US-Mexico Collaborative Research in RNB Physics

University Of Notre Dame, Notre Dame IN

Investigators

Abstract

0305347 Kolata This U.S.-Mexico award will support Dr. James J. Kolata of the University of Notre Dame in a research collaboration with Dr. Eli F. Aguilera of the Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Nucleares (ININ) in Mexico City, Mexico. The researchers intend to work on reaction mechanisms in the interactions of weakly bound radioactive beams with normal nuclei. Research already carried out by the members of this collaboration has provided evidence for a number of rather dramatic new phenomena associated with "neutron-halo" systems affecting both the fusion and transfer/breakup cross sections. An extension of this program to directly investigate the neutron degrees of freedom in more detail is vital to achieving an understanding of these phenomena. In addition, it is natural to ask whether similar phenomena might occur in the interactions of "proton-halo" nuclei. The latter portion of the program will be carried out using the ATLAS linear accelerator at Argonne National Laboratory. Taken together, these two inter-related programs will lead to a much better understanding of the reaction mechanisms for and the structure of exotic, weakly-bound nuclear systems. This work will help to prepare the ground for research carried out with the next generation of radioactive nuclear beam (RNB) facilities in the US and abroad. The Office of International Science and Engineering and the Division of Physics of NSF are contributing funds for the research.