Tag

Oxygen 16

All articles tagged with #oxygen 16

Europe builds a tiny Big Bang with light nuclei to study the universe’s dawn
science1 month ago

Europe builds a tiny Big Bang with light nuclei to study the universe’s dawn

European researchers produced a miniature quark-gluon plasma by colliding light nuclei, specifically Oxygen-16 and Neon-20, to create a tiny 'little Big Bang' that helps study the universe’s first moments; they observed rounded particle sprays for O-16 and bowling-pin shapes for Ne-20, providing new insights into atomic nuclei and the early state of matter, with results published in Physical Review Letters.

LHC study uncovers bowling-pin shaped neon-20 nuclei
science1 month ago

LHC study uncovers bowling-pin shaped neon-20 nuclei

Physicists at the LHC compared collisions of light nuclei (oxygen-16 and neon-20) to probe atomic-nucleus shapes. They found evidence that neon-20 has a bowling-pin-like deformation, which subtly alters the flow of particles emitted in collisions (elliptic and triangular flow), supporting the idea that nuclear geometry affects collision outcomes. Some quantitative mismatches with models remain, but the results demonstrate that collider experiments can reveal nucleus shapes; the findings are published in Physical Review Letters.