LHCb discovers matter-antimatter asymmetry in charm quarks
Scientists on the LHCb experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN have discovered a new way in which matter and antimatter behave differently.
“This gives us a sort of family lineage for our particle of interest,” says Cesar da Silva, a scientist from Los Alamos National Lab and also a LHCb collaborator. “Once stable particles are measured by the detector, we can trace their ancestors to find the primordial generation of particles in the collision.
“Because of quantum mechanics, we cannot predict what each single unstable particle will decay into, but we can figure out the probabilities for each possible outcome.” (Full Story)
Lighting the way to removing radioactive elements
The waste treatment plan calls for vitrification, a high-heat process that traps radioactive elements in solid "logs." Easily removing americium, which generates unwanted heat, and storing it separately from the logs or reusing it could simplify waste treatment. Hanson and his colleagues' research relies on a stringy molecule that bonds to all the elements in the beaker. Light excites just the americium and causes the strings to permanently change. It makes the troublemaker stand out and easier to separate from uranium, plutonium, and all the other heavy elements at the bottom of the Periodic Table. "They are in an exotic area of the Periodic Table," said Stosh Kozimor, a CAST scientist at DOE's Los Alamos National Laboratory. (Full Story)
Handling trillions of supercomputer files just got simpler
A new distributed file system for high-performance computing distributed March 14 via the software collaboration site GitHub provides unprecedented performance for creating, updating and managing extreme numbers of files.
“We designed DeltaFS to enable the creation of trillions of files,” said Brad Settlemyer, a Los Alamos computer scientist and project leader. Los Alamos National Laboratory and Carnegie Mellon University jointly developed Delta FS. “Such a tool aids researchers in solving classical problems in high-performance computing, such as particle trajectory tracking or vortex detection.” (Full Story)
Muon tomography and its ability to probe the unseeable
More than 7,000 miles away from the Great Pyramids, nestled in four mesas at the Pajarito Plateau in New Mexico, is Los Alamos National Laboratory, a hub for muon tomography research. It was here that physicist Christopher Morris and his team in 2003 invented a new technique for muon tomography known as “muon scattering” tomography. (Full Story)
NNMC, LANL announce educational partnership
Northern New Mexico College President Rick Bailey and Los Alamos National Laboratory Director Thomas Mason say a new partnership between their institutions can become a model for how higher education and industry can join forces to train the state’s workforce.
Under a five-year agreement, the college will provide a full-time instructor and associate degrees in radiation protection, while LANL will write the program’s curriculum and offer students on-site internships alongside its radiological control technicians. (Full Story)
Also from the Albuquerque Journal
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