NSF-South Africa Workshop on Nuclear Physics, May 2011

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NON-TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION: The purpose of this project is to hold a workshop at the National Institute for Theoretical Physics (NITheP) in Stellenbosch, South Africa, in May, 2011, on the topic of theoretical and experimental nuclear physics. The host is Prof. Frederik Scholtz, Director of the NITheP. This workshop includes both junior and senior physicists, not only from the US and South Africa, but also from Europe and Japan as well as other countries in Africa. The goal is both to provide educational training and mentoring for the student participants and to establish new reserach collaborations between the South African nuclear physicists and the overseas participants, especially those from the US. The benefits to the US participants are two-fold: 1.) the student participants gain new knowledge and experience in nuclear physics and build contacts with their South African peers, and 2.) the senior participants learn about new developments in nuclear physics both in South Africa and in other countries and form collaborative research projects with the South African nuclear physicists. Support for the US participants in this workshop is provided by this award.TECHNICAL DETAILS: The four components of the program are: (i) Algebraic approaches to the many-body problem; (ii) Physics of open quantum systems and non-hermitian quantum mechanics; (iii) Experimental gamma-ray spectroscopy; and (iv) Radioisotopes in science and industry. Topics (i) and (ii) represent cutting-edge nuclear theory; they are relevant to the science of radioactive beams worldwide, including on-going programs in the USA around the Holifield Radioactive Ion Beam Facility (HRIBF) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) at Michigan State University (MSU), and the Argonne Tandem-Linac Accelerator System (ATLAS), and future research at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) to be built at MSU. They use advanced analytical tools of mathematical physics, such as advanced boson mapping techniques, spectrum-generated algebras, and Rigged Quantum Mechanics, Effective Field Theory, as well as state-of-the-art numerical and computational tools, such as resonant state expansions, the Density Matrix Renormalization Group method, and the No Core Shell Model. Topic (iii) addresses a variety of burning questions in nuclear structure and the connections between nuclear structure and astrophysics, neutrino physics, and physics beyond the standard model. Topic (iv) includes a societal relevance as the iThemba Laboratory for Acceleration Based Sciences (LABS), the only producer of accelerator-based radionuclides in South Africa, plays an important role in the Virtual Isotope Center recently established by the Department of Energy. The programs have a hands-on component to train students, i.e., research projects carried out under the supervision of the senior participants. This approach stimulates student involvement and can lead to publications. Some students can also use these projects for credits at their home institutions. The proposed activity serves as a starting point for the preparation of a joint proposal with South African physicists on the nuclear many-body problem to be submitted to the National Science Foundation.