).

The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science is investing in machine learning, a type of artificial intelligence, to accelerate the speed of research and development in nuclear science. Michigan State University researchers at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams are leading five of these new grant projects.

The Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, or FRIB, at Michigan State University is home to a world-unique particle accelerator designed to push the boundaries of our understanding of nature. Now, FRIB is accelerating that work with a form of artificial intelligence known as machine learning with support from the Office of Nuclear Physics and the Office of High Energy Physics at the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science.

Nature published an article about a recent publication (“First observation of oxygen-28”). In the publication, the authors state that experiments reveal that the isotope oxygen-28 exists in an unbound state, casting doubt on its magic status. FRIB’s Michael Thoennessen is one of the authors of the publication.

The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science (DOE-SC) has awarded $529 million to continue world-leading nuclear science research at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) at Michigan State University. The new cooperative agreement provides $529,068,000 over five years to operate FRIB as a DOE-SC user facility to enable unprecedented discovery opportunities envisioned by a user community of 1,800 scientists who support the mission of the DOE-SC Office of Nuclear Physics.

A new Oak Ridge National Laboratory study reveals an unforeseen atomic nucleus shape change, using data from the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams to explore the long-lasting excited state of sodium-32, challenging nuclear shape and energy correlations.

Using data collected in 2022 from the first experiment at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science user facility at Michigan State University, Timothy Gray of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory led a study that may have revealed an unexpected change in the shape of an atomic nucleus. The surprise finding could affect our understanding of what holds nuclei together, how protons and neutrons interact and how elements form.

Timothy Gray of the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory led a study that may have revealed an unexpected change in the shape of an atomic nucleus. The study used data collected from the first experiment at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams.

Using data collected from the first experiment at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, Timothy Gray of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory led a study that may have revealed an unexpected change in the shape of an atomic nucleus. The surprise finding could affect our understanding of what holds nuclei together, how protons and neutrons interact and how elements form.

USA Today published the Detroit Free Press article about FRIB ("At an MSU lab, the secrets of the atom—and the universe—are being discovered"), originally published 4 August in the Free Press. (A subscription is required to read the article.)

At a large, new facility on Michigan State University's campus, the boundaries of nuclear science are being taken further than they've ever gone before. And scientists from around the world are lining up to get involved. The Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, or FRIB, is a three-decade dream. The $730 million facility took almost 14 years to build, and was made possible by more than $635.5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science and $94.5 million from the state of Michigan.

The U.S. Department of Energy has granted more than $500 million to the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) at Michigan State University. Located on the Michigan State University campus, FRIB offers a unique scientific service for the nation: the creation of rare isotopes.

At the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams on Michigan State University's campus, the boundaries of nuclear science are being taken further than they've ever gone before. And scientists from around the world are lining up to get involved. (A subscription is required to read the article.)

Michigan State University’s Facility for Rare Isotope Beams is entering into a joint research venture with the French government’s largest scientific research organization. The International Research Laboratory on Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics will be a small venture to start, bringing perhaps three or four French scientists along with their students and post-doctoral researchers to the massive federally funded nuclear science research facility on MSU’s campus.

The French research organization Centre National De La Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) will establish an international research laboratory at Michigan State University. The two entities will sign a five-year agreement to establish an international research lab on nuclear physics and astrophysics. The CNRS had 80 international labs across the world, but this is the first dedicated to nuclear physics and astrophysics. The new lab will be located at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams.

Michigan State University has entered an agreement with French research organization Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique to establish a research lab on its campus, at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams. A subscription to Crain's Detroit Business is required to view this article.

An international partnership with France looks to unlock some of the mysteries of the universe, and it’s going to be based at the campus of Michigan State University. The hub for this new program will be at the new Facility for Rare Isotope Beams. With the 5 year partnership, scientists hope the program will advance our understanding of physics at both the atomic scale and the astronomical scale.

A new research lab, to be housed at Michigan State University's Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, will be known as the International Research Laboratory on Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics. A subscription to The Detroit News is required to view this article.

Florida State University Assistant Professor of Physics Kevin Fossez is a recipient of a 2023 Faculty Early Career Development Award, or CAREER Award, from the National Science Foundation for his work investigating how to better predict properties of new combinations of protons and neutrons at the limits of nuclear stability. Fossez currently serves as bridge faculty for the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) Theory Alliance, a coalition of scientists from universities and national laboratories who seek to foster advancements in theory related to diverse areas of FRIB science.

The extracted value of "Vud" from nuclear beta decays seems to be substantially smaller than what is required by the Standard Model of Particle Physics, the commonly-acknowledged best theory for elementary particle physics. This observed anomaly stimulates vibrant discussions of possibilities of new physics discoveries. To study its origin, researchers at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) at Michigan State University investigated the so-called "nuclear weak distribution."

By reanalyzing the distribution of active protons in nuclei, researchers found a possible solution to a particle physics puzzle involving quarks.

Hundreds of scientific and technical leaders in the superconducting radio frequency, or SRF, field converged in Michigan for the 21st International Conference on Radio-Frequency Superconductivity, or SRF 2023. The Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, or FRIB, served as host for the premier conference, which ran June 25-30 in Grand Rapids.

Hundreds of scientific and technical leaders in the superconducting radio frequency (SRF) field converged in Michigan for the 21st International Conference on Radio-Frequency Superconductivity (SRF 2023). FRIB served as host for the premier conference 25-30 June in Grand Rapids.

