Studies of Nuclear Reactions and Structure

Florida State University, Tallahassee FL

Investigators

Abstract

This project on Studies of Nuclear Reactions and Structure will support fundamental research in experimental nuclear physics and the training of Ph.D. students for service to the nation in forefront scientific research, education, homeland defense, national security, and enhancing economic competitiveness. At the John D. Fox Superconducting Accelerator Laboratory at Florida State University, the new RESOLUT rare ion facility will allow the study of the reactions and structure of nuclei far from stability which are critical to astrophysics and the interpretation of observations made by the new astronomical observatories. Our unique beams of 14C will allow us to study how the most fundamental property of nuclear structure, the shells, changes with increasing imbalance in the proportion of neutrons to protons. The home laboratory is also an ideal hands-on training ground for Ph.D. students Other nuclear structure studies will be carried out at international facilities such as Gammasphere at ATLAS and the National Superconducting Accelerator Laboratory. Other components of our research program include leading efforts at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider to study a new form of matter that existed a fraction of a second after the Big Bang and at CB-ELSA in Bonn, Germany to search for previously unseen excited baryon resonances.