NUM division - Featured Research
Magnetic nanoworld
At PSI, researchers come across exotic phenomena such as frustrated magnets and nano-vortices, which may one day enable better data storage.
Water and quantum magnets share critical physics
At high pressure, liquid water and water vapour merge together – the phase boundary disappears. Researchers have now discovered a similar behaviour in a quantum magnet.
The Swiss research infrastructure for particle physics CHRISP
Researchers are looking for deviations in the current standard model of physics and want to find out how our universe is constructed.
Size of helium nucleus measured more precisely than ever before
In experiments at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI, an international research collaboration has measured the radius of the atomic nucleus of helium five times more precisely than ever before. The new value can be used to test fundamental physical theories.
Magnetically shielded from the rest of the world
At the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI, researchers together with a company have constructed a room that is one of the best magnetically shielded places on the earth. With its help, they want to solve the last mysteries of matter and answer a fundamental question: Why does matter - and thus why do we - exist at all?
Nanostructures with a unique property
Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have for the first time identified special nano-vortices in a material: antiferromagnetic skyrmions.
In search of new physics
With the high-intensity proton accelerator HIPA, the Paul Scherrer Institute generates elementary particles to clarify how the universe is structured. Using pions, muons, and neutrons, the researchers conduct experiments to test the standard model of particle physics.
Zooming in on water splitting
Perovskite oxynitride materials can act as effective photocatalysts for water splitting driven by visible light. A combined neutron and x-ray study now provides unique insight into the underlying processes at the solid–liquid interface and highlights how solar-to-hydrogen conversion can be improved.
Laser focus on mesons
The first demonstration of laser spectroscopy of a meson, achieved at PSI's πE5 beamline, opens up new avenues for precision studies of ‘exotic atoms’.