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Channel: Theo J. Mertzimekis, PhD
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Molecular evolution: How the building blocks of life may form in space

In a laboratory experiment that mimics astrophysical conditions, with cryogenic temperatures in an ultrahigh vacuum, scientists used an electron gun to irradiate thin sheets of ice covered in basic...

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The radiation released by Hiroshima bone has marked human bones

On Aug. 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb nicknamed “Little Boy” on Hiroshima, Japan, leading to a nuclear blast that instantly claimed about 45,000 lives. Now, the jawbone of one of...

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The Weak Side of the Proton

Today I am simply copying the press release announcing the precision measurement of the proton’s weak charge. For the original publication check this URL ***  Canadian researchers played a major role...

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Quantum Simulation of the Quantum Rabi Model in a Trapped Ion

The quantum Rabi model, involving a two-level system and a bosonic field mode, is arguably the simplest and most fundamental model describing quantum light-matter interactions. Historically, due to the...

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Accurate measurement of the first excited nuclear state in 235U

We have used superconducting high-resolution radiation detectors to measure the energy level of metastable 235mU as 76.737 ± 0.018 eV. The 235mU isomer is created from the α decay of 239Pu and embedded...

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Dark Matter Interpretation of the Neutron Decay Anomaly. Is this the solution...

There is a long-standing discrepancy between the neutron lifetime measured in beam and bottle experiments. We propose to explain this anomaly by a dark decay channel for the neutron, involving one or...

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The First Lady of Physics

When her ocean liner, the President Hoover, docked in San Francisco in 1936, Wu Chien-Shiung was surprised to find that discrimination against women was par for the course in the United States. She was...

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Micro-bubble implosion, a reverse Big Bang

Laser pulse compression technology invented in the late 1980s resulted in high-power, short-pulse laser techniques, enhancing laser intensity 10 million-fold in a quarter of a century. Scientists at...

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Machine Learning approaches on submarine volcanic systems

The morphology and the activity of a submarine caldera, Avyssos, at the northern part of Nisyros volcano in the South Aegean Sea (Greece), has been studied by means of remotely-operated underwater...

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Nucleon axion coupling and the lifetime of the neutron

Experiments that measure the lifetime of neutrons reveal a perplexing and unresolved discrepancy. While this lifetime has been measured to a precision within 1 percent using different techniques,...

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Revelations from the dissolved 226Ra-228Ra pair distribution in the South...

While it is confirmed that 226Ra is an interesting tracer of the water masses encountered along the GP16 US East Pacific Zonal Transect (EPZT) section cruise, 228Ra data coupled to the dissolved iron...

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Probing Sizes and Shapes of Nobelium Isotopes by Laser Spectroscopy

Until recently, ground-state nuclear moments of the heaviest nuclei could only be inferred from nuclear spectroscopy, where model assumptions are required. Laser spectroscopy in combination with modern...

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The Heidelberg compact electron beam ion traps

Electron beam ion traps (EBITs) are ideal tools for both production and study of highly charged ions (HCIs). In order to reduce their construction, maintenance, and operation costs, we have developed a...

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Quantum electrodynamics and the proton size

Finding discrepancies between the predictions of fundamental theories and experimental observations is the main driver to develop physics further — the route to more advanced theories (‘new physics’)...

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The limits of nuclear mass and charge

Four new elements with atomic numbers Z = 113, 115, 117 and 118 have recently been added to the periodic table. The questions pertaining to these superheavy systems are at the forefront of research in...

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Keeping it radioactive: This is how a molten salt nuclear reactor works

Radioactive elements produce heat as they decay. Nuclear plants draw power from this process, and typically stabilize the temperature with water. But during a power outage, H2O—which needs pumps to...

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Αχ, πού’σαι, νιότη, που’δειχνες, πως θα γινόμουν άλλος.

