Studies of Nuclear Reactions and Structure

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This project focuses on fundamental research in nuclear physics structure and reactions. Much of the experimental work will be done in the John D. Fox Superconducting Laboratory on the Florida State University campus. The facility consists of a 9 MegaVolt tandem Van de Graaff accelerator and a superconducting.Linear Accelerator booster, the RESOLUT rare ion capability, and an array of high-resolution Compton-suppressed gamma detectors. Beams from the accelerator system will also be used for two separately funded experiments - the ANASEN cylindrical active target detector (in collaboration with physicists at Louisiana State University) and a precision Rutherford back scattering system for characterizing materials in surface science (in collaboration with the FSU National High Magnetic Field Laboratory).Much of the research to be performed under this grant will address important issues in astrophysics, such as the role of Nova explosions in nucleosynthesis and what the properties of very neutron-rich nuclei on and near the expected path of the rapid neutron capture (r) process tell us about the sites and conditions of this process which produced about 1/3 of the nuclei with atomic weights above 60. Other nuclear structure issues to be studied include how the shell structure changes with large neutron excess, complete spectroscopy in the Tungsten and Mercury isotopes, very light particle-unstable nuclei, and rotational bands in trans-Fermium nuclei. Another part of the program involves study of the properties of the quark-gluon plasma with heavy flavor probes using the PHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC).These studies should improve the understanding of astrophysics, which depends in part on knowledge of nuclear structure and reactions. The influence should be strongest on the more exotic processes, which have produced many of the elements in the universe. Studies at RHIC probe the conditions at the beginning of the universe.Our research group is very dedicated to providing scientific exposure and training to K-12 students, as well as undergraduates and graduate students. We present many tours of the laboratory, organize a Saturday Morning Physics lecture/demonstration program, provide real laboratory experience for high school juniors in a science summer school, judge science fairs, and make presentations to local schools. The quality of our training of Ph.D. graduate students goes well beyond the numbers of about 3 per year. This is because the hands-on experience graduate students get in our laboratory provides them with the best possible training in all high-tech aspects of the laboratory experience. Besides the more obvious skills in designing, preparing, performing, and analyzing nuclear physics experiments, students in our laboratory participate in everything from working inside the tandem accelerator, operating the superconducting LINAC, state-of-the-art electronics, cryogenics to high-vacuum technology. As a result, our graduates are highly employable and make valuable contributions to research, education, homeland defense, national security, medicine, and industry.