Areas of Focus

The core of Argonne’s physics research, described in the themes below, tackles some of the most fundamental challenges in modern science, shaping our understanding of both tiny objects at the center of the atom and some of the largest structures in the universe.

Research Area

Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS)

Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) is a powerful method for the measurement of very low abundance nuclei even in a background of much stronger isobars.

Research Area

Accelerator R&D

Accelerator Development in Argonne’s Physics Division specializes in the design, fabrication and commissioning of high-intensity ion and electron accelerator systems

Research Area

Cold Atoms and Molecules

Argonne researchers employ myriad cooling and trapping techniques to precisely control the external and internal degree of freedom of atoms and molecules of interest.

Research Area

Hadronic Physics

The focus of Argonne’s hadron physics to understand how the strong force gives rise to the mass, spin and dynamic structure of protons and neutrons, which make up almost all visible matter in our universe.

Research Area

Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics

We focus on first-principles study of quantum chromodynamics to quantify the quark and gluon structures of hadrons and nuclei, which are probed at high-energy colliders.

Research Area

Many-body Theory

We study the properties of atomic nuclei and neutron-star matter starting from the interactions between the constituent protons and neutrons, as probed by experiments at ATLAS, FRIB, and other facilities worldwide.

Research Area

Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay

The observation of neutrinoless double-beta decay would profoundly impact our understanding of the matter-antimatter mystery.

Research Area

Nuclear Astrophysics

Nuclear astrophysics includes the study of how all the elements in the universe were created and how stars evolve during their lifetime.

Research Area

Nuclear Structure

Argonne physicists work to understand the structure of nuclei, both stable and radioactive, found here on Earth and produced in the cosmos.

Research Area

Physics Beyond the Standard Model

Argonne’s Physics Division conducts precision experiments aimed at testing the fundamental symmetries inherent in the basic laws of physics. In their core, these experiments search for signatures of phenomena that lie beyond the Standard Model of physics.