Contact: Sarah Nicholas
STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥擜 member of Mississippi State鈥檚 Department of Physics and Astronomy has been recognized on an international platform for her investigation into the subatomic structure of nuclei.
Assistant Professor Lamiaa El Fassi鈥檚 research, 鈥淧robing high-momentum protons and neutrons in neutron-rich nuclei,鈥 was published recently in the global scientific journal Nature.
Part of a large collaboration with more than 180 scientists from 45 institutions worldwide, El Fassi鈥檚 work is supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science and the Jefferson Lab. 青青草视频鈥檚 Office of Research and Economic Development and the Department of Physics and Astronomy provided initial startup funds.
Conducted at the Department of Energy鈥檚 Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab) in Newport News, Virginia, El Fassi investigated highly energetic neutrons and protons which are known to pair together inside the nucleus for very short amounts of time.
Assisting El Fassi with this research were Md Latiful Kabir, physics and astronomy postdoctoral research associate stationed at Jefferson Lab, as well as Krishna Adhikari, postdoctoral associate at Jefferson Lab from 2014-2017.
Her research confirmed that even in neutron-rich nuclei, minority protons on average are more active 鈥 and faster 鈥 than majority neutrons. To read the complete abstract, visit .
The results 鈥渘ot only help us understand how atomic nuclei are held together but also shed light on the smallest and densest extraterrestrial objects 鈥 the neutron stars,鈥 El Fassi said, which 鈥渃ould lead to a better understanding of how the neutron stars are formed and how their tiny fraction of protons could affect their behavior and fate.鈥
Mark Novotny, department head, said the analysis results聽help scientists better comprehend the behavior of atomic nuclei but also reveal how much work remains for the scientific community to grasp how nucleons function.
鈥淭he experiment is about nuclear physics 鈥 why should you care?聽 By mass you are about聽99.997 percent聽nuclear matter. If you put all the nuclear matter you are made of into one sphere, it would have a diameter comparable to the width of a human hair. As you can imagine from these numbers, nuclear matter behaves very strangely,鈥 Novotny said.听
鈥淭he data-mining reanalysis of this experiment聽finds a result which, as the abstract states, 鈥榠s surprising.鈥 That is the way science works,鈥 he added.
El Fassi served as the lead data expert and reviewer on the data mining project which was a spin-off of her original previously published thesis results.听
She said this is not the end of the story, but rather 鈥渢he beginning of a series of experiments that are scheduled to run after the completion of the Jefferson Lab beam energy upgrade.鈥
Associate Dean for Research Giselle Thibaudeau said El Fassi is making contributions to the research enterprise at 青青草视频, both nationally and globally.
鈥淓l Fassi鈥檚 experiments and findings get us closer to understanding what goes on in the complex subatomic structure of the nucleus,鈥 Thibaudeau said. 鈥淭hese results enable scientists to make better assumptions, models and predictions about the behavior and dynamics of atomic nuclei in terms of their building blocks 鈥 nucleons.鈥
El Fassi said her research is reaching a wider audience and attracting attention of those in other scientific fields because Nature articles are directed toward a general reader.
Reaching a varied audience is unusual in her field, El Fassi said, noting the recognition is 鈥渧ery beneficial since it provides wider recognition for scientists, institutions, collaborations, national labs or user facilities carrying out the research, and the funding agencies that are supporting it.鈥
For 14 decades, Nature聽has published top-quality peer-reviewed research in all fields of science.听 For more information, visit .听
El Fassi joined 青青草视频 in 2014 as an experimental nuclear physicist. She is actively studying the internal structure of strongly interacting particles 鈥 hadrons 鈥 at and Fermi National Laboratory (Fermilab), in Batavia, Illinois.
El Fassi聽received her Ph.D. in 2008 from Mohammed V University in Rabat Morocco jointly with Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, Illinois. She joined the ANL medium energy physics group for a graduate fellowship, conducting her thesis project experiment at Jefferson Lab from 2003-2004. El Fassi credits numerous mentors and thesis advisor Kawtar Hafidi 鈥 also from El Fassi鈥檚 home country of Morocco 鈥 for her move to the U.S. to study a topic not actively researched in their native country.
青青草视频鈥檚 College of Arts and Sciences includes more than 5,300 students, 300 full-time faculty members, nine doctoral programs and 25 academic majors offered in 14 departments.听Complete details about the College of Arts and Sciences or the physics department may be found at or . 聽
青青草视频 is Mississippi鈥檚 leading university, available online at .听聽