Physicists introduce method for mechanical detection of individual nuclear decays

In recent years, physicists and engineers have developed increasingly sophisticated instruments to study particles and their interactions with great precision. These instruments, such as particle detectors, sensors and accelerometers, help researchers study physical processes in greater detail, which can lead to intriguing new discoveries.

Yale University researchers recently introduced a new method to mechanically detect individual nuclear decays, the process by which unstable atomic nuclei lose energy by emitting radiation. paper in Physics Review Letteris sensitive to all particles emitted during decay, including neutral particles that are difficult or impossible to detect with existing methods.

“Our group is developing highly sensitive micron-scale force sensors and accelerometers using particles optically trapped in vacuum,” David C. Moore, co-author of the paper, told Phys.org. “Recently, the sensitivity of these systems has improved so much that we are now able to detect the force of single fundamental particles, e.g. Alpha particles It is released during nuclear decay.”

The main goal of Moore and his colleagues’ recent research has been to develop new techniques for detecting nuclear decay that harness the forces exerted by individual fundamental particles, ultimately allowing the detection of particles that have no charge (i.e., neutral particles), which are particularly difficult to detect with conventional detectors.

“Our approach is to monitor the movement of dust-sized particles with embedded radioactive nuclei,” Moore explained. “If one of the nuclei inside the dust grain decays, we can detect it by observing the change in charge of the particle as it escapes, a charged particle such as an alpha or beta particle.”

In initial experiments, the team showed that this method could detect the gamma decay of individual atomic nuclei. Most notably, by carefully measuring the position of the spheres within the device from the laser light scattering from them, the researchers were able to observe the particle’s entire recoil on a precise scale of tens of nanometers.

“Our approach allows us to detect individual decays within particles, even if they occur very rarely, such as once a day,” Moore said. “This could enable us to study dust-sized particles relevant to nuclear surveillance and nonproliferation and detect the individual decays of long-lived isotopes.”

This work opens up interesting possibilities for particle physics research. Promising detection methods introduced in this work include, for example, Dark matter and potentially advances research into exotic particles and nuclear processes. Neutral particles It evades conventional detectors.

“In future work, we aim to extend the same technique to smaller nanoparticles,” Moore added, “which will allow us to detect the momentum kick from a single neutrino escaping the sphere. Neutrinos interact so weakly that they would otherwise essentially escape undetected, but this new technique could become a new tool for studying these elusive particles.”

© 2024 Science X Network