Probing the origins and structure of nuclei

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Although they are very small, atomic nuclei can reveal things about enormous stars.  Nuclei are the very centres of atoms, one thousand times smaller than a person as a person is smaller than the Earth.  Despite their very small size, the structure of nuclei can have an effect on supernova explosions because nuclei are the fuel that stars burn. The way that stars burn (whether they explode or stay quiescent, like our sun) depends in part on the interactions between nuclei.Nuclei are too small to look at with the naked eye, but it is possible to learn about them through the study of gamma rays.  Gamma rays are very high-energy radiation.  Nuclei emit gamma rays when they have extra energy.  Each particular type of nucleus emits gamma rays with unique energies, like a signature.  That signature can reveal how the nucleus will behave in a star or in the laboratory.  I study nuclei through the gamma-rays that they emit.  I use a very powerful gamma-ray spectroscope called TIGRESS (TRIUMF-ISAC Gamma Ray Escape-Suppressed Spectrometer) which my collaborators and I are building at Canada's national subatomic physics laboratory, TRIUMF.  TRIUMF is an ideal place to perform research into exotic nuclei because it has a facility called ISAC (Isotope Separator and ACcelerator) which is capable of producing some of the most intense and pure beams of radioactive nuclear species available anywhere in the world.