MIT physicists have unveiled a groundbreaking way to explore the hidden interior of atoms, without the need for massive particle colliders.
By binding radium atoms with fluoride to form radium monofluoride molecules, they used the atom’s own electrons as probes to momentarily enter the nucleus and carry back subtle “messages” about its structure.
Probing the Nucleus With Electrons
In research published in Science, a team of MIT physicists achieved exceptionally precise measurements of the energy of electrons orbiting a radium atom that had been chemically bonded with a fluoride atom to form radium monofluoride. By studying these molecules, the researchers created a kind of miniature particle collider. Within this environment, the electrons surrounding the radium atom were confined closely enough to occasionally slip into the nucleus before returning to their usual orbits.
Traditionally, exploring the interior of atomic nuclei requires enormous particle accelerators that stretch for kilometers and propel beams of electrons at extremely high speeds to smash into nuclei. In contrast, this new molecule-based technique provides a compact, table-top alternative that allows scientists to investigate nuclear interiors with far greater convenience.
Electrons as Atomic Messengers
Inside the radium monofluoride molecules, the team carefully tracked the energy levels of electrons as they moved within the atomic structure. They discovered a minute but significant energy shift, indicating that some electrons had briefly entered the radium nucleus and interacted with the protons and neutrons inside. When those electrons returned to their outer paths, they retained the altered energy, effectively carrying a “message” from within the nucleus that could be decoded to reveal its internal arrangement.
This approach offers a new means of mapping what physicists call the nuclear “magnetic distribution.” Each proton and neutron behaves like a tiny magnet, and the way they align depends on how they are arranged within the nucleus. The researchers now plan to apply their method to create the first detailed map of this magnetic pattern inside the radium nucleus. Their findings could shed light on one of cosmology’s deepest puzzles: why the universe contains far more matter than antimatter.
Fundamental Symmetries and Cosmic Mysteries
“Our results lay the groundwork for subsequent studies aiming to measure violations of fundamental symmetries at the nuclear level,” says study co-author Ronald Fernando Garcia Ruiz, who is the Thomas A. Franck Associate Professor of Physics at MIT. “This could provide answers to some of the most pressing questions in modern physics.”
The MIT team also included Shane Wilkins, Silviu-Marian Udrescu, and Alex Brinson, along with collaborators from several institutions, including the Collinear Resonance Ionization Spectroscopy Experiment (CRIS) at CERN in Switzerland, where the experiments were conducted.
Why Is the Universe Made of Matter?
According to scientists’ best understanding, there must have been almost equal amounts of matter and antimatter when the universe first came into existence. However, the overwhelming majority of what scientists can measure and observe in the universe is made from matter, whose building blocks are the protons and neutrons within atomic nuclei.
This observation is in stark contrast to what our best theory of nature, the Standard Model, predicts, and it is thought that additional sources of fundamental symmetry violation are required to explain the almost complete absence of antimatter in our universe. Such violations could be seen within the nuclei of certain atoms such as radium.
Unlike most atomic nuclei, which are spherical in shape, the radium atom’s nucleus has a more asymmetrical configuration, similar to a pear. Scientists predict that this pear shape could significantly enhance their ability to sense the violation of fundamental symmetries, to the extent that they may be potentially observable.
Amplifying Symmetry Violations
“The radium nucleus is predicted to be an amplifier of this symmetry breaking, because its nucleus is asymmetric in charge and mass, which is quite unusual,” says Garcia Ruiz, whose group has focused on developing methods to probe radium nuclei for signs of fundamental symmetry violation.
Peering inside the nucleus of a radium atom to investigate fundamental symmetries is an incredibly tricky exercise.
“Radium is naturally radioactive, with a short lifetime and we can currently only produce radium monofluoride molecules in tiny quantities,” says study lead author Shane Wilkins, a former postdoc at MIT. “We therefore need incredibly sensitive techniques to be able measure them.”
The team realized that by placing a radium atom in a molecule, they could contain and amplify the behavior of its electrons.
“When you put this radioactive atom inside of a molecule, the internal electric field that its electrons experience is orders of magnitude larger compared to the fields we can produce and apply in a lab,” explains Silviu-Marian Udrescu PhD ’24, a study co-author. “In a way, the molecule acts like a giant particle collider and gives us a better chance to probe the radium’s nucleus.”
Measuring the Elusive Energy Shift
In their new study, the team first paired radium atoms with fluoride atoms to create molecules of radium monofluoride. They found that in this molecule, the radium atom’s electrons were effectively squeezed, increasing the chance for electrons to interact with and briefly penetrate the radium nucleus.
The team then trapped and cooled the molecules and sent them through a system of vacuum chambers, into which they also sent lasers, which interacted with the molecules. In this way, the researchers were able to precisely measure the energies of electrons inside each molecule.
Detecting Hidden Nuclear Interactions
When the researchers analyzed their measurements, they noticed that the electrons carried slightly different energies than expected if they had remained outside the nucleus. The difference was incredibly small, only about one millionth of the energy of the laser photon used to excite the molecules, but it was clear evidence that the electrons had entered the radium nucleus and interacted with its protons and neutrons.
