Related papers: Teaching About Nature's Nuclear Reactors
On October 22, 1934, in a famous experiment, Enrico Fermi and his colleagues discovered that a significant increase in induced radioactivity can be obtained when neutrons are slowed down by means of hydrogen atoms. This discovery and its…
Nuclear Physics is the branch of physics that deals with the properties and structure of matter on the hadronic level. In this article we review briefly the history of this field, which has a major role in the development of our…
We introduce neutrino astronomy from the observational fact that Nature accelerates protons and photons to energies in excess of 10^{20} and 10^{13} eV, respectively. Although the discovery of cosmic rays dates back close to a century, we…
In this article, I trace the early historical developments that ultimately led to the creation of the atomic bomb. Even after the completion of weapons, many scientists continued to argue that nuclear armaments were indispensable for…
It is in the nature of astrophysics that many of the processes and objects one tries to understand are physically inaccessible. Thus, it is important that those aspects that can be studied in the laboratory be rather well understood. One…
Magnetism is one of the four fundamental forces. However, the origin of magnetic fields in stars, galaxies and clusters is an open problem in astrophysics and fundamental physics. When and how were the first fields generated? Are…
Nuclear reactors are uniquely powerful, abundant, and flavor-pure sources of antineutrinos that continue to play a vital role in the US neutrino physics program. The US reactor antineutrino physics community is a diverse interest group…
An Earth-like planetary magnetic field has been widely invoked as a requirement for habitability as it purportedly mitigates the fluxes of ionizing radiation reaching the surface and the escape of neutrals and ions from the atmosphere.…
I discuss, in a semi-pedagogical way, our current understanding of neutrino physics. I present a brief history of how the neutrino came to be ``invented'' and observed, and discuss the evidence that led to the recent discovery that…
The fundamental knowledge on neutrinos acquired in the recent years open the possibility of applied neutrino physics. Among it the automatic and non intrusive monitoring of nuclear reactor by its antineutrino signal could be very valuable…
Background induced by neutrons in deep underground laboratories is a critical issue for all experiments looking for rare events, such as dark matter interactions or neutrinoless 2-beta decay. Neutrons can be produced either by natural…
Because cosmic rays are charged particles scrambled by magnetic fields, combining direct measurements with other observations is crucial to understanding their origin and propagation. As energetic particles traverse matter and…
Possible origins of the magnetic fields of neutron stars include inheritance from the main sequence progenitor and dynamo action at some stage of evolution of progenitor. Inheritance is not sufficient to explain the fields of magnetars.…
Numerous investigations discuss neutrino properties from low to ultra high energies. This review discusses several topics that are investigated in present day experiments. The first section covers the detection of $\tau$-neutrinos of cosmic…
Atomic nuclei are quantum many-body systems of protons and neutrons held together by strong nuclear forces. Under the proper conditions, nuclei can break into two (sometimes three) fragments which will subsequently decay by emitting…
Chemical and physical Earth models agree little as to the radioactive power of the planet. Each predicts a range of radioactive powers, overlapping slightly with the other at about 24 TW, and together spanning 14-46 TW. Approximately 20 %…
Now 50 years since the existence of the neutron star crust was proposed, we review the current understanding of the nuclear physics of the outer layers of accreting neutron stars. Nuclei produced during nuclear burning replace the nascent…
In neutrino physics, it is now widely believed that neutrino oscillations are influenced by the presence of matter, modifying the energy spectrum produced by a neutrino beam traversing the Earth. Here, we will discuss the reverse problem,…
Energy spectra of antineutrinos coming from $^{232}$Th and $^{233}$U neutron-induced fission are calculated, relevant inverse beta decay $\bar{{\nu}_e}+p \to n + e^{+}$ positron spectra and total cross sections are found. This study is…
More than 40 years ago, neutrinos where conceived as a way to test the validity of the solar models which tell us that stars are powered by nuclear fusion reactions. The first measurement of the neutrino flux, in 1968 in the Homestake mine…