Electrons as Atomic Messengers

Within radium monofluoride molecules, researchers precisely tracked how electrons shifted energy levels as they moved through the atomic structure. They detected a subtle yet meaningful change — evidence that some electrons had briefly penetrated the radium nucleus and interacted with its protons and neutrons. When those electrons returned to their outer orbits, they retained this altered energy, effectively carrying a “message” from inside the nucleus that scientists could decode to reveal its internal structure.

Figure 1. MIT’s Revolutionary Method Lets Researchers Explore the Heart of Atoms.

This technique provides a new way to map what physicists call the nucleus’s “magnetic distribution.” Each proton and neutron behaves like a tiny magnet, and their alignment reveals how they are arranged within the nucleus. The team now aims to use this method to construct the first detailed map of the radium nucleus’s magnetic pattern — insights that may help explain one of cosmology’s greatest mysteries: why the universe contains far more matter than antimatter. Figure 1 shows MIT’s Revolutionary Method Lets Researchers Explore the Heart of Atoms.

Fundamental Symmetries and Cosmic Mysteries

“Our results lay the groundwork for future studies that aim to measure violations of fundamental symmetries at the nuclear level,” says study co-author Ronald Fernando Garcia Ruiz, the Thomas A. Franck Associate Professor of Physics at MIT. “This could help answer some of the most profound questions in modern physics.”

The MIT team also included Shane Wilkins, Silviu-Marian Udrescu, and Alex Brinson, collaborating with researchers from multiple institutions, including the Collinear Resonance Ionization Spectroscopy (CRIS) Experiment at CERN in Switzerland, where the experiments were carried out.

Amplifying Symmetry Violations

“The radium nucleus acts as an amplifier of symmetry breaking because it’s asymmetric in both charge and mass — a rare property,” explains Garcia Ruiz, whose team specializes in developing techniques to probe radium nuclei for such effects.

“Radium is naturally radioactive and short-lived, and we can currently produce only minute quantities of radium monofluoride molecules,” says Shane Wilkins, the study’s lead author and former MIT postdoc. “That means we need extremely sensitive methods to measure them.”

By embedding a radium atom inside a molecule, the team found they could both stabilize and amplify the behavior of its electrons.

Measuring the Elusive Energy Shift

In their experiments, the team bonded radium atoms with fluoride atoms to form radium monofluoride (RaF) molecules. Within these molecules, the radium’s electrons became more tightly confined, increasing their likelihood of penetrating the nucleus itself.

The molecules were then trapped, cooled, and directed through vacuum chambers, where finely tuned lasers excited the electrons to specific energy levels. This setup enabled the scientists to measure those energies with unprecedented precision.

Source:SciTECHDaily

Cite this article:

Priyadharshini S (2025), MIT’s Groundbreaking Technique Allows Scientists to Peer Inside Atoms, AnaTechMaz, pp. 298