{"id":212685,"date":"2025-04-29T01:32:29","date_gmt":"2025-04-29T06:32:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/04\/physicists-test-quantum-theory-with-atomic-nuclei-from-a-nuclear-reaction"},"modified":"2025-04-29T01:32:29","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T06:32:29","slug":"physicists-test-quantum-theory-with-atomic-nuclei-from-a-nuclear-reaction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/04\/physicists-test-quantum-theory-with-atomic-nuclei-from-a-nuclear-reaction","title":{"rendered":"Physicists test quantum theory with atomic nuclei from a nuclear reaction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/physicists-test-quantum-theory-with-atomic-nuclei-from-a-nuclear-reaction.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Many atomic nuclei have a magnetic field similar to that of Earth. However, directly at the surface of a heavy nucleus such as lead or bismuth, it is trillions of times stronger than Earth\u2019s field and more comparable to that of a neutron star. Whether we understand the behavior of an electron in such strong fields is still an open question.<\/p>\n<p>A research team led by TU Darmstadt at the GSI Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research has now taken an important step toward clarifying this question. Their findings have been <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41567-025-02885-x\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> in <i>Nature Physics<\/i>. The results confirm the <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/theoretical+predictions\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">theoretical predictions<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Hydrogen-like ions, i.e., <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/atomic+nuclei\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">atomic nuclei<\/a> to which only a <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/single+electron\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">single electron<\/a> is bound, are theoretically particularly easy to describe. In the case of heavy nuclei with a high proton number\u2014bismuth, for example, has 83 positively charged protons in its nucleus\u2014the strong electrical attraction binds the electron close to the nucleus and thus within this extreme <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/magnetic+field\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">magnetic field<\/a>. There, the electron aligns its own magnetic field with that of the nucleus like a compass needle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many atomic nuclei have a magnetic field similar to that of Earth. However, directly at the surface of a heavy nucleus such as lead or bismuth, it is trillions of times stronger than Earth\u2019s field and more comparable to that of a neutron star. Whether we understand the behavior of an electron in such strong [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1617,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-212685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-quantum-physics","category-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212685\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}