{"id":29727,"date":"2026-08-18T13:50:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T17:50:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/?p=29727"},"modified":"2026-08-18T14:24:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T18:24:30","slug":"marshall-professors-research-highlighted-in-leading-astrophysics-journal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/2026\/08\/marshall-professors-research-highlighted-in-leading-astrophysics-journal\/","title":{"rendered":"Marshall professor\u2019s research highlighted in leading astrophysics journal"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Dr. Maria C. Babiuc Hamilton, a professor of physics in Marshall University\u2019s College of Science, has teamed up with Dr. Axel Gross of the Los Alamos National Laboratory and student Owen Odney of Purdue University to conduct research that has been published by The Astrophysical Journal. It can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/iopscience.iop.org\/article\/10.3847\/1538-4357\/ae8d20\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The publication is among the most prestigious peer-reviewed academic journals in the field of astronomy and astrophysics, published by the Institute of Physics\u2019 IOS Publishing on behalf of the American Astronomical Society. It shares the most significant new research relevant to astrophysical applications.<\/p>\n<p>Hamilton\u2019s research explores nuclear isomers and how they affect the radioactive signals produced after neutron-star mergers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen neutron stars collide, they create many of the heaviest elements in the universe,\u201d Hamilton said. \u201cOur study shows that some of the atomic nuclei formed in these collisions may release distinctive gamma rays hours or days later. Detecting these signals could help us understand how heavy elements are made and provide a new way to study neutron-star mergers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis research asks a simple but important question: Can unusual atomic nuclei created in neutron-star collisions leave signals that we can detect? Our results suggest that they can. This gives us a new way to study how the universe produces heavy elements.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hamilton said she is proud that this work was carried out at Marshall University.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt shows how our faculty can bring together researchers from national laboratories and undergraduate students to combine fundamental physics and advanced computation in addressing questions of broad scientific interest,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>For more information about Marshall\u2019s Department of Mathematics and Physics, visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/math-physics\">https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/math-physics<\/a>\/.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr. Maria C. Babiuc Hamilton, a professor of physics in Marshall University\u2019s College of Science, has teamed up with Dr. Axel Gross of the Los Alamos National Laboratory and student Owen Odney of Purdue University to conduct research that has been published by The Astrophysical Journal. It can be found here. The publication is among [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":239,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cos","category-news-releases"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/239"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29727"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29729,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29727\/revisions\/29729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}