When particle colliders smash particles into each other, the resulting debris cloud sometimes contains a puzzling ingredient: light atomic nuclei. Such nuclei have relatively low binding energies, and they would normally break down at temperatures far below those found in high-energy collisions. Somehow, though, their signature remains. This mystery has stumped physicists for decades, but researchers in the ALICE collaboration at CERN have now figured it out. Their experiments showed that light nuclei form via a process called resonance-decay formation – a result that could pave the way towards searches for physics beyond the Standard Model.
The ALICE team studied deuterons (a bound proton and neutron) and antideuterons (a bound antiproton and antineutron) that form in experiments at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. Both deuterons and antideuterons are fragile, and their binding energies of 2.2 MeV would seemingly make it hard for them to form in collisions with energies that can exceed 100 MeV – 100 000 times hotter than the centre of the Sun.
The collaboration found that roughly 90% of the deuterons seen after such collisions form in a three-phase process. In the first phase, an initial collision creates a so-called baryon resonance, which is an excited state of a particle made of three quarks (such as a proton or neutron). This particle is called a Δ baryon and is highly unstable, so it rapidly decays into a pion and a nucleon (a proton or a neutron) during the second phase of the process. Then, in the third (and, crucially, much later) phase, the nucleon cools down to a point where its energy properties allow it to bind with another nucleon to form a deuteron.
Measuring such a complex process is not easy, especially as everything happens on a length scale of femtometres (10-15 meter). To tease out the details, the collaboration performed precision measurements to correlate the momenta of the pions and deuterons. When they analysed the momentum difference between these particle pairs, they observed a peak in the data corresponding to the mass of the Δ baryon. This peak shows that the pion and the deuteron are kinematically linked because they share a common ancestor: the pion came from the same Δ decay that provided one of the deuteron’s nucleons.
Panos Christakoglou, a member of the ALICE collaboration based at the Netherlands’ Maastricht University, says the experiment is special because in contrast to most previous attempts, where results were interpreted in light of models or phenomenological assumptions, this technique is model-independent. He adds that the results of this study could be used to improve models of high energy proton-proton collisions in which light nuclei (and maybe hadrons more generally) are formed. Other possibilities include improving our interpretations of cosmic-ray studies that measure the fluxes of (anti)nuclei in the galaxy – a useful probe for astrophysical processes.
Intriguingly, Christakoglou suggests that the team’s technique could also be used to search for indirect signs of dark matter. Many models predict that dark-matter candidates such as Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) will decay or annihilate in processes that also produce Standard Model particles, including (anti)deuterons. “If for example one measures the flux of (anti)nuclei in cosmic rays being above the ‘Standard Model based’ astrophysical background, then this excess could be attributed to new physics which might be connected to dark matter,” Christakoglou tells Physics World.
Michael Kachelriess, a physicist at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway, who was not involved in this research, says the debate over the correct formation mechanism for light nuclei (and antinuclei) has divided particle physicists for a long time. In his view, the data collected by the ALICE collaboration decisively resolves this debate by showing that light nuclei form in the late stages of a collision via the coalescence of nucleons. Kachelriess calls this a “great achievement” in itself, and adds that similar approaches could make it possible to address other questions, such as whether thermal plasmas form in proton-proton collisions as well as in collisions between heavy ions.
The post CERN team solves decades-old mystery of light nuclei formation appeared first on Physics World.
IRVINE, Calif. & LOS ANGELES, Calif. — January 13, 2026 — Turion Space Corp. (“Turion”), a space infrastructure company that builds and operates mission-grade spacecraft and space operations software, today […]
The post Turion Space Corp. Acquires Tychee Research Group to Accelerate Autonomous Space Operations and Mission Engineering appeared first on SpaceNews.
Behind the rhetoric about competition and innovation, not everyone is convinced SDA’s approach is a win-win
The post Space Force wants competition. Satellite makers want stability. appeared first on SpaceNews.
Michigan-based supplier cites rising government and commercial demand amid tight smallsat supply chain
The post Orbion delivers 33 electric thrusters to York Space for U.S. military constellation appeared first on SpaceNews.
Lunar night survival becomes an imperative “Surviving the lunar night has crossed a critical threshold: what was once a ‘nice-to-have’ is now the imperative for any serious lunar mission. We’re seeing this ‘survive, operate, thrive’ progression play out in real time: we’ve proven we can land repeatedly, now we’re focused on surviving that brutal two-week […]
The post 2026 will be the year of space nuclear power and surviving the lunar night appeared first on SpaceNews.
Eutelsat has ordered the remaining 340 satellites needed to replenish its OneWeb satellite constellation from Airbus Defence and Space.
The post Eutelsat orders 340 additional satellites to replenish OneWeb constellation appeared first on SpaceNews.
Belgian manufacturer to support early rollout as U.S. commercial PNT startup builds in-house production
The post Aerospacelab to build eight satellites for Xona’s navigation constellation appeared first on SpaceNews.
