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The atomic nucleus might seem well explored in an era in which scientists focus their efforts on better understanding quantum mechanics and interactions between subatomic particles that star in this science, such as Quarks or gluons. However, perhaps we still have much to learn about how the protons and neutrons that structure it are organized in this nucleus.
New clues. A new study, led by PTB researchers (Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt) German and the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (MPIK), He has revealed The existence of small “deformations” in the nucleus of atoms. This finding indicates the possible existence of a “dark atomic force” that governs interactions between neutrons and electrons within the atom.
From dark matter to “dark force.” In 2020, a MIT team (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) observed something strange when comparing different isotopes of the ytterbiumelement number 70. The team examined changes in electronic resonance between isotopes of the element (different versions of an element that differ from each other in the number of neutrons) and ran into results that were not expected.
That experiment could have been the first time that someone crossed with an still inexplicated phenomenon that some call “dark atomic force.” This means basically that we are facing an interaction between particles (in this case neutrons and electrons) still unexplored.
A force in this sense analogous to the most studied “dark matter”, which only interacts with conventional matter through gravity. According to Explain the responsible team From the new study, there is the possibility that there are also “dark forces” that govern interactions between dark matter and conventional matter. In the same way, there is the possibility that these forces also affect matter within the same atoms.
Measuring deformations. Finding these hypothetical interactions is not easy. To find its trail, the team responsible for the new study measured the frequencies in the atomic transition and the isotopic mass ratios between the different isotopes of the iterbio.
Each of the two laboratories that led this research analyzed these changes using a different methodology, but in both cases these measurements involved much more precise measures than those carried out in previous experiments. The team thus confirm the existence of an anomaly in the observations.
The details of the experiment and its results were published In an article In the magazine Physical Review Letters.
From practice to theory. In its article, the team tried to theoretically base the anomaly observed in the experiments as a result of collaboration with researchers from the Technical University of Darmstadt and other institutions.
These data, They explainthey also allowed to extract direct information on the deformation of the nucleus in the different isotopes of the iterbio. This way of “looking inside” atoms could help us acquire a totally new perspective in the analysis of the heavy atomic nuclei and in the “matter rich in neutrons.”
This line of research could, for example, help us better understand the physics of the neutron starsbut also establish new paths of collaboration in the search for the long -awaited “new physics”, they add.
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