Nuclear Structure and Reactions: Theory and Experiment
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Surrey
Department Name: Physics
Abstract
Nuclear physics research is undergoing a transformation. For a hundred years, atomic nuclei have been probed by collisions between stable beams and stable targets, with just a small number of radioactive isotopes being available. Now, building on steady progress over the past 20 years, it is at last becoming possible to generate intense beams of a wide range of short-lived isotopes, so-called 'radioactive beams'. This enables us vastly to expand the scope of experimental nuclear research. For example, it is now realistic to plan to study in the laboratory a range of nuclear reactions that take place in exploding stars. Thereby, we will be able to understand how the chemical elements that we find on Earth were formed and distributed through the Universe. At the core of our experimental research is our strong participation at leading European radioactive-beam facilities: FAIR at GSI, Darmstadt, Germany; SPIRAL at GANIL, Caen, France; and ISOLDE at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland. While we are now contributing, or planning to contribute, to substantial technical developments at these facilities, the present grant request is focused on the exploitation of the capabilities that are now becoming available. To achieve our physics objectives, we also need to use other facilities, including stable-isotope accelerators, since these can provide complementary capabilities. Experimental progress is intimately linked with theory, where novel and practical approaches are a hallmark of the Surrey group. A key and unique feature (within the UK) of our group is our blend of theoretical and experimental capability. Our science goals are aligned with current STFC strategy for nuclear physics, as expressed in detail through the Nuclear Physics Advisory Panel. We wish to understand the boundaries of nuclear existence, i.e. the limiting conditions that enable neutrons and protons to bind together to form nuclei. Under such conditions, the nuclear system is in a delicate state and shows unusual phenomena. It is very sensitive to the properties of the nuclear force. For example, weakly bound neutrons can orbit their parent nucleus at remarkably large distances. This is already known, and our group made key contributions to this knowledge. What is unknown is whether, and to what extent, the neutrons and protons can show different collective behaviours. Also unknown, for most elements, is how many neutrons can bind to a given number of protons. It is features such as these that determine how stars explode. So, we need a more sophisticated understanding of the nuclear force, and we need experimental information about nuclei with unusual combinations of neutrons and protons to test our theoretical ideas and models. Therefore, theory and experiment go hand-in-hand as we push forward towards the nuclear limits. An overview of nuclear binding reveals that about one half of predicted nuclei have never been observed, and the vast majority of this unknown territory involves nuclei with an excess of neutrons. The focus of our activity addresses this 'neutron-rich' territory, exploiting the new capabilities with radioactive beams. Our principal motivation is the basic science, and we contribute strongly to the world sum of knowledge and understanding. Nevertheless, there are more-tangible benefits. For example, our radiation-detector advances can be incorporated in medical diagnosis and treatment. In addition, we provide an excellent training environment for our research students and staff, many of whom go on to work in the nuclear power industry, helping to fill the current skills gap. On a more adventurous note, our special interest in nuclear isomers (energy traps) could lead to novel energy applications. Furthermore, we have a keen interest in sharing our specialist knowledge with a wide audience, and we already have an enviable track record with the media.
Organisations
Publications
Zieblinski M
(2013)
Testing of the PARIS LaBr<sub><span class="cmr-7">3</span></sub>-NaI Phoswich Detector with High Energy Gamma-rays
in Acta Physica Polonica B
Zakari-Issoufou AA
(2015)
Total Absorption Spectroscopy Study of (92)Rb Decay: A Major Contributor to Reactor Antineutrino Spectrum Shape.
in Physical review letters
Zakari-Issoufou A
(2014)
Results of fission products ß decay properties measurement performed with a total absorption spectrometer
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Yuan C
(2016)
Isomerism in the "south-east" of 132Sn and a predicted neutron-decaying isomer in 129Pd
in Physics Letters B
Xu F
(2013)
New Studies on the Aspects of Nuclear Shapes
in Acta Physica Polonica B
Wu X
(2017)
Systematic study of multi-quasiparticle K -isomeric bands in tungsten isotopes by the extended projected shell model
in Physical Review C
Wood R
(2017)
Three-quasiparticle isomer in Ta 173 and the excitation energy dependence of K -forbidden transition rates
in Physical Review C
Wimmer K
(2012)
Correlations in intermediate energy two-proton removal reactions.
in Physical review letters
Wimmer K
(2014)
Elastic breakup cross sections of well-bound nucleons
Wimmer K
(2014)
Elastic breakup cross sections of well-bound nucleons
in Physical Review C
Wimmer K
(2012)
Probing elastic and inelastic breakup contributions to intermediate-energy two-proton removal reactions
in Physical Review C
Wilson G
(2016)
Shell evolution approaching the N= 20 island of inversion: Structure of 26Na
in Physics Letters B
Wilson E
(2014)
Study of 207 Tl 126 Produced in Deep-Inelastic Reactions
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Wilson E
(2013)
Core Excitations Across the Neutron Shell Gap in <sup><span class="cmr-7">207</span></sup>Tl
in Acta Physica Polonica B
Wilson E
(2015)
Core excitations across the neutron shell gap in 207Tl
in Physics Letters B
Watanabe H
(2013)
Isomers in 128Pd and 126Pd: evidence for a robust shell closure at the neutron magic number 82 in exotic palladium isotopes.
