RUI: Neutron Physics from 4HE to the Edge of the Dripline

Gettysburg College, Gettysburg PA

Investigators

Abstract

Exotic nuclei are short-lived, barely stable systems rich with neutrons - Oxygen-24, Lithium-12, Beryllium-13. Studies of such nuclei are a key component to the international long-range plan for nuclear physics. These nuclei provide us with new information about the structure of the nucleus. The US commitment to this work can be seen in the construction of the future Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL). This award is to support the work of the MoNA collaboration, a group comprised of research scientists, faculty, postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduates. We study the structure of exotic nuclei with a unique experimental system designed specifically for this kind of work, the Modular Neutron Array (MoNA), the new Large-area Multi-Institutional Scintillator Array (LISA), and the Sweeper charged-fragment detector system, using the rare isotope beams at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) and the future beams at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams. We work to better understand unbound states in light but neutron-rich nuclei. Through both knock-out dynamics and Coulomb dissociation, nuclear structure questions, especially how nuclear structure changes as a function of nuclear stability, are addressed. Our experimental campaign informs the astrophysics community, since our work helps determine the gamma-neutron rates in stellar processes.