Nuclear Physics at the Extremes: Theory & Experiment
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Surrey
Department Name: Physics
Abstract
For a hundred years, atomic nuclei have been probed more or less exclusively by studying collisions between stable beams and stable targets. This restricted the nuclei that could be studied to just a just a small fraction of those that are thought to exist. Most of the nuclei important to making all of the elements (in various stellar processes) have for example been inaccessible to experiment. The major thrust in nuclear physics worldwide, and a key priority in the UK's programme, is to reach out and study these exotic nuclei by using beams produced from short-lived radioactive isotopes. This in turn reveals that nuclear structure is not always like it seems to be for the stable nuclei, and nuclei are found to have surprising trends in stability and to have different shapes that will affect reaction rates inside stars and supernovae. At Surrey we take these UK priorities and the new opportunities very much to heart, and we seek out and lead programmes at the world's best facilities for making these radioactive beams. To make the beams is difficult and the facilities - as well as the research effort - are international in scale. Surrey builds and runs innovative experimental equipment at these facilities. The present grant request is focused on the exploitation of these capabilities at the best laboratories.
Experimental progress is intimately linked with theory, and the development of novel and better theoretical approaches are a hallmark of the Surrey group. An outstanding feature of the group as a whole, which is key to our research plans and acknowledged as a rare and valuable strength, is our powerful 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's road map. 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. It is unknown whether, and to what extent, the neutrons and protons can show different collective behaviour or even how many neutrons can bind to a given number of protons. It is features such as these that determine how stars explode. To tackle these problems, we need a more sophisticated understanding of the nuclear force, we need more powerful theories that can build this understanding into the calculations, and we need experimental information about nuclei with unusual numbers of neutrons relative to protons so that we can test our theoretical ideas. 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. Much of our activity addresses this "neutron rich" territory, exploiting the new capabilities made possible with radioactive beams and exploiting advances in computational power and analytical theories to bring superior new theoretical tools to bear on the latest observations.
Our principal motivation is the basic science and the STFC "big questions", and we contribute strongly to the world sum of knowledge and understanding. The radiation-detector advances that our work drives can be incorporated in medical diagnosis and treatment and in environmental management. We engage strongly with the National Physical Laboratory on these topics. 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. Furthermore, we have a keen interest in sharing our specialist knowledge with a wide audience, and actively pursue a public engagement agenda.
Experimental progress is intimately linked with theory, and the development of novel and better theoretical approaches are a hallmark of the Surrey group. An outstanding feature of the group as a whole, which is key to our research plans and acknowledged as a rare and valuable strength, is our powerful 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's road map. 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. It is unknown whether, and to what extent, the neutrons and protons can show different collective behaviour or even how many neutrons can bind to a given number of protons. It is features such as these that determine how stars explode. To tackle these problems, we need a more sophisticated understanding of the nuclear force, we need more powerful theories that can build this understanding into the calculations, and we need experimental information about nuclei with unusual numbers of neutrons relative to protons so that we can test our theoretical ideas. 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. Much of our activity addresses this "neutron rich" territory, exploiting the new capabilities made possible with radioactive beams and exploiting advances in computational power and analytical theories to bring superior new theoretical tools to bear on the latest observations.
Our principal motivation is the basic science and the STFC "big questions", and we contribute strongly to the world sum of knowledge and understanding. The radiation-detector advances that our work drives can be incorporated in medical diagnosis and treatment and in environmental management. We engage strongly with the National Physical Laboratory on these topics. 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. Furthermore, we have a keen interest in sharing our specialist knowledge with a wide audience, and actively pursue a public engagement agenda.
Planned Impact
The proposed research will benefit end users in the nuclear industry, such as AWE, National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL), the Environment Agency, BAE systems, Public Heath England and radiation detection instrumentation manufacturers such as Kromek, Canberra and ORTEC, through trained manpower (PhDs, PDRAs and graduates from the two Surrey MSc programmes on Medical Physics and Radiation and Environmental Protection) as well as the carefully measured and evaluated nuclear decay and structure data provided by the group. The Surrey group's formal links with the NPL Radioactivity Group as part of the wider NPL-Surrey partnership provide the ideal bridge to facilitate this. The Surrey/NPL link is crucial to the STFC funded UK Nuclear Data Network and provides a direct link to the UK Nuclear Science Forum (UKNSF), which is responsible for the industrial end users of nuclear data within the UK. Additional links with major end users of nuclear data include work with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Nuclear medicine clinics worldwide measure the radioactivity content of radiopharmaceuticals, such as radium, immediately prior to administration (for patient safety and regulatory compliance). Beneficiaries of our research will therefore also be the 3000 (and growing) nuclear medicine clinics worldwide. The group's work in this field will contribute towards improved safety and effectiveness of treatment for hundreds of thousands of patients worldwide undergoing cancer therapy. It will also enable a major pharmaceutical company to meet regulatory requirements, and proceed with clinical trials on further alpha-particle emitting radiopharmaceuticals.
