Nuclear Astrophysics, Nuclear Physics, and Fundamental Particles

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This proposal describes an integrated research program in nuclear astrophysics, nuclear physics, and fundamental particle physics. Most of the nuclear astrophysics studies involve reactions on radioactive nuclides, and thus require use of radioactive beam facilities. Most of these reactions are of interest to primordial nucleosynthesis, as they will allow prediction of abundances of nuclides heavier than carbon in the big bang, thus providing new tests of models of primordial nucleosynthesis. Another study is directed at the p-process of nucleosynthesis, thought to occur in extreme stellar conditions. The information resulting from these studies also will contribute to the general body of knowledge of nuclear states in nuclei far from stability. A fundamental particle study will search for stable or long lived "strangelets," nuclei composed of up, down and strange quarks, of importance to theories of nuclear matter. The theoretical work focuses on new abundance predictions for primordial nucleosynthesis using the reaction rates determined in the experimental studies. Work of gamma-ray bursts will attempt to elucidate the nature of those phenomena. Finally, preliminary work on a new kind of supernova detector will continue; it will be capable of testing models of stellar collapse, and can also measure the masses of heavy neutrinos to unprecedented accuracy.