Πάλι μεθυσμένος είσαι, δυόμισι η ώρα της νυχτός. Κι αν τα γόνατα σου τρέμαν, “εκρατιόσουνα” στητός μπρός στο κάθε τραπεζάκι. – Γεια σου Κωνσταντή βαρβάτε! -Καλησπερούδια αφεντικά, πώς τα καλοπερνάτε;...

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Αλλαγή ώρας εξέτασης λόγω απεργίας

(Μην ξεχάσετε το κομπιουτεράκι!)

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The Journey of Actinium-225: How Scientists Discovered a New Way to Produce a...

Inside a narrow glass tube sits a substance that can harm or cure, depending on how you use it. It gives off a faint blue glow, a sign of its radioactivity. While the energy and subatomic particles it...

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Probing the fusion of neutron-rich nuclei with re-accelerated radioactive beams

We report the first measurement of the fusion excitation functions for 39,47K+28Si at near-barrier energies. Evaporation residues resulting from the fusion process were identified by direct measurement...

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Generic features of the neutron-proton interaction

We show that fully aligned neutron-proton pairs play a crucial role in the low-energy spectroscopy of nuclei with valence nucleons in a high-j orbital. Their dominance is valid in nuclei with valence...

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Isoscalar and isovector spin response in sd-shell nuclei

The spin magnetic-dipole transitions and the neutron-proton spin-spin correlations in sd-shell even-even nuclei with N=Z are investigated by using shell-model wave functions taking into account...

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Improved evaluation of nuclear charge radii for superheavy nuclei

Although significant progress has been made in the synthesis of superheavy nuclei, the experimental knowledge of them is still very limited while the alpha decay chain is the main tool used to identify...

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How deadly is your kilowatt?

Everyone’s heard of the carbon footprint of different energy sources, the largest footprint belonging to coal because every kWhr of energy produced emits about 900 grams of CO2. Wind and nuclear have...

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Article 2

Magic Nature of Neutrons in 54Ca: First Mass Measurements of 55-57Ca Read full article on Phys. Rev. Lett.

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Hey fatty, live your (short) life on the edge: the discovery of the heaviest...

Discovery of 60Ca and implications for the stability of 70Ca   Read full article on Phys. Rev. Lett.

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Nuclear-Spin Comagnetometer Based on a Liquid of Identical Molecules

Atomic comagnetometers are used in searches for anomalous spin-dependent interactions. Magnetic field gradients are one of the major sources of systematic errors in such experiments. Here we describe a...

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EIC: a new billion-$$ electron accelerator to look inside protons and neutrons

The next dream machine for U.S. nuclear physicists got an important boost today in a report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The report committee glowingly approved...

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Radioactive molecules in space – a first detection!

After a long search, a cosmic mystery has an answer. Astronomers have made the very first unambiguous detection of a radioactive molecule in space – an isotope of aluminium, found in the heart of a...

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(Σκληρο)πυρηνική φυσική

Για τους πρωτοετείς φοιτητές που παρακολούθησαν το σεμιναριακό μάθημα της προηγούμενης Πέμπτης καιι εξέφρασαν το ενδιαφέρον τους να μάθουν περισσότερα για την πυρηνική φυσική και τις εφαρμογές της,...

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Φάσματα εργαστηρίου κατεύθυνσης

Για κάθε ενδιαφερόμενο/η που έχει ασκηθεί στο Εργαστήριο Κατεύθυνσης και στην άσκηση 4 (Ραδιενέργεια Περιβάλλοντος): Τα φάσματα που έχουν ληφθεί κατά τη διάρκεια της άσκησης, και τα οποία πρέπει να...

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Συνάντηση με πρωτοετείς

Ενημερώνονται οι πρωτοετείς που ενδιαφέρθηκαν για συνεργασία ότι θα είμαι διαθέσιμος να σας συναντήσω την Τετάρτη 28.11 μεταξύ 10-12’00 στο γραφείο μου (κτήριο V, 34Β, τομέας Πυρηνικής). Κάποιοι έχετε...

