WoU-MMA: Studies of Nuclear Structure and Nuclear Astrophysics

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The nuclear physics group at Florida State University (FSU) will use their experimental facilities to address long-standing questions about the nuclear reactions that take place in stars and in stellar explosions. These reactions are responsible for producing most of the naturally occurring elements in the universe. A second goal is to measure and understand the behavior of exotic nuclei – isotopes that have too many neutrons or too few neutrons to be stable. FSU researchers perform their experiments on-campus at the John D. Fox Superconducting Accelerator Laboratory and at national facilities such as the Facility for Rare Ion Beams (FRIB) at Michigan State University, ATLAS at Argonne National Laboratory, and at international facilities such as TRIUMF in Canada. The research will be performed in close collaboration with theoretical physicists at both FSU and around the world. The FSU nuclear physics program supported by this grant is one of the nation’s leading educators of nuclear scientists at both the undergraduate and Ph. D. levels. At the undergraduate level, the Fox Laboratory will be working closely with three four-year institutions in Florida to provide research opportunities for the faculty at these smaller institutions and the combined effort will give a head start on nuclear science careers for undergraduates from these institutions. The Fox laboratory’s Ph.D. graduates work in academics, at national laboratories and in industry. Florida State University has trained many students who now play key roles in nuclear science, homeland security, national defense, health care, high-tech industry, and education. The FSU researchers supported by this grant pursue two primary scientific goals. The first goal is to reproduce in the laboratory the nuclear reactions that take place in stellar explosions. By using these laboratory experiments to determine the rates at which reactions occur in exploding stars, FSU researchers hope to understand the abundances of elements in the universe and contribute to a deeper understanding of the star explosions as well. The second goal is to measure the behavior of exotic nuclei – that is, isotopes in which the ratio of neutrons to protons is unusually large or unusually small and therefore are not stable and do not occur naturally on earth. These exotic nuclei are more weakly bound than stable isotopes, and so their measured properties provide tight constraints on the mechanisms that bind nuclei together and guide advances in theoretical nuclear physics. These experiments require a combination of techniques including the use of the following facilities which are available at FSU: an active-target detector for radioactive-beam experiments; a new SE-SPS spectrograph facility; and a new Clarion-2 gamma-ray detector array.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.