(NLDO) - German and Japanese scientists have proposed a new "cosmic alchemy" involving the "ghost particle" neutrino.
According to SciTech Daily, a group of scientists has just proposed a new nuclear synthesis process with the symbol "vr", which they call "alchemy of the devil particle".
This process operates when neutron-rich material is exposed to a stream of neutrinos, helping to explain the existence of exotic isotopes such as 92 Mo, 94 Mo, 96 Ru, 98 Ru, and 92 Nb in the early Solar System.
A supernova remnant believed to have created a magnetar was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. The magnetar will explode again and create another supernova with the presence of the vr process - Photo: NASA
The above isotopes are today treasures of mankind, used in many fields such as nuclear science, cancer diagnosis and treatment, and some industries.
However, what has always puzzled scientists is how they came to be.
According to the widely accepted theory, each star forms from material from an older generation of stars that exploded, and the fusion process inside each star forges heavier elements into the universe.
This has left the universe as chemically rich as it is today, with many heavy elements.
The fusion processes that occur in large stars produce nuclei that are similar in size to iron and nickel. In addition, most elements with stable heavy nuclei, such as lead and gold, are produced through either slow or fast neutron capture processes.
The rest are neutron-deficient isotopes of a number of elements, including the rare ones mentioned above. Scientists have proposed various fusion processes in the past, but they have stalled.
The vr process proposed by a German-Japanese team led by researcher Zewei Xiong from the Helmholtz National Center for Heavy Ion Research GSI (Germany) has solved the above bottleneck.
The neutrino is called the “ghost particle” because it is all around us but unseen. It has almost no mass. It passes through people, objects and the planet like a ghost.
However, the "demon particle" carries a large amount of energy, large enough to excite the nucleus into a state of decay by emitting neutrons, protons and alpha particles.
The emitted particles will be captured by some of the heavy nuclei. This triggers a series of neutrino-catalyzed capture reactions that determine the final abundances of the elements produced by the νr process.
At the same time, this process also leaves behind seemingly inexplicable neutron-deficient nuclei of some rare isotopes.
The other remains scientists are looking for are the types of stellar explosions that could have triggered the vr process. They suspect the culprits are powerfully magnetic dead stars like magnetars, an extreme type of neutron star. Neutron stars are the corpses of massive stars.
Fortunately, the research facilities of the authors have the tools to determine that in future studies, the paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters said.
Source: https://nld.com.vn/dung-do-hat-ma-quy-bau-vat-hiem-xuat-hien-trong-he-mat-troi-196240521154903807.htm
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