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Academy of Athens Awards 2018

I feel great honor and joy in announcing that I am this year’s recipient of the prestigious Academy of Athens Award in “Experimental Physics” (Award “G. Foteinos”). The award is related to the...

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Happy New Year 2019!

Best wishes to All!

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[paper] Isoscalar Spin Matrix Elements in s–d Shell Nuclei

Isoscalar Spin Matrix Elements in s–d Shell Nuclei by Akito Arima and Wolfgang Bentz doi: 10.7566/JPSCP.23.012011 The quenching of isovector spin matrix elements in s–d shell nuclei is well established...

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[Paper] Nuclear processes in astrophysics: Recent progress

Nuclear processes in astrophysics: Recent progress by V. Licciardo et al. doi: 10.1140/epja/i2018-12648-5 The question about the origin of the elements is a fascinating one, that scientists have been...

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[paper] Interplay between nuclear shell evolution and shape deformation...

Interplay between nuclear shell evolution and shape deformation revealed by the magnetic moment of 75Cu Y. Ishikawa et al. Nature Physics (2019) DOI: 10.1038/s41567-018-0410-7 Exotic nuclei are...

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Dr ScicotiX’s brilliant assistant

a new episode, a new start Dr. Scicotix’s back!

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A long-due photo from the Academy of Athens Awards

As I have posted in an earlier post I am the happy(-est) recipient of the Academy of Athens Award for “Experimental Physics”. Here is a little photo from that night. Enjoy!  

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Poison in my reactor

40 protons and 48 neutrons is all it takes to have the second greatest neutron killer in a nuclear reactor. 88Zr has an enormous neutron capture cross section, reaching 6 orders of magnitudes higher...

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The old, the new and the uncharged

Source: The old, the new and the uncharged

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Ώρες γραφείου εαρινού εξαμήνου

Υπενθυμίζονται οι ώρες γραφείου για συνεργασία με τους φοιτητές για το εαρινό εξάμηνο 2018-2019 Τρίτη 12΄00-13’00 Τετάρτη 10’00-11’00 Οι ώρες θα ισχύουν ως και τις 29.05.2019 (μία βδομάδα μετά το πέρας...

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Celebrating the International Year of Periodic Table at 1st High School of...

Just a little advertisement of an outreach event I have been preparing with my good old friend Yiota Manolidou, a physics teacher at the 1st High School of Kaisariani in Athens. I will drop by, talk to...

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Advances in Nuclear Physics

My dream to upgrade the status of the Proceedings of the Annual Symposium of the Hellenic Nuclear Physics Society has finally passed the first critical phase: Five recent volumes, those from years 2014...

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LaTeX seminars

LaTeX seminars, back by popular demand! Μια σύντομη ανακοίνωση της πρόθεσής μου να οργανώσω ένα κύκλο σεμιναρίων για την εκμάθηση LaTeX σε φοιτητές του τμήματος Φυσικής του ΕΚΠΑ (ή και άλλων) εντός του...

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Erasmus+ Nominations (UoA)

Σχετικά με ερωτήματα για τα nominations του εαρινού εξαμήνου προς ξένα πανεπιστήμια, οι ενδιαφερόμοι/ες παρακαλούνται να επικοινωνήσουν απευθείας με μένα για να τα στείλουμε εγκαίρως. Λόγω κατάληψης,...

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Nuclear waste? These microbes might help with the cleanup

See the post originally published on Nature    

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Nuclear and Particle Physics Seminars at @uoaofficial

We have recently put our full archive of seminars online (since 2012). The majority of the items in the calendar contain a link to the PDF. Feel free to visit and read....

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The Pioneering Maps of Alexander von Humboldt

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/pioneering-maps-alexander-von-humboldt-180973342/

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Astronaut Christina Koch Works in the Vacuum of Space

In the vacuum..! (never forget that) Full-size image is here

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