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Mitko Gaidarov joins the EPJ Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC)

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Published on 12 January 2026

The Steering Committee of EPJ is delighted to welcome Mitko Gaidarov, as the new representative of the Bulgarian Physical Society.

Professor Mitko Gaidarov is a professor of physics and the head of the Nuclear Theory Laboratory in the Institute of Nuclear Research and Nuclear Energy of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria.

In the past he was the Scientific Secretary and Vice-Director of this Institute.

He is a member of the C12 Commission on Nuclear Physics of the IUPAP, member of the Governing Board of the Union of Physicists in Bulgaria and Chair of Section “Physics” of the Union of Scientists in Bulgaria.

Mitko Gaidarov is an Editor-in-Chief of the Bulgarian Journal of Physics.
His interests are theoretical nuclear physics, nucleon correlations in nuclei, nuclear structure and nuclear reactions.

EPJ Plus Highlight - A better model for effective neutron capture therapy

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Published on 19 December 2025

Accounting for multiple neutron production mechanisms, the model makes safe neutron-based cancer treatments easier to control

Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) is an innovative technique for treating tumours that are non-operable, or resistant to more conventional treatments. To exploit BNCT’s potential at its best, a neutron beam with suitable energy and angular distributions is needed. Nowadays, proton accelerators coupled to lithium or beryllium targets are widely used as neutron sources, but so far, the yields of neutrons produced by the beryllium target, which is the safest and most controllable of the two, have proven difficult to calculate.

Through new research published in EPJ Plus, Alessandro Colombi and colleagues at Italy’s National Institute for Nuclear Physics have developed a new model for proton-BNCT, which can more accurately calculate the neutron beams produced when protons are fired into a thick beryllium-9 target. Their model could ultimately lead to more reliable techniques for treating malignant tumours.

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Farewell Renato Angelo Ricci

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Published on 17 December 2025

Former President of the European Physical Society and former President of the Italian Physical Society (SIF, 1981 - 1998), Prof. Renato Angelo Ricci had also led the preparations for merging parts of Il Nuovo Cimento into the newly launched EPJ during his final years as SIF president [II Nuovo Cimento: Historical Recollection]. In 1999 he then became (together with the late Prof. Andrea Taroni) a member of the newly formed EPJ Steering Committee, a role which he fulfilled with much dedication until his retirement from committee work in October of 2005, while remaining always interested in the further development of the EPJ journals.

Prof. Renato Ricci passed away on December 5, 2025.
News from Società Italiana di Fisica: Addio a Renato Angelo Ricci

EPJ Plus Focus Point Issue: Scientific Research in Cultural Heritage 2022

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Published on 12 December 2025

Guest Editors: Ludovic Bellot-Gurlet, Danilo Bersani, Anne-Solenn Le Hô, Delphine Neff, Laurianne Robinet, Aurélie Tournié

This EPJ Plus Focus Point on “Scientific Research in Cultural Heritage: articles from the 5th International Conference on Innovation in Art Research and Technology (inArt 2022)” brings together 33 papers from 47 oral presentations and 119 posters presented at the conference held in Paris from 28 June to 1 July 2022. These articles illustrate the wide range of topics covered at the conference, which fall within the scope of archaeometry or conservation science. The aspects presented in the various studies may concern issues of understanding ancient materials and techniques, as well as deterioration mechanisms and conservation strategies. Transversally, given the objects to be studied and the constraints posed by heritage objects, the use of mobile instruments and on-site measurements is involved in many of the works, whether in case studies or in the development of specific methodologies.

Since the 2022 edition in Paris, a new edition of the inArt conferences has been organised in Oslo (Norway) from 4 to 7 June 2024, which will again give rise to articles to be published in an EPJ Plus focus point on Advances and Innovation in Heritage Science.

All articles are available here and are freely accessible until 9 February 2026. For further information, read the Editorial.

EPJ C: Julia Vogel new Editor-in-Chief for Experimental Physics II: Astroparticle Physics

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Published on 12 December 2025

The publishers of The European Physical Journal C – Particles and Fields are pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Julia K. Vogel as new section Editor-in-Chief for Experimental Physics II: Astroparticle Physics, succeeding in this role to Professor Jocelyn Monroe as of 1 January 2026.

Julia K. Vogel is a Professor of Experimental Particle Physics without Collider at the Physics Department of TU Dortmund. Her scientific research focuses on axion and ALP dark matter searches, as well as X-ray astronomy, and multilayer-coated X-ray optics. She currently serves as Deputy Spokesperson of the IAXO Collaboration and leads the X-ray optics team of the experiment. She has furthermore significantly contributed to the CAST experiment and has also been a member of the initial NuSTAR science, instrument, and project teams, and was responsible for the on-ground calibration of the telescopes point spread function.