in Physical review letters
Walshe J
(2016)
Experimental study of high-lying states in Mg 28 using the resonant elastic scattering of a particles
in Physical Review C
Walker P
(2017)
Isomer building blocks and K -forbidden decays
in Physica Scripta
Walker P
(2013)
The ILIMA project at FAIR
in International Journal of Mass Spectrometry
Walker P
(2012)
On the possibility of enhanced fission stability for broken-pair excitations
in Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics
Walker P
(2016)
High- K isomerism in rotational nuclei
in Physica Scripta
Walker P
(2014)
Track it to the limit
in Nature Physics
Waldecker S
(2016)
Implications for ( d , p ) reaction theory from nonlocal dispersive optical model analysis of Ca 40 ( d , p ) Ca 41
in Physical Review C
Voss P
(2014)
Mg 19 two-proton decay lifetime
in Physical Review C
Vidaña I
(2014)
Effect of Tensor Correlations on the Density Dependence of the Nuclear Symmetry Energy
in Symmetry
Valencia E
(2014)
Gamma/neutron competition above the neutron separation energy in delayed neutron emitters
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Tu X
(2015)
Study of projectile fragmentation reaction with isochronous mass spectrometry
in Physica Scripta
Tostevin J. A.
(2012)
Direct Reaction Probes of Single-Particle States and Correlations
in PROGRESS OF THEORETICAL PHYSICS SUPPLEMENT
Tostevin J
(2014)
Systematics of intermediate-energy single-nucleon removal cross sections
in Physical Review C
Tostevin J
(2013)
Two-proton removal from 44 S and the structure of 42 Si
in Physical Review C
Tostevin J
(2014)
Systematics of intermediate-energy single-nucleon removal cross sections
Togano Y
(2016)
Interaction cross section study of the two-neutron halo nucleus 22 C
in Physics Letters B
Timofeyuk NK
(2013)
Nonlocality in deuteron stripping reactions.
in Physical review letters
Timofeyuk N
(2013)
Nonlocality in the adiabatic model of A ( d , p ) B reactions
in Physical Review C
Timofeyuk N
(2013)
Spectroscopic factors and asymptotic normalization coefficients for 0 p -shell nuclei: Recent updates
in Physical Review C
Timofeyuk N
(2017)
Hyperspherical Harmonics Expansion on Lagrange Meshes for Bosonic Systems in One Dimension
in Few-Body Systems
Timofeyuk N
(2015)
Convergence of the hyperspherical-harmonics expansion with increasing number of particles for bosonic systems. II. Inclusion of the three-body force
in Physical Review A
Timofeyuk N
(2012)
Convergence of the hyperspherical-harmonics expansion with increasing number of particles for bosonic systems
in Physical Review A
Timofeyuk N
(2014)
Overlap functions for reaction theories: challenges and open problems
in Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics
Timofeyuk N
(2012)
Core excitations and narrow states beyond the proton dripline: The exotic nucleus 21 Al
in Physical Review C
Timofeyuk N
(2015)
Widths of low-lying nucleon resonances in light nuclei in the source-term approach
in Physical Review C
Taprogge J
(2015)
ß decay of Cd 129 and excited states in In 129
in Physical Review C
Taprogge J
(2014)
1p3/2 proton-hole state in 132Sn and the shell structure along N = 82.
in Physical review letters
Tain JL
(2015)
Enhanced ?-Ray Emission from Neutron Unbound States Populated in ß Decay.
in Physical review letters
Tain J
(2015)
A decay total absorption spectrometer for DESPEC at FAIR
in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
Söderström P
(2013)
Shape evolution in 116 , 118 Ru: Triaxiality and transition between the O(6) and U(5) dynamical symmetries
in Physical Review C
Söderström P
(2012)
High-spin structure in 40 K
in Physical Review C
Swan T
(2012)
Discovery of isomers in dysprosium, holmium, and erbium isotopes with N = 94 to 97
in Physical Review C
Description | We have advanced the following areas: understanding the limits of the nuclear landscape, especially the neutron-rich limits; understanding and exploiting the reactions needed to reach the limits; studying and understanding novel structures observed on approaching the limits; engaging fully with the international community of nuclear physicists; disseminating results through leading journals and conferences; providing excellent training. |
Exploitation Route | The main beneficiaries of this work will be the national and international nuclear physics communities. In addition, the expected results on shell structure and isomeric states will also be of significant interest to the nuclear-astrophysics and isomer-application communities. We have an active involvement and information exchange with both these nuclear structure 'user' communities. The isomer work also links closely to the atomic physics community, in particular through the study of highly charged ions stored in rings and traps. Our theoretical methods will be of interest to the condensed-matter community, especially in relation to pairing condensates. The work on detector development has wide potential applications for medical diagnosis and treatment. The research will also provide manpower trained to a high level (PhDs and PDRAs with a deep understanding of radiation physics and sensor technologies) who may subsequently be employed in many different areas, such as national security, the nuclear power industries, environmental monitoring and control, and medical physics. |
Sectors | Education Energy Environment Healthcare Security and Diplomacy |
Description | No specific non-academic impact has yet become material. |