Nuclear Structure Research

9901133Kolata圣母大学核结构实验室(NSL)开展了一项广泛的实验核物理计划。这项工作以NSL设施为中心，但也利用了其他实验室的加速器。该研究计划强调与其他大学的实验和理论物理学家的广泛合作，经常让这些科学家和他们的学生访问，以使用NSL的加速器设施。NSL的活跃研究领域包括与短寿命放射性核束的反应研究，核天体物理学，弱相互作用和相关基本过程的研究，以及核结构物理。这四个主题跨越了核物理研究的很大一部分前沿，与多体物理的其他领域有特别大的重叠。然而，它们都是密切相关的。例如，辐射束物理对现代核天体物理学研究和远离稳定性谷的核性质研究都是一个重要问题，而原子核作为一个量子多体系统的性质可以而且已经被用来在最基本的层面上更多地了解物理定律。NSL是发展低能放射性核束的开创性工作场所，也是核天体物理研究的重要中心。此外，当地的原子物理和辐射化学研究小组利用NSL的设施开展跨学科计划。目前对核天体物理学感兴趣的具体课题包括主序恒星中稳态“核燃烧”中元素的产生，以及新星和超新星爆炸等猛烈事件中元素的产生。放射性核束研究的目的是更好地了解与太阳中微子物理有关的核反应过程，以及出现在核稳定极限处的弱结合“晕”核的结构和反应，据信这些核具有非常分散的表面，富含中子或质子物质。基本相互作用计划强调了几个与探索基本粒子物理的标准电弱模型以外的物理相关的问题，包括在弱衰变中寻找“标量电流”，以及在中子衰变中对时间反转破坏的限制。此外，与太阳中微子物理的各个方面有关的原子核的弱衰变正在被探索中。核结构计划涉及对静态和动态核现象的研究，如原子核的简谐和非简谐振动，最近发现的“磁性”和“反磁性”旋转现象，以及试图对“超形变”原子核的结构进行更完整的描述。

9901133KolataThe University of Notre Dame Nuclear Structure Laboratory (NSL) carries out a broad-range program in experimental nuclear physics. This work is centered around the NSL facilities, but also utilizes accelerators at other laboratories. The research program emphasizes extensive collaborations with experimental and theoretical physicists at other universities, often involving visits by these scientists and their students in order to use the NSL accelerator facilities.The active areas of research at the NSL include reaction studies with short-lived radioactive nuclear beams, nuclear astrophysics, the study of weak interactions and related fundamental processes, and nuclear structure physics. These four topics span a large fraction of the frontiers of nuclear-physics research, and have a particularly large overlap with other areas of many-body physics. Yet, they are all closely related. For example, radioactive-beam physics is an important issue both for modern nuclear-astrophysics research and for the study of nuclear properties far from the valley of stability, while the properties of the nucleus as a quantal many-body system can and have been exploited to learn more about the laws of physics at the most fundamental level. The NSL is the site of pioneering work in the development of low-energy radioactive nuclear beams, and is an important center for research in nuclear astrophysics. In addition, local research groups in Atomic Physics and Radiation Chemistry carry out interdisciplinary programs using the NSL facilities.Specific topics of current interest in nuclear astrophysics include the production of the elements in steady-state "nuclear burning" in main sequence stars, and in violent events such as nova and supernova explosions. The radioactive nuclear beam research is directed at achieving a better understanding of nuclear reaction processes relevant for solar neutrino physics, as well as the structure and reactions of weakly-bound "halo" nuclei which appear at the limits of nuclear stability and are believed to have very diffuse surfaces that are rich in either neutron or proton matter. The fundamental-interactions program emphasizes several issues relevant to the search for physics beyond the standard electroweak model of elementary particle physics, including the search for "scalar currents" in weak decays and the limits to time-reversal violation in the decay of the neutron. In addition, the weak decays of nuclei relevant for various aspects of solar neutrino physics are being explored. The nuclear structure program involves the study of static and dynamic nuclear phenomena, such as the harmonic and anharmonic vibrations of nuclei, the recently discovered "magnetic" and "anti-magnetic" rotation phenomena, and the attempt to obtain a more complete description of the structure of "super-deformed" nuclei.