“There are many experiments measuring interactions between nuclei and electrons outside the nucleus, and we know what those interactions look like,” Wilkins explains. “When we went to measure these electron energies very precisely, it didn’t quite add up to what we expected, assuming they interacted only outside of the nucleus. That told us the difference must be due to electron interactions inside the nucleus.”
A Glimpse Inside the Atomic Core
“We now have proof that we can sample inside the nucleus,” Garcia Ruiz says. “It’s like being able to measure a battery’s electric field. People can measure its field outside, but to measure inside the battery is far more challenging. And that’s what we can do now.”
The researchers plan to use this new technique to create a detailed map of how forces are distributed inside the nucleus. So far, their experiments have examined radium nuclei that are randomly oriented at high temperatures within the molecules. The next step is to cool the molecules and control the alignment of their pear-shaped nuclei. Doing so would allow the team to chart the nucleus with greater precision and search for possible violations of fundamental symmetries in nature.
Toward the Symmetry Secrets of Nature
“Radium-containing molecules are predicted to be exceptionally sensitive systems in which to search for violations of the fundamental symmetries of nature,” Garcia Ruiz says. “We now have a way to carry out that search.”
Reference: “Observation of the distribution of nuclear magnetization in a molecule” by S. G. Wilkins, S. M. Udrescu, M. Athanasakis-Kaklamanakis, R. F. Garcia Ruiz, M. Au, I. Belošević, R. Berger, M. L. Bissell, A. A. Breier, A. J. Brinson, K. Chrysalidis, T. E. Cocolios, R. P. de Groote, A. Dorne, K. T. Flanagan, S. Franchoo, K. Gaul, S. Geldhof, T. F. Giesen, D. Hanstorp, R. Heinke, T. Isaev, Á. Koszorús, S. Kujanpää, L. Lalanne, G. Neyens, M. Nichols, H. A. Perrett, J. R. Reilly, L. V. Skripnikov, S. Rothe, B. van den Borne, Q. Wang, J. Wessolek, X. F. Yang and C. Zülch, 23 October 2025, Science.
DOI: 10.1126/science.adm7717
This research was supported, in part, by the U.S. Department of Energy.
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2 Comments
Your results lay the groundwork for subsequent studies aiming to measure violations of fundamental symmetries at the nuclear level.
Please ask the MIT’s researchers to think deeply:
Are you observing a change in symmetry, or a violation of symmetry? Why?
When we pursue the ultimate truth of all things, the space in which our bodies and all things exist may itself be the final and deepest puzzle we need to explore. This is not only the pursuit of physics, but also the most magnificent exploration of the origin of the universe by human reason.
Based on the Topological Vortex Theory (TVT), space is an uniformly incompressible physical entity. Space-time vortices are the products of topological phase transitions of the tipping points in space, are the point defects in spacetime. Point defects do not only impact the thermodynamic properties, but are also central to kinetic processes. They create all things and shape the world through spin and self-organization.
In today’s physics, some so-called peer-reviewed journals—including Physical Review Letters, Nature, Science, and others—stubbornly insist on and promote the following:
1. Even though θ and τ particles exhibit differences in experiments, physics can claim they are the same particle. This is science.
2. Even though topological vortices and antivortices have identical structures and opposite rotational directions, physics can define their structures and directions as entirely different. This is science.
3. Even though two sets of cobalt-60 rotate in opposite directions and experiments reveal asymmetry, physics can still define them as mirror images of each other. This is science.
4. Even though vortex structures are ubiquitous—from cosmic accretion disks to particle spins—physics must insist that vortex structures do not exist and require verification. Only the particles that like God, Demonic, or Angelic are the most fundamental structures of the universe. This is science.
5. Even though everything occupies space and maintains its existence in time, physics must still debate and insist on whether space exists and whether time is a figment of the human mind. This is science.
6. Even though space, with its non-stick, incompressible, and isotropic characteristics, provides a solid foundation for the development of physics, physics must still insist that the ideal fluid properties of space do not exist. This is science.
and go on. Is this the counterintuitive science that they widely promote?
What are the shames?
What are the corruption, dirtiness, and ugliness?
Under the topological vortex architecture, it is highly challenging for even two hydrogen atoms or two quarks to be perfectly symmetrical, let alone counter-rotating two sets of cobalt-60. Contemporary physics and so-called peer-reviewed publications (including Physical Review Letters, Science, Nature, etc.) stubbornly believe that two sets of counter rotating cobalt-60 are two mirror images of each other, constructing a more shocking pseudoscientific theoretical framework in the history of science than the “geocentric model”. This pseudo scientific framework and system have seriously hindered scientific progress and social development.
For nearly a century, physics has been manipulated by this pseudo scientific theoretical system and the interest groups behind it, wasting a lot of manpower, funds, and time. A large amount of pseudo scientific research has been conducted, and countless pseudo scientific papers have been published, causing serious negative impacts on scientific and social progress, as well as humanistic development.
Complexity does not necessarily mean that there is no logical and architectural framework to follow. Mathematics is the language and tool that reveals the motion of spacetime, rather than the motion itself. Although the physical form of spacetime vortices is extremely simple, their interaction patterns are highly complex, and we must develop more and richer mathematical languages to describe and understand them.
Please ask researchers to think deeply:
1. What is the basis for your conclusion that what you are observing is a violation of parity -natural laws, rather than a change in symmetry?
2. If a natural law can be violated, can it still be called a natural law?