Investigations into the structure of exotic atomic nuclei using stateof-the-art techniques of gamma-ray spectroscopy

多年来，对核行为的研究对包括医药和核能在内的许多行业都至关重要。这项研究还使物理学家能够建立有用的模型来解释和预测某些原子核的性质。然而，重要的是要研究这些模型是否适用于质子和中子差异很大的原子核，通常被称为外来核。外来核是这个项目的主要兴趣。当原子核处于激发态时，它们可以通过发射伽马射线来释放能量，这可以让物理学家深入了解这些奇异原子核的性质。研究它们的许多有用方法之一是使用一种被称为伽马射线光谱学的技术。高纯度锗半导体探测器，如位于芝加哥阿贡国家实验室的大型探测器阵列伽玛球，可用于以高能量分辨率和效率探测伽马射线。使用大型探测器阵列也意味着可以同时探测到许多伽马射线。这就是众所周知的伽马射线符合光谱学，这项技术也提供了关于这些原子核行为的有用信息。在这方面的研究中遇到的困难之一是外来核在反应中产生的可能性很小。从其他更密集的细胞核中识别这些细胞核需要一种称为通道选择的技术。这可以通过检测与伽马射线相符的蒸发粒子来实现。伽马射线可以揭示原子核的许多特性之一是它的形状。UWS的奇异核是八极变形的，也被称为梨形。使用上述技术，UWS核物理小组计划研究预测具有八极变形的候选核，该博士项目将涉及分析收集到的有关这些核的数据。

Over the years, the investigation into the behaviour of nuclei has been vital to many industries, includingmedicine and nuclear energy. This research has also allowed physicists to develop useful models that explainand predict the properties of some nuclei. However, it is important to investigate whether these models workas well for nuclei with a large difference in protons and neutrons, commonly known as exotic nuclei.Exotic nuclei are of primary interest in this project. When nuclei are in excited states they can releaseenergy by the emission of gamma rays, which can give physicists an insight into the properties of these exoticnuclei. One of the many useful ways in which they can be studied is using a technique known as gamma-rayspectroscopy. High purity germanium semiconductor detectors, such as the large array of detectors knownas Gammasphere at Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago, can be used to detect gamma rays with highenergy resolution and efficiency. Using large arrays of detectors also means that many gamma rays canbe detected simultaneously. This is known as gamma-ray coincidence spectroscopy and this technique alsoprovides useful information about the behaviour of these nuclei.One of the difficulties encountered in this area of research is that the exotic nuclei have a small probabilityof being produced in reactions. Identifying these nuclei from other more populated nuclei require a techniqueknown as channel selection. This can be done by detecting evaporated particles in coincidence with gammarays.One of the many properties that gamma rays can reveal about the nucleus is its shape. The exotic nucleiof interest at UWS are octupole deformed, otherwise known as pear shaped. Using the aforementionedtechniques, the UWS nuclear physics group plan to study candidates which are predicted to have octupoledeformation and this PhD project will involve analysing data gathered about these nuclei.