Nuclear Structure of Exotic Nuclei

University Of Rochester, Rochester NY

Investigators

Abstract

The primary goal of this research program is to provide the evidence needed to develop a mean field theory that will have strong predictive power throughout the nuclear landscape from stable to the limits of stability. The research will exploit the premier new radioactive beam facilities, namely ATLAS-CARIBU at Argonne, ReA3/NSCL at Michigan State University, TRIUMF/ISAC2 and CERN/ISOLDE in Geneva in order to probe unusual nuclear structure phenomena in unexplored regions of nuclei far from stability. Electromagnetic excitation (Coulomb excitation) and nucleon transfer reactions will be the experimental probes emphasized in the research. The program will open new research opportunities as well as provide a foundation enabling full exploitation of the FRIB facility now under construction at Michigan State University. The group will continue making important technical contributions to nuclear science. Prior examples such as heavy-ion detectors CHICO and Bambino, as well as contributions to the gamma-ray detector arrays Gammasphere, GRETINA/GRETA, and the techniques of Coulomb excitation, heavy-ion induced transfer, and fission-fragment spectroscopy, are the culmination of many years of effort at Rochester. A new generation heavy-ion detector, CHICO2 will be developed in order to achieve the ultimate resolution with the next generation high-resolution gamma-ray tracking detector systems GRETINA/GRETA and TIGRESS. Such detector systems will provide a resolving power that is orders of magnitude better than currently available, enabling studies that at present are inaccessible to nuclear science. Besides having an enormous impact on nuclear science, the potential impact of such gamma-ray tracking and imaging detectors has a wide range of applications to science, medicine, industry, and nuclear safeguards. The proposed research and detector development programs are an ideal environment for graduate and post-doctoral education.