Proposal for support of Nuclear Physics Research

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9421500 Cline Research will be carried out in nuclear structure and reactions using low energy heavy ions, and in relativistic heavy ion physics exploring quark-gluon degrees of freedom. The low energy experiments will focus on studies of rotational and vibrational collective excitations, properties of deformed and superdeformed nuclei, and the role and nature of the pairing interaction which controls the behavior of systems at high angular momentum. Use will be made of the new high-multiplicity gamma ray detector, Gammasphere, for some of the measurements. Other experiments will continue the search for anomalous decay lines in the spectra of electrons and positrons emitted during low energy collisions of the heaviest nuclei (uranium plus uranium), which would be a signature for physics beyond conventional and currently understood nuclear and electrodynamical processes. In addition, a new program of detector development will be started aimed at exploring the production of a quark-gluon plasma in relativistic heavy ion collisions at the RHIC accelerator. This and related experiments will test our understanding of the conditions under which confined quarks are liberated and how these quarks and gluons interact to form hadrons. All these activities are of high, current scientific interest within the nuclear physics community. Development and construction of state-of-the-art detectors is integral to this activity. Education of graduate students and postdocs is a strong component of this grant to the University of Rochester Nuclear Physics Group. ***