External news and journal publications discussing FRIB science.
The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science (DOE-SC) posted a highlight titled “'Mirror' nuclei help connect nuclear theory and neutron stars” about researchers using laser spectroscopy measurements of atomic isotope shifts to measure the nuclear radius of different silicon isotopes. Authors of the publication are from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams at Michigan State University. 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.
Laurent Bili, the Ambassador of France to the United States, visited the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, or FRIB, at Michigan State University on 22 July. The French research organization National Centre for Scientific Research, or CNRS, and MSU established the International Research Laboratory on Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics, or IRL NPA, at FRIB in July 2023. Leveraging FRIB’s world-unique research capabilities, IRL NPA is located at FRIB and dedicated to answering fundamental nuclear physics and astrophysics research questions.
In a recent study published in the journal Physical Review Letters, a team of researchers, including a scientist from the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, has challenged the accuracy of current theoretical models describing helium's transition from its ground to its first excited state. By studying this process through electron scattering, they uncovered a discrepancy between experimental and theoretical results. To address this, a multidisciplinary team has undertaken a fresh calculation of the observed transition.
The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science (DOE-SC) posted a highlight titled “Exciting the alpha particle” about a recent experiment in Germany that studied the helium-4 nucleus, also known as an alpha particle. Authors of the publication are from University of Bonn (Germany), Forschungszentrum Jülich (Germany), Gaziantep Islam Science and Technology University (Turkey), and the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams at Michigan State University. 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.
Success with a new route to producing superheavy elements paves the way to making the elusive element 120.
The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science (DOE-SC) posted a highlight titled “Researchers directly simulate the fusion of oxygen and carbon nuclei” about a study that measured the probability of fusing oxygen isotopes with carbon nuclei as a function of energy. The authors of the publication are from the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams and Indiana State University. 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.
In a new study, researchers from the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams and Indiana State University have performed the most comprehensive computation to-date of fusion reaction processes. The study used supercomputing facilities to perform thousands of time-dependent simulations. The work is published in the journal Physical Review C.
Scientists at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Michigan State University (MSU) have reproduced in a laboratory one of the specific reactions that occurs when a neutron star gobbles up mass from a nearby companion star. This effort has collaborators from nine institutions across three countries, including the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, a DOE Office of Science user facility that MSU operates. In their lab environment, the team of researchers used the world’s highest-density helium jet to recreate the nuclear reaction. The experiment produced the same physics on Earth that occurs in outer space.
Ian Cox is proof that you don't always have to travel far to go a long way. He grew up in Knoxville, graduated from Hardin Valley Academy, and came to the University of Tennessee Knoxville on a physics scholarship. Now he's finishing a PhD in nuclear physics with Professor Robert Grzywacz and is first author on a Physical Review Letters publication detailing a new approach to understanding exotic nuclei. Researchers from 13 universities and five national laboratories collaborated on this investigation at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB), a premiere research hub at Michigan State University.
Michigan State University’s Board of Trustees approved a $17 million expansion to the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams’ Chip Testing Facility. As one of only three chip testing facilities based on heavy-ion accelerators, the facility is currently fully booked. The addition of two more “testing endstations” will triple its current capacity to test circuitry against cosmic rays, according to the proposal.
The Michigan State University Board of Trustees authorized construction of a high-bay addition to the west end of the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB). The addition will triple the testing capacity of the current chip-testing facility by providing two additional user vaults. The K500 Chip Testing Facility at FRIB will help meet the current national shortfall of testing capacity for advanced microelectronics, including those used for commercial spaceflight, wireless technology, and autonomous vehicles.
Physics of Atomic Nuclei (PAN) is a free week-long program that introduces students to the fundamentals of the extremely small domain of atomic nuclei and its connection to astrophysics and cosmology. The program is sponsored by the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) at Michigan State University.