New calculations by physicists in the US provide deeper insights into an exotic material in which superconductivity and magnetism can coexist. Using a specialized effective field theory, Zhengyan Shi and Todadri Senthil at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology show how this coexistence can emerge from the collective states of mobile anyons in certain 2D materials.
An anyon is a quasiparticle with statistical properties that lie somewhere between those of bosons and fermions. First observed in 2D electron gases in strong magnetic fields, anyons are known for their fractional electrical charge and fractional exchange statistics, which alter the quantum state of two identical anyons when they are exchanged for each other.
Unlike ordinary electrons, anyons produced in these early experiments could not move freely, preventing them from forming complex collective states. Yet in 2023, experiments with a twisted bilayer of molybdenum ditelluride provided the first evidence for mobile anyons through observations of fractional quantum anomalous Hall (FQAH) insulators. This effect appears as fractionally quantized electrical resistance in 2D electron systems at zero applied magnetic field.
Remarkably, these experiments revealed that molybdenum ditelluride can exhibit superconductivity and magnetism at the same time. Since superconductivity usually relies on electron pairing that can be disrupted by magnetism, this coexistence was previously thought impossible.
“This then raises a new set of theoretical questions,” explains Shi. “What happens when a large number of mobile anyons are assembled together? What kind of novel ‘anyonic quantum matter’ can emerge?”
In their study, Shi and Senthil explored these questions using a new effective field theory for an FQAH insulator. Effective field theories are widely used in physics to approximate complex phenomena without modelling every microscopic detail. In this case, the duo’s model captured the competition between anyon mobility, interactions, and fractional exchange statistics in a many-body system of mobile anyons.
To test their model, the researchers considered the doping of an FQAH insulator – adding mobile anyons beyond the plateau in Hall resistance, where the existing anyons were effectively locked in place. This allowed the quasiparticles to move freely and form new collective phases.
“Crucially, we recognized that the fate of the doped state depends on the energetic hierarchy of different types of anyons,” Shi explains. “This observation allowed us to develop a powerful heuristic for predicting whether the doped state becomes a superconductor without any detailed calculations.”
In their model, Shi and Senthil focused on a specific FQAH insulator called a Jain state, which hosts two types of anyon excitations. One type has electrical charge of 1/3 of an electron and the other with 2/3. In a perfectly clean system, doping the insulator with 2/3-charge anyons produced a chiral topological superconductor, a phase that is robust against disorder and features edge currents flowing in only one direction. In contrast, doping with 1/3-charge anyons produced a metal with broken translation symmetry – still conducting, but with non-uniform patterns in its electron density.
“In the presence of impurities, we showed that the chiral superconductor near the superconductor–insulator transition is a novel phase of matter dubbed the ‘anomalous vortex glass’, in which patches of swirling supercurrents are sprinkled randomly across the sample,” Shi describes. “Observing this vortex glass phase would be smoking-gun evidence for the anyonic mechanism for superconductivity.”
The results suggest that even when adding the simplest kind of anyons – like those in the Jain state – the collective behaviour of these quasiparticles can enable the coexistence of magnetism and superconductivity. In future studies, the duo hopes that more advanced methods for introducing mobile anyons could reveal even more exotic phases.
“Remarkably, our theory provides a qualitative account of the phase diagram of a particular 2D material (twisted molybdenum ditelluride), although many more tests are needed to rule out other possible explanations,” Shi says. “Overall, these findings highlight the vast potential of anyonic quantum matter, suggesting a fertile ground for future discoveries.”
The research is described in PNAS.
The post Anyon physics could explain coexistence of superconductivity and magnetism appeared first on Physics World.
Portugal has become the latest country to sign the Artemis Accords outlining best practices for responsible space exploration, beating out another European country to be the 60th to join.
The post Portugal signs the Artemis Accords appeared first on SpaceNews.
Turin, Italy — Jan. 11, 2026 — The 12U CubeSat LIDE (LIve DEmonstration) has successfully completed its first months of on-orbit operations following its launch July 23, 2025, aboard a […]
The post Tyvak International’s LIDE satellite completes initial on-orbit 5G tests appeared first on SpaceNews.
Former House Defense Appropriations aide takes on day-to-day leadership role at U.S. spy satellite agency
The post NRO taps Capitol Hill staffer Bill Adkins as principal deputy director appeared first on SpaceNews.
For several years, the space-based geospatial intelligence industry has been chasing a logical vision for AI: use it to make our existing systems faster and smarter. Train models to detect objects. Automate change detection. Speed up analysis. These capabilities have delivered operational benefits. But they’ve also kept us focused on a specific paradigm — collect […]
The post AI needs spatial intelligence. The GEOINT industry will deliver it. appeared first on SpaceNews.
Shortly after space week in October, investment firm JP Morgan announced a $10 billion investment plan targeting industries critical for United States national security. In addition to things like nanomaterials, autonomous robotics and solar power, the announcement also focused on funding spacecraft and space launches. JP Morgan’s emphasis on space-related “frontier” technologies is significant, because it signals an acknowledgment that space is becoming an investable sector. What remains unclear is […]
The post Space is becoming an industrial economy appeared first on SpaceNews.
Connexion