LABORATORY OF NUCLEAR PHYSICS

In the early years, the fundamental research field of Atomki was nuclear physics, and it is still one of the most successful topics in the institute

Besides the usage of the local accelerators at Atomki, the researchers of the institute have access to the infrastructure of the world-leading nuclear physics laboratories.

The scientists of the institute participated, among others, in the discovery of very deformed, so-called superdeformed nuclear shapes, in the investigation of phenomena related to the rotation of deformed nuclei and in the exploration of the special proton-neutron quartets appearing in nuclei with equal proton and neutron numbers.

They performed research in international collaborations in order to uncover the evolution of the magic numbers far from the stability in light, neutron-rich nuclei using radioactive ion beams, and to reveal the low-energy oscillations of the neutron skin.

In the last years, a research group in the Laboratory of Nuclear Physics at Atomki found an anomaly by studying the decay of highly excited states in 8Be. This anomaly cannot be explained by any of  the presently known nuclear physics phenomena, but it can be interpreted with the existence of a new boson which is beyond the Standard Model.

This inspired several experiments to be performed all over the world in order to investigate possible new physics connected to the anomaly.

Laboratory of nuclear physics’s webpage:

www.atomki.hu/osztalyok/2/bemutatkozas