The many varied public engagement activities of the group will benefit wider society, whether it be schools, the media, policy makers or the wider public. The group will continue to contribute to the dissemination of expert knowledge and advice when science stories aligned with its research are in the news by talking to journalists in both the written and broadcast media and being prepared to be interviewed in the press, as they have done successfully for a number of years.
Through the various outreach activities to schools, science festivals, articles in the popular press, popular science books and television and radio programmes, the group will aim to 'inspire, enlighten and enthuse' not only the next generation of scientists and engineers, but those to whom the young turn for academic and career advice, such as parents and teachers.
Members of the group will provide expert advice on issues relating to this research and the wider area of nuclear and radiation physics and nuclear safety, to government committees and policy makers to ensure that, on such sensitive and often complex topics, policies are evidence based and founded on the most accurate available scientific knowledge.
Nuclear medicine clinics worldwide measure the radioactivity content of radiopharmaceuticals, such as radium, immediately prior to administration (for patient safety and regulatory compliance). Beneficiaries of our research will therefore also be the 3000 (and growing) nuclear medicine clinics worldwide. The group's work in this field will contribute towards improved safety and effectiveness of treatment for hundreds of thousands of patients worldwide undergoing cancer therapy. It will also enable a major pharmaceutical company to meet regulatory requirements, and proceed with clinical trials on further alpha-particle emitting radiopharmaceuticals.
The many varied public engagement activities of the group will benefit wider society, whether it be schools, the media, policy makers or the wider public. The group will continue to contribute to the dissemination of expert knowledge and advice when science stories aligned with its research are in the news by talking to journalists in both the written and broadcast media and being prepared to be interviewed in the press, as they have done successfully for a number of years.
Through the various outreach activities to schools, science festivals, articles in the popular press, popular science books and television and radio programmes, the group will aim to 'inspire, enlighten and enthuse' not only the next generation of scientists and engineers, but those to whom the young turn for academic and career advice, such as parents and teachers.
Members of the group will provide expert advice on issues relating to this research and the wider area of nuclear and radiation physics and nuclear safety, to government committees and policy makers to ensure that, on such sensitive and often complex topics, policies are evidence based and founded on the most accurate available scientific knowledge.
Organisations
Publications
Gade A
(2022)
Dissipative Reactions with Intermediate-Energy Beams: A Novel Approach to Populate Complex-Structure States in Rare Isotopes.
in Physical review letters
Gade A
(2019)
Is the Structure of ^{42}Si Understood?
in Physical review letters
Estienne M
(2019)
Updated Summation Model: An Improved Agreement with the Daya Bay Antineutrino Fluxes.
in Physical review letters
Revel A
(2020)
Extending the Southern Shore of the Island of Inversion to F 28
in Physical Review Letters
Welker A
(2017)
Binding Energy of ^{79}Cu: Probing the Structure of the Doubly Magic ^{78}Ni from Only One Proton Away.
in Physical review letters
Fruet G
(2020)
Advances in the Direct Study of Carbon Burning in Massive Stars.
in Physical review letters
Walker PM
(2020)
Properties of ^{187}Ta Revealed through Isomeric Decay.
in Physical review letters
Li HF
(2022)
First Application of Mass Measurements with the Rare-RI Ring Reveals the Solar r-Process Abundance Trend at A=122 and A=123.
in Physical review letters
Chen ZQ
(2019)
Proton Shell Evolution below ^{132}Sn: First Measurement of Low-Lying ß-Emitting Isomers in ^{123,125}Ag.
in Physical review letters
Paul N
(2019)
Prominence of Pairing in Inclusive (p,2p) and (p,pn) Cross Sections from Neutron-Rich Nuclei.
