NP 2025 | U.S. DOE Office of Science(SC)

High-energy, near-miss collisions of atomic nuclei allow scientists to probe the inner structure of protons and neutrons in a gold (Au) nucleus, including the density of the gluelike gluons (in yellow) that bind these nucleons’ inner building blocks.

Gluons’ Density Isn’t the Same in Bound vs Unbound Protons and Neutrons

Data show the distribution of gluon “glue” in protons and neutrons changes when they are bound together in nuclei.

Drawing of real charged particle tracks from a collision of two uranium nuclei, shown exaggerated in size and flattened by the effects of traveling close to the speed of light, over a sketch of the STAR detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider.

Imaging Nuclear Shapes by Smashing them to Smithereens

Scientists use high-energy heavy ion collisions in a new way to reveal subtleties of nuclear structure with implications for many areas of physics.

A Subatomic Challenge Resolved: Supercomputer Calculations Produce the First Accurate Theoretical View of the Sigma Meson

In nuclear beta decay an up quark ‘u’ in a proton converts into an up down quark ‘d,’ turning the proton into a neutron and emitting a positron and a neutrino. This work affects interpretation of beta decay measurements across the chart of nuclides.

New Precise Calculation of Nuclear Beta Decays Paves the Way to Uncover Physics Beyond the Standard Model

Theorists identify new effects needed to compute the nuclear beta decay rate with a precision of a few parts in ten thousand.

A depiction of proposed four-quark structures and their sizes relative to the proton. The labels u and c represent the up and charm quarks, respectively, while the labels u and c with bars indicate the corresponding antiquarks.

Can Four-Quark States Arise from Inside the Proton Itself?

Theoretical calculations suggest charm tetraquarks may be less compact than previously thought.

An artist’s impression of a quantum electrodynamics simulation using 100 qubits of an IBM quantum computer. The spheres and lines denote the qubits and connectivity of the IBM quantum processor; gold spheres denote the qubits used in the simulation.

Nuclear Physicists Create Scalable Quantum Circuits to Simulate Fundamental Physics

Researchers developed and executed algorithms for preparing the quantum vacuum and hadrons on more than 100 qubits of IBM quantum computers.

A photon (γ) and a jet of other particles emerges from a proton-proton (p-p) collision (left). But in a deuteron (d)-gold nucleus (Au) collision (right), the jet loses energy while the photon is not affected. Neutral pions (π0) are proxies for the jet.

Fresh Direct Evidence for Tiny Drops of Quark-Gluon Plasma

Particles of light from collisions of deuterons with gold ions provide direct evidence that energetic jets get stuck.

An artist’s impression of an analog quantum computer in which atoms are manipulated by lasers to simulate quantum many-body systems.

Scientists Take an Important Step toward Mitigating Errors in Analog Quantum Simulations of Many-Body Problems

A new framework for quantifying uncertainties increases the predictive power of analog quantum simulations.

Illustration of quarkonium states interacting with co-moving particles in relativistic heavy ion collisions.

Scientists Measure the Temperature Achieved in Heavy Ion Collisions by Looking at Broken Particles

First precise measurement of a hard to detect bound charm quark pair state indicates it is not affected by the medium in high-energy proton-lead collisions.

2025