The prestigious "Enrico Fermi" Prize has been awarded for 2017 to Gianpaolo Bellini, Veniamin Berezinsky and Till Arnulf Kirsten "for their outstanding contributions to neutrino physics and astrophysics", in particular:

• to Gianpaolo BELLINI (Università di Milano and INFN-Sezione di Milano), "for the measurement of the solar neutrino spectrum, providing the evidence for nuclear hydrogen fusion in the Sun and for adiabatic neutrino flavour conversion in matter";

• to Veniamin BEREZINSKY (Gran Sasso Science Institute-GSSI and INFN-LNGS, L’Aquila), "for his theoretical contributions to the cosmogenic production of ultra-high energy neutrinos, to high energy neutrino astronomy and to the solar neutrino problem";

• to Till Arnulf KIRSTEN (Max-Planck Institut für Kernphysik, Heidelberg), "for the first observation of low energy solar electron neutrinos providing the first direct evidence of hydrogen fusion inside a star".

The "Enrico Fermi" Prize was created by the Italian Physical Society (SIF) in 2001 and it is yearly awarded to one or more members of the Society, who particularly honoured physics with their discoveries. The award ceremony will be part of the opening session of the 103rd National Congress of the Society in Trento on the 11th September 2017.

 SIF press release (Italian and English)

Spectrally narrow x-ray pulses may be “sharpened” by purely mechanical means. This sounds surprisingly, but a team of theoretical and experimental physicists developed and realized such a method. It is based on fast motions, precisely synchronized with the pulses, of a target interacting with the x-ray light. Thereby, photons are redistributed within the x-ray pulse to the desired spectral region. (Science, 28 July 2017)

 Science Article (28 July 2017)

The properties of cold negative molecular ions were investigated using OH^– anions in the Ultracold Storage Ring CSR at the Heidelberg MPI for Nuclear Physics. Under space-like conditions, the free radiative cooling of OH_^– down to rotational ground state was monitored at an ambient temperature of less than 10 K. As a "thermometer", the rotational state-dependent photodetachment of the weakly bound electron was measured. The analysis of the experimental data provides new and fundamental knowledge about the interaction of the molecule with infrared radiation.

 Article at Physical Review Letters (14 July 2017)