in Physical review letters
Sun Y
(2020)
Restoration of the natural E(1/2 1 + ) - E(3/2 1 + ) energy splitting in odd-K isotopes towards N = 40
in Physics Letters B
Holl M
(2019)
Quasi-free neutron and proton knockout reactions from light nuclei in a wide neutron-to-proton asymmetry range
in Physics Letters B
Algora A
(2021)
Total absorption gamma-ray spectroscopy study of the ß-decay of 186Hg
in Physics Letters B
Pereira-López X
(2020)
Low-lying single-particle structure of 17C and the N = 14 sub-shell closure
in Physics Letters B
Boso A
(2019)
Isospin dependence of electromagnetic transition strengths among an isobaric triplet
in Physics Letters B
Gade A
(2020)
In-beam ?-ray spectroscopy at the proton dripline: 40Sc
in Physics Letters B
Auranen K
(2019)
Proton decay of 108I and its significance for the termination of the astrophysical rp-process
in Physics Letters B
Rudigier M
(2020)
Multi-quasiparticle sub-nanosecond isomers in 178W
in Physics Letters B
Moschini L
(2021)
Tracing the dynamical interplay of low-energy reaction processes of exotic nuclei using a two-center molecular continuum
in Physics Letters B
Wimmer K
(2019)
Discovery of 68Br in secondary reactions of radioactive beams
in Physics Letters B
Morrison L
(2023)
Quadrupole and octupole collectivity in the semi-magic nucleus 80 206 Hg126
in Physics Letters B
Keeble J
(2020)
Machine learning the deuteron
in Physics Letters B
Chen S
(2023)
Level structures of 56,58Ca cast doubt on a doubly magic 60Ca
in Physics Letters B
Nesterenko D
(2020)
Three beta-decaying states in 128In and 130In resolved for the first time using Penning-trap techniques
in Physics Letters B
Ozturk F
(2019)
New test of modulated electron capture decay of hydrogen-like 142Pm ions: Precision measurement of purely exponential decay
in Physics Letters B
Yang L
(2021)
Insight into the reaction dynamics of proton drip-line nuclear system 17F+58Ni at near-barrier energies
in Physics Letters B
Diaz-Torres A
(2024)
Cluster effects on low-energy carbon burning
in Physics Letters B
Petrache C
(2019)
Diversity of shapes and rotations in the ?-soft 130Ba nucleus: First observation of a t-band in the A = 130 mass region
in Physics Letters B
Ralet D
(2019)
Evidence of octupole-phonons at high spin in 207Pb
in Physics Letters B
Berry T
(2019)
Investigation of the ?n = 0 selection rule in Gamow-Teller transitions: The ß-decay of 207Hg
in Physics Letters B
Marmugi L
(2018)
Coherent gamma photon generation in a Bose-Einstein condensate of 135 m Cs
in Physics Letters B
Vaquero V
(2019)
Inclusive cross sections for one- and multi-nucleon removal from Sn, Sb, and Te projectiles beyond the N = 82 shell closure
in Physics Letters B
Watanabe H
(2019)
New isomers in 125Pd79 and 127Pd81: Competing proton and neutron excitations in neutron-rich palladium nuclides towards the N = 82 shell closure
in Physics Letters B
Zhang G
(2019)
Interplay of quasiparticle and vibrational excitations: First observation of isomeric states in 168Dy and 169Dy
in Physics Letters B
Ota S
(2020)
Decay properties of 22Ne + a resonances and their impact on s-process nucleosynthesis
in Physics Letters B
Fernández-Domínguez B
(2018)
Re-examining the transition into the N = 20 island of inversion: Structure of 30Mg
in Physics Letters B
Cryer-Jenkins EA
(2020)
Gamow's cyclist: a new look at relativistic measurements for a binocular observer.
in Proceedings. Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences
Stevenson P
(2019)
Low-energy heavy-ion reactions and the Skyrme effective interaction
in Progress in Particle and Nuclear Physics
Timofeyuk N
(2020)
Theory of deuteron stripping and pick-up reactions for nuclear structure studies
in Progress in Particle and Nuclear Physics
Aumann T
(2021)
Quenching of single-particle strength from direct reactions with stable and rare-isotope beams
in Progress in Particle and Nuclear Physics
Gurgi L
(2017)
Isomer spectroscopy of neutron-rich 168Tb103
in Radiation Physics and Chemistry
Walker P
(2022)
Isomers as a bridge between nuclear and atomic physics
in Radiation Physics and Chemistry
Larijani C
(2017)
Progress on the chemical separation of fission fragments from 236 Np produced by proton irradiation of natural uranium target
in Radiation Physics and Chemistry
Stevenson P
(2020)
A time-dependent Hartree-Fock study of triple-alpha dynamics
in SciPost Physics Proceedings
Lotay G
(2019)
Identification of $\gamma$-decaying resonant states in 26Mg and their importance for the astrophysical s process
in The European Physical Journal A
Drissi M
(2020)
Renormalization of pionless effective field theory in the A-body sector
in The European Physical Journal A
Nichols A
(2023)
Improving fission-product decay data for reactor applications: part I-decay heat
in The European Physical Journal A
Adamian G
(2020)
How to extend the chart of nuclides?
in The European Physical Journal A
Algora A
(2021)
Beta-decay studies for applied and basic nuclear physics
in The European Physical Journal A
Drissi M
(2022)
Many-body approximations to the superfluid gap and critical temperature in pure neutron matter
in The European Physical Journal A