Learn more about our high-energy physics research


Learn more about our high-energy physics research
Learn more about the Surrogate Reactions Method


Learn more about the Surrogate Reactions Method
Learn more about our nuclear fission research


Learn more about our nuclear fission research
Learn more about our accelerator science research


Learn more about our accelerator science research
The Nuclear and Particle Physics group at LLNL addresses emerging nuclear security challenges through the application of fundamental research at the frontiers of physics.
Our expertise in accelerator physics, complex data analysis, and detector design and construction—coupled with access to state-of-the-art engineering and high-performance computing facilities—allow us to probe the fundamental interactions of elementary particles and nuclei. Our findings are directly applicable to LLNL’s national security mission, providing insights into and solutions for the evolving nuclear security landscape.
Explore this site to learn more about our research and the facilities we use.
Featured publications

Fissile material detection using neutron time-correlations from photofission | AIP Advances, 2019
R.A. Soltz, A. Danagoulian, E.P. Hartouni, M.S. Johnson, S.A. Sheets, A. Glenn, S.E. Korbly, and R.J. Ledoux

The surprisingly large neutron capture cross-section of 88Zr | Nature, 2019
J.A. Shusterman, N.D. Scielzo, K.J. Thomas, E.B. Norman, S.E. Lapi, C.S. Loveless, N.J. Peters, J.D. Robertson, D.A. Shaughnessy, and A.P. Tonchev

Towards Neutron Capture on Exotic Nuclei: Demonstrating (d,pγ) as a Surrogate Reaction for (n,γ) | Phys. Rev. Lett., 2019
A. Ratkiewicz, J.A. Cizewski, J.E. Escher, G. Potel, J.T. Burke, R.J. Casperson, M. McCleskey, R.A.E. Austin, S. Burcher, R.O. Hughes, B. Manning, S.D. Pain, W.A. Peters, S. Rice, T.J. Ross, N.D. Scielzo, C. Shand, and K. Smith

Observation of centrality-dependent acoplanarity for muon pairs produced via two-photon scattering in Pb+Pb collisions at √sNN=5.02 TeV with the ATLAS detector | Phys. Rev. Lett., 2018
M. Aaboud, A. Angerami, et al. (ATLAS Collaboration)

Sensitivity and discovery potential of the proposed nEXO experiment to neutrinoless double-β decay | Phys. Rev. C, 2018
J.B. Albert, J.P. Brodsky, M. Heffner, S. Sangiorgio, T. Stiegler, et al. (nEXO Collaboration)