About EPJ
The European Physical Journal (EPJ) is a series of peer-reviewed journals covering the whole spectrum of physics and related interdisciplinary subjects. EPJ is committed to high scientific quality in publishing and is indexed in all main citation databases.
Latest news
EPJ E Highlight - Deflating beach balls and drug delivery
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- Published on 21 October 2019
The deflation of beach balls, squash balls and other common objects offers a good model for distortion in microscopic hollow spheres. This can help us understand the properties of some cells and, potentially, develop new drug delivery mechanisms.
Many natural microscopic objects – red blood cells and pollen grains, for example – take the form of distorted spheres. The distortions can be compared to those observed when a sphere is ‘deflated’; so that it steadily loses internal volume. Until now, most of the work done to understand the physics involved has been theoretical. Now, however, Gwennou Coupier and his colleagues at Grenoble Alps University, France have shown that macroscopic-level models of the properties of these tiny spheres agree very well with this theory. The new study, which has implications for targeted drug delivery, was recently published in EPJ E.
EPJ B Highlight - Determining the shapes of atomic clusters
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- Published on 16 October 2019
By considering the crystal structures of atomic clusters in new ways, researchers may be able to better assess whether the groups have distinctive shapes, or whether they are amorphous.
Too large to be classed as molecules, but too small to be bulk solids, atomic clusters can range in size from a few dozen to several hundred atoms. The structures can be used for a diverse range of applications, which requires a detailed knowledge of their shapes. These are easy to describe using mathematics in some cases; while in others, their morphologies are far more irregular. However, current models typically ignore this level of detail; often defining clusters as simple ball-shaped structures. In research published in EPJ B, José M. Cabrera-Trujillo and colleagues at the Autonomous University of San Luis Potosí in Mexico propose a new method of identifying the morphologies of atomic clusters. They have now confirmed that the distinctive geometric shapes of some clusters, as well as the irregularity of amorphous structures, can be fully identified mathematically.
EPJ D Highlight - Modelling ion beam therapy
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- Published on 09 October 2019
Recent analysis shows precisely how beams of charged particles transfer their energy to water, which has important implications for how these beams are targeted in ion beam cancer therapy.
Hadron beam therapy, which is often used to treat solid tumours, involves irradiating a tumour with a beam of high-energy charged particles, most often protons; these transfer their energy to the tumour cells, destroying them. It is important to understand the precise physics of this energy transfer so the tumour can be targeted precisely. Pablo de Vera of MBN Research Center, Frankfurt, Germany and co-workers in the Universities of Murcia and Alicante, Spain, have produced a consistent theoretical interpretation of the most accurate experimental measurements of ion beams energy deposition in liquid water jets, which is the most relevant substance for simulating interactions with human tissue. Their work is published in EPJ D.
Open calls for papers
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EPJ ST Special Issue: Challenges in Nanoscale Physics of Wetting Phenomena
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EPJ ST Special Issue: Elko and Mass Dimension One Fermions
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EPJA Topical Issue: Light clusters in nuclei and nuclear matter: Nuclear structure and decay, heavy ion collisions, and astrophysics
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EPJ D Topical Issue: Atomic Cluster Collisions (2019)
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EPJ Quantum Technology: Special Issue on Quantum Metrology & Quantum Enhanced Measurement
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EPJ D Topical Issue: Topological Ultracold Atoms and Photonic Systems
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EPJ ST Special Issue: Special Chaotic Systems
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EPJB: Topical Issue on Advances in Quasi-Periodic and Non-Commensurate Systems
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EPJ D Topical Issue: Quantum Technologies for Gravitational Physics
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EPJB: Topical Issue on Recent Advances in the Theory of Disordered Systems
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EPJ ST Special Issue: Nonextensive Statistical Mechanics, Superstatistics and Beyond: Theory and Applications in Astrophysical and Other Complex Systems
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EPJ Quantum Technology: Special issue on Quantum Magnetometers
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EPJE Topical Issue: Dielectric Spectroscopy Applied to Soft Matter
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EPJA Topical Issue: First joint gravitational wave and electromagnetic observations: Implications for nuclear and particle physics
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EPJ Techniques and Instrumentation: Thematic Series on Novel Plasma Diagnostics
