Theoretical Nuclear Structure Physics

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Our program is focused on gaining a better understanding of the properties of atomic nuclei, such as why certain nuclei like helium, oxygen, calcium, iron, etc. are more stable than their neighbors that are only a few nucleons richer or poorer, why nuclei like atoms form "closed shells" at "magic numbers" 2, 8, 20, 28, etc., why like-nucleons (protons or neutrons) like to pair with each other and less with one another, why some nuclei decay and others don't, and why a majority of nuclei have a deformed shape. Derivative issues are related to the energy released when some nuclei are fused (fusion) or when others break apart (fission). Truth be known, we simply do not understand nuclei either in terms of constituent parts - their quark substructure - or the strong forces that hold them together - the gluon fields that bind sets of three quarks into nucleons and nucleons to one another. Our goal is to understand real-world nuclei in terms of their building blocks and interactions between them, which spans questions as abstract as the origin of the universe and as practical as alternatives to fossil fuels.A cornerstone of the PI's program throughout its history has been the education and training of next generation scientists. Indeed, over the last ten years this program has produced eight Ph.D. students: two are continuing their research work as postdocs in academe, three hold staff positions in one of our national labs, and the remaining three are employed in industry. The PI is currently mentoring four Ph.D. students, two doing thesis work at DOE's JLab in Newport News, Virginia and another two still at LSU, one focused on "waiting point" nuclei that play a key role in nucleosynthesis and the other is working on so-called "no-core" shell-model calculations that is one of the field's "grand challenge" computational problems. The latter attempts to model the structure of real nuclei in terms of what is currently known about the constituent parts and the strong interaction. All but one of the students mentored through to the Ph.D. degree by the PI have been foreign nationals; all be one of these foreign national found practical training and ultimately long-term employment in the US.