Science Highlights | U.S. DOE Office of Science (SC)

A 3D view of the energy densities of electron neutrinos, electron anti-neutrinos, heavy-lepton neutrinos and heavy-lepton anti-neutrinos about five milliseconds after neutron stars collide.

When Neutron Stars Collide, Neutrinos Change Flavors

Scientists have developed a simulation of the merger of two neutron stars that includes the oscillation of different neutrino flavors into one another.

Germanium semiconductor (grey) with dilute silicon (Si) and tin (Sn) atoms (red and blue). Si and Sn do not spread out randomly. They often group together in Si-Ge-Sn sets, showing a short-range order that was previously predicted but not confirmed.

Uncovering Hidden Atomic Patterns in Semiconductors

Advanced microscopy reveals motifs of trace atoms in semiconductors, paving the way for new microelectronics designed atom by atom.

Illustration showing how different molecular surfaces result in pollutants moving through them differently, with a molecular diagram linked to a graph showing different probabilities. There is a series of three pictures above illustrating a farm, a connected power system, and a water filtration system.

Improving Continuum-Scale Models with Molecular-Scale Interface Science

Researchers propose a new approach to modeling adsorption processes that affect how pollutants move through soil, water, and rock.

Artists’ depiction of a new potential cancer treatment vehicle—an engineered nanometer-size construct that holds a radioactive isotope that can be delivered to destroy cancer cells.

Killing Cancer with Radioactive Nanocrystals

Scientists have developed tiny nanocrystal particles made up of isotopes of the elements lanthanum, vanadium, and oxygen for use in treating cancer.

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

Illustration of electron transfer driven by an ultrashort laser pulse across an interface between two atomically thin materials. An electronic interlayer “bridge” state emitting lattice vibrations in the layers facilitates this electron transfer.

New Mechanism Explains Rapid Energy Sharing Across Atomic Semiconductor Junctions

Electron transfer between atomically thin materials triggers the ultrafast release of heat.

Schematic of a plasma wakefield accelerator using optical laser beams and electron driver, escort, and witness beams for generating bright, coherent X-ray laser beams with attosecond duration and sub-Angstrom wavelength.

Ice-Cold Plasma Electron Beams Prepare to Power Future Hard X-ray Laser Beams

Scientists chart a path to sub-femtosecond hard X-ray Free-Electron-Laser pulses powered by compact plasma-based accelerators.

False color plot showing the density of the mass in the equatorial (bottom) and meridional, or “southern” (top) planes of a neutron star merger remnant about 100 milliseconds after the merger.

What Happens to the Remains of Neutron Star Mergers?

Simulations of massive neutron star merger remnants reveal their structure and early evolution as they cool down by emitting neutrinos.

Top: protons striking a nucleus deflect from their original path depending on velocity, location of impact, and force from the protons inside the nucleus. Bottom: elastic proton scattering cross sections from oxygen-16 at different orders of magnitude.

Ab Initio Methods Help Scientists Make Sense of Complex Particle Collisions

Research finds ab initio effective field theories are useful for calculating how nucleons scatter from collisions of atomic nuclei.

(a) The moment of inertia is smaller for prolate shapes and larger for oblate shapes. (b) Nuclei combine several such shapes. (c) A snapshot of the neon-20 nucleus from simulations. Studying the shape can help explain the physics of fast-rotating nuclei.

Resolved: A Long-Debated Anomaly in How Nuclei Spin

Scientists resolve the hypothesized anomalous increase in moment of inertia of fast rotating nuclei with models of neon-20 and chromium-48 nuclei.

Left: “Mirror” nuclei lithium-8 and boron-8 undergo beta decay, then split into two alpha particles. Right: Radioactive ions from the ATLAS accelerator at Argonne National Laboratory are suspended in vacuum using an ion trap device.

New Beta-Decay Measurements in Mirror Nuclei Pin Down the Weak Nuclear Force

Scientists develop a new method to characterize the properties of one of the four fundamental forces of nature.

A Fast, Efficient, and Abundant Catalyst for Carbon Dioxide Reduction

A tungsten carbide catalyst can produce a hydrocarbon from carbon dioxide at high rates and high efficiency.