EAPSI: Studying Exotic Nuclear Matter with a Particle Tracking Detector and Radioactive Beams

该奖项支持为即将在日本RIKEN稀有同位素束流设施（RIBF）进行的实验准备和测试大型探测器。这项工作将由RIBF首席科学家hirooshi Sakurai博士进行。该探测器将用于研究仅在RIBF可用的放射性光束碰撞产生的奇异物质形式。在实验室中创造奇异的核物质的应用范围从识别和治疗肿瘤，将废弃的放射性物质转化为更易于管理的形式，到理解物质为何稳定的背后原因。除了地球上能找到的化学元素之外，还有数百种化学元素可以被制造出来。这些元素与自然丰富的元素有关，因为它们是相同元素种类的重或轻版本。通过在元素中增加或减少中子，我们可以创造出具有有趣核性质的奇特物质。核科学界未来的目标之一是理解不对称对核状态方程（EoS）的贡献，该方程与核物质的压力、能量和温度有关。这种不对称贡献与能量成本有关，当你从质子和中子数量相等的物质转移到不稳定的富含中子的物质时，你必须付出能量成本。EoS的功能形式的最高不确定性是在核密度是正常核物质的两倍左右。RIKEN是目前唯一能够获得入射能量足够高的光束以产生达到这种密度的碰撞的地方。这个项目将准备一个时间投射室（TPC），为即将到来的实验做准备。在这个实验中，我们计划测量在这些奇异碰撞中产生的轻带电粒子，从而提取有关核EoS的信息。NSF EAPSI奖是与日本科学促进会合作资助的。

This award supports preparation and testing of a large detector for an upcoming experiment at the RIKEN Rare Isotope Beam Facility (RIBF) in Japan. This work will be performed with Dr. Hiroyoshi Sakurai, Chief Scientist of RIBF. The detector will be used to study exotic forms of matter produced by colliding radioactive beams only available at RIBF. Creating exotic nuclear matter in the laboratory has applications ranging from identifying and treating tumors, converting waste radioactive material into more manageable forms, to understanding the reason behind why matter is stable at all. There are hundreds of chemical elements that may be produced beyond that which can be found on earth. These elements are related to the naturally abundant elements in that they are heavy, or lighter, versions of the same element species. By adding or subtracting neutrons from an element, we can create exotic forms of matter which have interesting nuclear properties.One of the future goals in the nuclear science community is to understand the asymmetric contribution to the nuclear Equation of State (EoS) which relates pressure, energy, and temperature of nuclear matter. This asymmetric contribution is related to the cost, in energy, you must pay when moving from matter that has an equal number of protons and neutrons to unstable, neutron rich matter. The highest uncertainty of the functional form of the EoS is around nuclear densities twice that of normal nuclear matter. RIKEN is currently the only place to access beams with high enough incident energy to produce collisions reaching this density. This project will prepare a Time Projection Chamber (TPC) to be operational for an upcoming experiment. In this experiment we plan to measure the light charged particles produced in these exotic collisions thus extracting information about the nuclear EoS. This NSF EAPSI award is funded in collaboration with the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.