Highlights 2017

Apr 25, 2017

Can Quark-Gluon Plasma Be Produced by Proton Collisions?

According to the ALICE collaboration at LHC (CERN), certain rare proton collisions have properties that are similar to those of a quark–gluon plasma. In the past, these properties had been observed for collisions of heavy nuclei only. The physicists are now confronted with a new enigma: how can a state of quark–gluon plasma emerge in a system as "small" as that generated by a collision between two protons?

Jun 14, 2017

Competing shapes in the neutron-rich Krypton isotopes

An international team has performed the first spectroscopy of the very neutron-rich isotopes ^98,100Kr. The collaboration, led by scientists from the CEA Irfu and RIKEN (Japan) included several European groups and physicists from IPN-Orsay. This experiment showed that there are two coexisting quantum configurations at low excitation energy in the ⁹⁸Kr nucleus. The competition between these two configurations, represented by different shapes, has been previously evidenced in the isotopic chains Rb, Sr and Zr by an abrupt transition from one shape to another, starting from the 60^th neutron. This experiment observes however that in the Kr isotopic chain there is a much more gradual transition between these two configurations as a function of neutron number. This study marks a decisive step towards an understanding of the limits of this quantum phase transition region. It was published in Physical Review Letters [PRL 118, 242501 (2017)].

Nuclear Physics Division

Institute of Research into the Fundamental Laws of the Universe

Nuclear Physics Division

Institute of Research into the Fundamental Laws of the Universe

ALICE

MINOS