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News Release 18-094
Extremely close look at electron advances frontiers in particle physics
Beam of molecules fired into gauntlet of lasers shows spherical electron charge
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In this artist's representation, an electron travels between two lasers in an experiment. The electron is spinning about its axis as a cloud of other subatomic particles are constantly emitted and reabsorbed. Some theories in particle physics predict particles, as yet undetected, that would cause the cloud to appear very slightly pear-shaped when seen from a distance. With the support of the National Science Foundation, ACME researchers created an experimental setup look at that shape with extreme precision. To the limits of their experiment, they saw a perfectly round sphere, implying that certain types of new particles, if they exist at all, have properties different from those theorists expected.
Credit: Nicolle R. Fuller, NSF
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In this artist's representation, an electron orbits an atom's nucleus, spinning about its axis as a cloud of other subatomic particles are constantly emitted and reabsorbed. Some theories in particle physics predict particles, as yet undetected, that would cause the cloud to appear very slightly pear-shaped when seen from a distance. With the support of the National Science Foundation, ACME researchers created an experimental setup look at that shape with extreme precision. To the limits of their experiment, they saw a perfectly round sphere, implying that certain types of new particles, if they exist at all, have properties different from those theorists expected.
Credit: Nicolle R. Fuller, NSF
Download the high-resolution JPG version of the image. (2.5 MB)
Use your mouse to right-click (Mac users may need to Ctrl-click) the link above and choose the option that will save the file or target to your computer.