Study: Fast protons prefer fast neutrons

STATE COLLEGE, Pa., June 19 (UPI) -- U.S. physicists say they've found fast-moving protons are much more likely to pair with fast-moving neutrons than with other protons in the nuclei of atoms.

The experiment conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility confirmed a theoretical prediction by Penn State Professor Mark Strikman. The government scientists also used an experimental strategy suggested by Strikman and his Penn State team.

"Although we predicted a very large probability of pairing between fast-moving nucleons, it is amazing to me that 100 percent of fast-moving nucleons are paired," said Strikman. "It also is amazing that so little of this pairing is between two protons."

Strikman said the discovery is "the most clear-cut example that the high-energy processes, which we have been advocating for many years, are truly effective tools and can be used for future discoveries."

Funding for the research conducted by Strikman and his colleagues came from the Israel Science Foundation, the U.S.-Israeli Binational Scientific Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy.

Results of the complex physics experiment will be published later this year in the journal Science, which recently posted the paper on its Web site.