Beyond producing superheavy nuclides, a new heavy‐ion accelerator could benefit fundamental nuclear physics and chemistry, atomic and solid‐state physics, and astrophysics.
Interest and excitement in many areas of physics and chemistry are growing as the research opportunities that would be offered by a universal heavy‐ion accelerator begin to be appreciated. Advances made possible with existing beams—of carbon, oxygen, sulfur and argon—have stimulated the imagination of scientists who contemplate what would be possible with an accelerator allowing nuclear reactions all the way up to on to be studied.
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With strong magnetic fields and intense lasers or pulsed electric currents, physicists can reconstruct the conditions inside astrophysical objects and create nuclear-fusion reactors.
A crude device for quantification shows how diverse aspects of distantly related organisms reflect the interplay of the same underlying physical factors.