The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science (DOE-SC) posted a highlight titled “Nuclear charge distribution measurements may solve outstanding puzzle in particle physics” about the FRIB research paper titled “Model-independent determination of nuclear weak form factors and implications for standard model precision tests” published in Physical Review Letters. DOE-SC posts about 200 published research findings annually, selected by their respective program areas in DOE-SC as publication highlights of special note.

Particle accelerators boost charged particles to high speeds to study their collisions, offering invaluable insights into quantum physics. These devices, either linear or circular, enable scientists to understand particle interactions. The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science backs various particle accelerators across the country, contributing to advancements in particle acceleration and radiation generation research. The Facility for Rare Isotope Beams at Michigan State University is a linear accelerator for studying exotic nuclei, especially isotopes.

In data collected during the first experiment at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams in Michigan, Timothy Gray of Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and collaborators have found a previously unseen isomer of sodium-32 that has a wave function that calculations indicate could be spherical or deformed. The finding leaves open the possibility that they have observed the elusive excited spherical system.

Ion beams from oxygen to uranium contribute to research for applications and fundamental nuclear science at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB). FRIB celebrated its on-budget, early completion with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in May 2022.

Kelly Chipps, a nuclear astrophysicist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and an FRIB scientific user, has been appointed to the Nuclear Science Advisory Committee. She is a former chairperson of the FRIB Users Organization Executive Committee.

BBC Sinhala interviewed Neshad Deva Pathirana, a graduate assistant at FRIB, about his research.

FRIB Experimental Systems Division Director Georg Bollen was interviewed as an expert for an article on a paper published recently in Physical Review Letters, in which physicists from Japan and South Korea describe the first successful measurement of the precise atomic mass of 19 exotic, neutron-rich isotopes.

The world’s first superconducting cyclotron will receive a new lease on life testing next-generation microchips, Michigan State University’s Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) announced last week. (Print version: Science vol. 380/issue 6641, pages 116-117)

FRIB Laboratory Director Thomas Glasmacher was interviewed on the WILS Morning Wake-Up program on WILS (1320 AM). He discussed MSU's K500 chip-testing facility for next-generation semiconductor devices that will be based at FRIB.

Michigan State University (MSU) is refurbishing its K500 cyclotron—the world’s first superconducting particle accelerator—to establish a facility to test microchips, like those used in commercial spaceflight, autonomous vehicles and 5G and 6G wireless technology. MSU said the U.S. Department of Defense Test Resource Management Center and U.S. Department of Defense Missile Defense Agency have funded a $14.2 million contract. It will allow MSU to develop the chip testing facility adjacent to the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, which officially opened in 2022 and replaced the cyclotron. A subscription to the Lansing State Journal is required to view this article.

Michigan State University will build on its 60-year track record in accelerator-based nuclear physics leadership by refurbishing the history-making K500 cyclotron and installing it as the heart of a new chip-testing facility for next-generation semiconductor devices. The facility establishment, supported by a $14.2 million contract funded by the U.S. Department of Defense Test Resource Management Center and awarded through the U.S. Department of Defense Missile Defense Agency, will be based at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams.

Michigan State University (MSU), supported by a $14.2 million contract funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, will develop a new chip-testing facility at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams. The new facility will help meet the current national shortfall of testing capacity for advanced microelectronics.

Michigan State University is leading pioneering research on the world’s fastest supercomputer, thanks to a new grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The DOE has awarded an MSU-led team 1.3 million node hours of computation time on the Frontier supercomputer. Brian O'Shea, the grant's leader, is a professor in MSU’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams and the Department of Computational Mathematics, Science and Engineering.

The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science (DOE-SC) posted a highlight titled “A Novel Way to Get to the Excited States of Exotic Nuclei” about the FRIB research paper titled “Dissipative Reactions with Intermediate-Energy Beams: A Novel Approach to Populate Complex-Structure States in Rare Isotopes” published in Physical Review Letters. DOE-SC posts about 200 published research findings annually, selected by their respective program areas in DOE-SC as publication highlights of special note.

For decades researchers have studied how heavy elements are produced in the cosmos – but there is still so much mystery to unravel, says FRIB astrophysicist Artemis Spyrou. A subscription to New Scientist is required to view this article.

The Michigan State University-led International Research Network for Nuclear Astrophysics (IReNA) welcomes a new network partner: The Ibero-American Network of Nuclear Astrophysics (IANNA). Irena and IANNA have joined forces to combine their expertise, resources, and access to cutting-edge technology to push the frontiers of knowledge in nuclear astrophysics.

The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science (DOE-SC) posted a highlight titled “PREX, CREX, and Nuclear Models: The Plot Thickens” about a research paper titled “Combined Theoretical Analysis of the Parity-Violating Asymmetry for Calcium-48 and Lead-208” published in Physical Review Letters. DOE-SC posts about 200 published research findings annually, selected by their respective program areas in DOE-SC as publication highlights of special note.

The Facility for Rare Isotope Beams at Michigan State University has been open for less than a year, but it already has given birth to more than 100 rare isotopes. At FRIB, new isotopes allow for experiments to help scientists make potentially world-changing discoveries as they better understand the universe around us. A subscription to the Lansing State Journal is required to view this article.