Category archives: Particle physics

Revolutionizing barium ion detection for neutrino research

Revolutionizing barium ion detection for neutrino research

ChemistryDIPC Particle PhysicsParticle physics

By DIPC

In the quest to unravel the mysteries of the universe, scientists are turning to tiny glowing molecules and powerful microscopes to detect elusive particles. Two groundbreaking studies, one published in ACS Sensors in 2025 and another in Nature Communications in 2024, showcase innovative approaches to detecting barium ions in high-pressure xenon gas. These advancements are […]

Magnetrons: high-efficiency power microwave sources for a new generation of particle accelerators

Magnetrons: high-efficiency power microwave sources for a new generation of particle accelerators

Particle physicsPhysics

By Invited Researcher

Magnetrons are high-power vacuum tubes conceived more than a century ago to produce microwaves. Their working principle involves the interaction of a cloud of electrons jumping from the cathode to the anode of the device together with a magnetic field. This spinning electron cloud trajectory induces electromagnetic fields in several resonant cavities at a certain […]

New linear optics of particle accelerators using Moebius transformation

New linear optics of particle accelerators using Moebius transformation

MathematicsParticle physicsPhysics

By Invited Researcher

The propagation of light -observed and governed since ancient times by simple lens construction- has long been described through classical geometrical optics. However, in particle accelerators we do not transport photons but beams of electrically charged particles subjected to repulsive forces that tend to unpack the particle beams. Optics of particle accelerators require electromagnetic lenses […]

Landau singularities revisited

Landau singularities revisited

MathematicsParticle physicsPhysics

By César Tomé

Scientists have used computational algebraic geometry to study predictions for particle physics experiments, such as those at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). These experiments, in combination with new mathematical tools, help to solve unanswered questions in physics in a much faster way and have a profound impact on our understanding of nature. When studying particle […]

Parallel-channel nanocryotrons in magnetic fields

Parallel-channel nanocryotrons in magnetic fields

Condensed matterNanotechnologyParticle physicsPhysics

By César Tomé

Superconductors can carry large electrical currents without any resistance. One situation where they don’t carry currents without resistance is when there is too much current. By designing microscopic electronic components made from very thin superconductors, researchers can use this effect to create a switch, like a transistor. Nanowire superconducting switching devices (called nanocryotrons, or nTrons […]

Searching for the decay of nature’s rarest isotope: Tantalum-180m

Searching for the decay of nature’s rarest isotope: Tantalum-180m

Particle physicsPhysics

By César Tomé

Tantalum is one of the rarest elements and has multiple stable isotopes. The least abundant tantalum isotope, Ta-180 is found naturally in a long-lived excited state, a feature unique to this isotope. In excited states, a nuclei’s protons or neutrons have higher than normal energy levels. Although energetically possible, the radioactive decay of this excited […]

Super strong magnetic field detected in nuclear matter

Super strong magnetic field detected in nuclear matter

Particle physicsPhysics

By César Tomé

A new analysis by the STAR collaboration at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), a particle collider at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, provides the first direct evidence of the imprint left by what may be the universe’s most powerful magnetic fields on “deconfined” nuclear matter . The evidence comes from […]

Quantum entanglement among quarks

Quantum entanglement among quarks

Computer scienceParticle physicsQuantum physics

By César Tomé

Collisions of high energy particles produce “jets” – quarks, antiquarks, or gluons moving through the quantum vacuum. Due to the confinement property of strong interactions, quarks are never directly detected but instead fragment into many secondary particles. Scientists have long expected that as jets propagate through the confining quantum vacuum, they will modify that vacuum […]

First neutrinoless double beta decay search with a NEXT detector

First neutrinoless double beta decay search with a NEXT detector

DIPC Particle PhysicsParticle physics

By DIPC

Deep below the Spanish side of the Pyrenees, we find the LSC (Laboratorio Subterráneo de Canfranc – Canfranc Underground Laboratory), where the NEXT experiment is taking place. Its goal is one of the remaining holy grails of particle physics: the proof that the neutrino is its own antiparticle, a result with profound meaning not only […]