Atomic recoil Atomic recoil Atomic recoil is the result of the interaction of an atom with an energetic elementary particle, when the momentum of the interacting particle is transferred to the atom as whole without altering non-translational degrees of freedom of the atom. It is a purely quantum phenomenon. Atomic recoil was discovered by Harriet Brooks, Canada's first female nuclear physicist. If the transferred momentum of atomic recoil is enough to disrupt the crystal lattice of the material, a vacancy defect is formed; otherwise a phonon is generated. Closely related to atomic recoil is electron recoil (see photoexcitation and photoionization), and nuclear
Lightest Supersymmetric Particle Lightest Supersymmetric Particle In particle physics, the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) is the generic name given to the lightest of the additional hypothetical particles found in supersymmetric models. In models with R-parity conservation, the LSP is stable; in other words, the LSP cannot decay into any Standard Model particle, since all SM particles have the opposite R-parity. There is extensive observational evidence for an additional component of the matter density in the Universe that goes under the name dark matter. The LSP of supersymmetric models is a dark matter candidate and is a weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP). The LSP