Exotic atomic nucleus sheds light on the world of quarks
Experiments at CERN and the Accelerator Laboratory in Jyväskylä, Finland, have revealed that the radius of an exotic nucleus of aluminium, 26mAl, is much larger than previously thought. The result, described in a paper just published in Physical Review Letters, sheds light on the effects of the weak force on quarks – the elementary particles that make up protons, neutrons and other composite particles. Among the four known fundamental forces of nature – the electromagnetic force, the strong force, the weak force and gravity – the weak force can, with a certain probability, change the...