U.S.-Mexico Research: Sub-Barrier Fusion of Heavy Ions

这项美洲项目奖将支持印第安纳州圣母大学的James J. Kolata教授与墨西哥核研究中心（ININ）的Eli Aguilar教授和Enrique Martinez教授合作进行研究。拟议的研究将研究原子核反应中聚变机制的细节。这项研究的目标是实现对重离子聚变的基本理解，重离子聚变是一个过程，在这个过程中，两个反应的原子核的质子和中子急剧地重新排列，形成一个复合原子核。亚势垒核聚变现在已知比基于这些过程的简单理论模型所预期的更强。人们提出了几种解释来解释这种差异，但需要进一步研究来理解这一现象。拟议的合作是以前涉及墨西哥研究中心工作人员的互利项目的延伸。这项工作的数据分析阶段将主要在墨西哥进行，而圣母大学小组将为合作带来其在重离子物理和亚势垒聚变方面的专业知识。

This Americas Program award will support Professor James J. Kolata of the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, in a research collaboration with Professors Eli Aguilar and Enrique Martinez of the Mexican Nuclear Research Center (ININ). The proposed research will study details of fusion mechanisms in the reaction of atomic nuclei. The goal of the research is to achieve a basic understanding of heavy-ion fusion, a process in which the constituent protons and neutrons of two reacting atomic nuclei drastically re-arrange to form a compound nucleus. Sub-barrier fusion is now known to be stronger than what was expected on the basis of simple theoretical models of these processes. Several explanations have been put forward to explain this discrepancy but further study is needed to understand this phenomenon. The proposed collaboration is an extension of previous mutually beneficial projects involving staff members of the Mexican Research Center. The data analysis phase of the work will be carried out primarily in Mexico while the Notre Dame group will bring to the collaboration its expertise in heavy-ion physics and sub-barrier fusion.