Many-Body Collision Dynamics Involving Particles and Antiparticles

Missouri University Of Science And Technology, Rolla MO

Investigators

Abstract

In this project the most basic atomic fragmentation processes will be studied. By monitoring the motion of all fragments produced in the reaction complete information about the atomic system will be obtained. These studies directly address one of the most fundamentally important, and yet unsolved problems in Physics, the so-called few-body problem. Its essence is that any system with more than two mutually interacting particles cannot be described analytically by theory even when the initial conditions and the forces acting within the system are precisely known. Therefore, detailed experimental data on the most basic systems are crucially important to guide theoretical efforts in finding numeric solutions. This work addresses systems of 3 to 5 active particles and stringently tests theoretical models which numerically treat few-body interactions. Understanding such simple systems is a prerequisite for describing more complex systems on a fundamental level. Advancing our understanding of the few-body problem, and then making the transition from few to many particles, has far-reaching ramifications in almost all areas of modern research. For example, modeling chemical or biological processes requires simulating interactions involving many particles. Understanding such reactions has major impacts on developing new chemical compounds and on future medical applications like e.g. new cancer therapy methods. Interactions with or within e.g. clusters, plasmas, solids, and Bose-Einstein condensates also involve a large number of particles. For such complex systems theoretical models developed for basic 3 to 5 particle systems can serve as a base to provide a more detailed description. As a last example, theoretical few-body models developed for atomic systems can be applied to elementary particle reactions and thereby help to advance our understanding of the underlying nuclear forces in such systems, which at present is still rather incomplete.