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IU Physicists, Dept. Of Energy Break Ground On Research Facility

Last updated on Thursday, April 16, 2009

(NEWPORT NEWS, VA) - If you have been looking for news about nuclear physics and quantum mechanics lately, we finally have a story for you.

Indiana University physicists have been theorizing about the nature of quarks, which are the sub-subatomic particles that scientists believe make up protons, neutrons and electrons in atoms, and specifically have been speculating about what holds them together.

And, up until Tuesday, all that theorization has been just that...theory...formulas and extrapolations on paper.

But on Tuesday, the US Department of Energy along with IU physicists have broken ground on a new research facility in Newport News, Virginia, that is intended to physically study, among other things, what are known as "exotic hybrid mesons," which, along with gluons, are the theoretical glue that holds these less-than-microscopic quark particles together.

The $14.1 million Glue-X facility, as it will be called, will expand the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility as part of a $310 million overall project.

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