Two-proton decay in the news
I'm always happy to see research conducted here garner attention in the science or mainstream media. In early November, we issued a release about news research describing how iron-45 nuclei decay. Images served as raw data analyzed by the visiting researchers, meaning this experiment both pushes the science forward while harkening back to an earlier time in physics. (Care to go back to the days of hunching over a microscope and counting flashes as alpha particles strike a zinc sulfide screen? Didn't think so.) Here's one of the images in which the tracks of the two emitted protons are clearly visible:
This result has generated a modest amount of coverage. Describing why these types of experiments are interesting, Physics Today's Steven K. Blau wrote in the January 2008 issue that "to this day, physicists are struggling to determine the basic nuclear interactions responsible for holding the nucleus together." That article is available here, though is behind registration. Writing for Nature Physics about the race to trap iron-45 nuclei in a gas so that individual proton trajectories could be observed, University of Surrey physicists Philip M. Walker and Ronald C. Johnson declare that "Miernik et al — working at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory at Michigan State University, where they could get a better event rate — have now come up trumps." Their full News & Views article, also unfortunately is also behind registration, is available here.
One bit of content on the result that's freely available is an audio interview with NSCL assistant professor Andreas Stolz about his work on this experiment. We're experimenting with different formats, including audio and video, to describe the work that goes on here. If there's any feedback about what works and what doesn't with an audio interview like this, I'd love to hear it.
Operation of NSCL as a national user facility is supported by the Experimental Nuclear Physics Program of the U.S. National Science Foundation.
Comments
Cool picture, cool physics setup
It would be nice to see up to the picture before the cut--I almost missed the post, which would have been a shame, as this is interesting. I liked the interview; Andreas Stolz is a good speaker. The format is similar to the Feynman Lectures on Physics on audio--I learned things just listening to it, although it would be nice to have a couple of diagrams to visualize directly and emphasize what he's saying. Thanks for posting this; the research is really cool, and it's nice to see pictures instead of just graphs!