EPJ PV Highlight - Approaches for reducing metallization-induced losses in industrial TOPCon solar cells

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Published on 24 November 2025

Approaches for reducing metallization-induced losses in industrial TOPCon solar cells

The tunnel oxide passivating contact (TOPCon) structure has been widely accepted in industrial manufacturing, making it the dominating solar cell structure in 2025. One key to further increase conversion efficiency of such solar cells is minimizing carrier recombination at metal-semiconductor interfaces.

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EPJ Plus Focus Point: Best doctoral theses from the Spanish Royal Physics Society (RSEF) in 2023-24

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Published on 24 November 2025

Guest Editors: Luis Viña, María Luisa Sarsa, Rosa María Benito Zafrilla, Diego Porras Torre, Gastón García

In this special issue of EPJ Plus three articles are included, corresponding to the authors of the PhD thesis awarded by a biannual prize established by the The Spanish Royal Physics Society (“Real Sociedad Española de Física”, RSEF). These awards, announced in the biennial meeting in San Sebastian (Spain) in July 2025, highlight the work of researchers at the beginning of their careers and aim at encouraging others to apply for a thesis award, join the RSEF, and help physics contribute to creating a more educated, tolerant, diverse and resilient society.

All articles are available here and are freely accessible until 31 December 2025. For further information, read the Editorial.

EPJ Plus Highlight - Investigating charge transport in hybrid nanowires

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Published on 21 November 2025

Analysis reveals how electron-hole pairs are reflected and transmitted across the interfaces of a hybrid nanowire – featuring alternating sections of a normal conductor and a high-temperature superconductor.

High-temperature superconductors are quickly opening up new possibilities for nanoscale circuits, which are likely to become key building blocks of future quantum technologies. As this research advances, a deep understanding of how electrical currents flow through superconductors dominated by quantum effects is becoming increasingly important.

Through theoretical analysis detailed in EPJ Plus, Francisco Estrella and Linda Reichl at the University of Texas at Austin provide one of the most detailed descriptions to date of how electron-hole pairs behave within hybrid nanowires – made from alternating sections of normally conducting material and a high-temperature superconductor. Their results clarify how hybrid nanowires could become a reliable testbed for fundamental quantum phenomena and could help pave the way for their use in real-world quantum technologies.

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EPJ Plus Focus Point Issue: Tensions in Cosmology from Early to Late Universe: Part II: New Directions in the Light of Observations from the Most Modern Astronomical Facilities

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Published on 29 October 2025

Guest Editors: Salvatore Capozziello, E. Di Valentino, Vahe G. Gurzadyan

The papers included in this Focus Point collection are devoted to the studies on the cosmological tensions and challenges stimulated by the latest observational data. The first results of the LARES-2 laser ranging satellite on the high precision testing of the frame-dragging effect predicted by General Relativity are presented. The data on the S-stars monitoring in the Galactic center obtained by GRAVITY collaboration were analysed within the Physics-informed neural network (PINN) approach. The results enabled to probe the role of the cosmological constant, of the dark matter, the star cluster in the core of the Galaxy obtaining an upper limit for the star density. The topics include the conversion of high-frequency relic gravitational waves into photons in cosmological magnetic field, cosmological gravitational waves stochastic background generation through the spontaneous breaking of a global baryon number symmetry, observational predictions of the Starobinsky inflation model and other studies.

All articles are available here and are freely accessible until 31 December 2025. For further information, read the Editorial.

EPJ E Highlight - Modelling reversibility transitions in soft athermal materials

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Published on 21 October 2025

By accounting for long-range interactions between suspended particles, a new model provides a more accurate description of how soft athermal materials transition between reversible and irreversible states.

When soft athermal materials like foams, emulsions, or particle suspensions are gently shaken or sheared back and forth, they can learn to move in perfect rhythm: after each cycle, every particle returns to its original place. But if the driving becomes too strong, that tidy choreography breaks down, and particles wander irreversibly. This reversible–irreversible transition marks the boundary between an ordered and a chaotic state in driven soft matter. So far, however, researchers have struggled to recreate these properties through theoretical models – making it more difficult for them to understand how soft athermal materials behave in real-world applications.

Through new research published in EPJ E, a team led by CNRS researchers Romain Mari and Eric Bertin at Grenoble-Alpes University introduces a new and improved model, which reproduces the reversible–irreversible transition far more accurately. Their approach offers fresh insights into the deeply complex behaviours of soft athermal materials, and could help researchers to develop their application across a diverse range of real-world scenarios.

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