Particle accelerator technology has crested a new wave. For the first time, scientists have shown that electrons can gain energy by surfing waves kicked up by protons shot through plasma. In the ...

If you hit an atom’s nucleus hard enough, it will fall apart. But exactly how it falls apart tells us something about the internal structure of the nucleus and perhaps about the interior of neutron ...

Protons might be stretchier than they should be. The subatomic particles are built of smaller particles called quarks, which are bound together by a powerful interaction known as the strong force. New ...

Fast-moving protons are much more likely to pair up with fast-moving neutrons than with other protons in the nuclei of atoms, according to a recent experiment performed at the U.S. Department of ...

Individual protons and neutrons in atomic nuclei turn out not to behave according to the predictions made by existing theoretical models. This surprising conclusion, reached by an international team ...

According to the classical model of nuclear structure, the internal structure of nucleons should not change if they are bound into atomic nuclei. But it was discovered 35 years ago that quarks inside ...

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. This article was updated June 28 at 4:54 p.m. ET. Scientists have long wondered whether there is ...

Physics Professor Manuel Calderón de la Barca Sánchez and his students are using the largest and most complex machine ever built to probe the strongest force in nature at the tiniest of scales. “In a ...

HEISENBERG has discussed the hypothesis that the nucleus of an atom is composed of neutrons and protons only, the neutron being regarded as a fundamental entity and not as a combination of an electron ...

Fast-moving protons are much more likely to pair up with fast-moving neutrons than with other protons in the nuclei of atoms, according to a recent experiment. The research confirms a previous ...