Simulation supplies pictures from the carbon nucleus


Could 15, 2023

(Nanowerk Information) What does the within of a carbon atom’s nucleus seem like? A brand new examine by Forschungszentrum Jülich, Michigan State College (USA) and the College of Bonn supplies the primary complete reply to this query. Within the examine, the researchers simulated all recognized power states of the nucleus. These embody the puzzling Hoyle state. If it didn’t exist, carbon and oxygen would solely be current within the universe in tiny traces. In the end, we due to this fact additionally owe it our personal existence. The examine has now been printed within the journal Nature Communications (“Emergent geometry and duality within the carbon nucleus”). The neutrons and protons are current within the carbon nucleus as three clusters of 4. Relying on the power state of the nucleus, these might be organized into an equilateral triangle (left) or like a barely bent arm (proper). (Picture: Prof. Serdar Elhatisari, College of Bonn) The nucleus of a carbon atom usually consists of six protons and 6 neutrons. However how precisely are they organized? And the way does their configuration change when the nucleus is bombarded with high-energy radiation? For many years, science has been looking for solutions to those questions. Not least as a result of they might present the important thing to a thriller that has lengthy puzzled physicists: Why is there a major quantity of carbon in area in any respect – an atom with out which there can be no life on Earth? In any case, shortly after the Large Bang, there was solely hydrogen and helium. The hydrogen nucleus consists of a single proton, that of helium of two protons and two neutrons. All heavier components had been solely created many billions of years later by ageing stars. In them, helium nuclei fused into carbon nuclei at immense strain and intensely excessive temperatures. This requires three helium nuclei to fuse collectively. “Nevertheless it’s truly impossible for this to occur,” explains Prof. Dr. Ulf Meißner of the Helmholtz Institute of Radiation and Nuclear Physics on the College of Bonn and the Institute for Superior Simulation at Forschungszentrum Jülich. The rationale: The helium nuclei collectively have a a lot larger power than a carbon nucleus. Nonetheless, this doesn’t imply that they fuse significantly readily – quite the opposite: It’s as if three individuals wished to leap onto a merry-go-round. However since they run a lot sooner than the merry-go-round turns, they don’t succeed.

Simulation on the supercomputer

As early because the Nineteen Fifties, the British astronomer Fred Hoyle due to this fact postulated that the three helium nuclei first come collectively to kind a type of transition state. This “Hoyle state” has a really related power to the helium nuclei. To remain within the image: It’s a faster-spinning model of the merry-go-round, which the three passengers can due to this fact simply bounce onto. When that occurs, the carousel slows right down to its regular pace. “Solely by taking a detour by way of the Hoyle state can stars create carbon in any respect in any considerable amount,” says Meißner, who can also be a member of the Transdisciplinary Analysis Areas “Modeling” and “Matter” of the College of Bonn. About ten years in the past, along with colleagues from the USA, Forschungszentrum Jülich and Ruhr-Universität Bochum, he succeeded in simulating this Hoyle state for the primary time. “We already had an concept then of how the protons and neutrons of the carbon nucleus are organized on this state,” he explains. “Nonetheless, we weren’t capable of show with certainty that this assumption was true.” With the assistance of a sophisticated methodology, the researchers have now succeeded. That is basically based mostly on confinement: In actuality, the protons and neutrons – the nucleons – might be situated anyplace in area. For his or her calculations, nonetheless, the staff restricted this freedom: “We organized our nuclear particles on the nodes of a three-dimensional lattice,” Meißner explains. “So we allowed them solely sure strictly outlined positions.”

Computing time: 5 million processor hours

Because of this restriction, it was doable to calculate the movement of nucleons. Since nuclear particles have an effect on one another otherwise relying on their distance from one another, this job could be very complicated. The researchers additionally ran their simulation a number of million instances with barely completely different beginning situations. This allowed them to see the place the protons and neutrons had been most certainly to be. “We carried out these calculations for all recognized power states of the carbon nucleus,” Meißner says. The calculations had been carried out on the JEWELS supercomputer at Forschungszentrum Jülich. They required a complete of about 5 million processor hours, with many hundreds of processors working concurrently. The outcomes successfully present pictures from the carbon nucleus. They show that the nuclear particles don’t exist independently of one another. “As a substitute, they’re clustered into teams of two neutrons and two protons every,” the physicist explains. Which means the three helium nuclei can nonetheless be detected after they’ve fused to kind the carbon nucleus. Relying on the power state, they’re current in numerous spatial formations – both organized into an isosceles triangle or like a barely bent arm, with the shoulder, elbow joint and wrist every occupied by a cluster. The examine not solely permits researchers to raised perceive the physics of the carbon nucleus. Meißner: “The strategies we’ve developed can simply be used to simulate different nuclei and will definitely result in completely new insights.”



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