RUI: Radioactive Nuclear Beam Physics with Undergraduates at Hope College

Hope College, Holland MI

Investigators

Abstract

The Hope College Nuclear Group is involved in research with the Radioactive Nuclear Beams (RNB) available at the University of Notre Dame (ND), the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory at Michigan State University, and the BEARS facility at Lawrence Berkeley Labs. With this proposal, the Nuclear Group will continue to apply the expertise developed over many years of work in traditional areas of nuclear reaction studies and our recent experience with RNB to address questions about the behavior of the exotic nuclei. Specifically, this project seeks to develop the disciplines understanding of unstable nuclei. To do this measurements of various cross sections for a variety of unstable particles will be made including: two- and one-neutron transfer cross sections, near-barrier fusion-fission cross sections, and total reaction cross sections. To facilitate these studies, we will develop a variety of detectors (parallel-plate avalanche counters, neutron detectors and electron multipliers). We will also continue our analysis of a previous experiments and the preparation of other papers from past work. Undergraduate students from Hope College will participate in all aspects of the experiments: planning, detector development (including detector fabrication and testing), detector and electronic setup, data taking, off-line analysis, and modeling. Our experience over the years demonstrates that undergraduate research enhances a student's education and better prepares the student for graduate work or a wide variety of careers in either industry or academia.