Particle Physics Surprise: Nucleons Pick Pair Partners Differently in Small Nuclei
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The atom's nucleus, which is composed of protons and neutrons, frequently pairs up. According to a recent high-precision experiment, these particles may choose different partners based on how densely packed the nucleus is. The work was done at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility of the US Department of Energy. The results provide fresh information regarding the short-range interactions between protons and neutrons in nuclei and could have an impact on the outcomes of studies meant to elucidate more intricate aspects of nuclear structure. The research will be released today, August 31, 2022, in the magazine Nature. The statistics are an order of magnitude more exact than in prior studies. The paper's principal author is Shujie Li. She started working on the experiment while a graduate student at the University of New Hampshire and is currently a postdoctoral researcher in nuclear physics at the DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Californi...