RUI: Nuclear Physics Research with Undergraduate Students

原子核是物质的基本组成部分，了解它们的基本性质是该奖项的主要目标。Pi和她的本科生团队将使用位于圣母大学核科学实验室的新开发的La Crosse火球探测器系统来测量Er-166核中的转换电子。这一信息将与以前的数据相结合，以解决核物理学中关于原子核如何振动或是否振动的公开问题。这项研究计划将让威斯康星大学拉克罗斯分校的本科生在他们科学生涯的早期，通过探测器开发、数据分析和合作项目进行可发表的研究。这些学生将在国家会议上展示他们的工作，在同行评议的论文中参与撰写结果，并获得对下一代科学家重要的技能。原子核显示出一些跨同位素和等压链的紧急集体行为，并已知在远离闭合壳层的核素图区域发生变形。这个奖项将研究叠加在变形的基态上的振动自由度和建立在它们之上的预期的旋转激发态。Pi和她的本科生团队的目标是通过测量与伽马射线一致的转换电子来确定激发态的特征，这是美国唯一的同类阵列。在威斯康星大学拉克罗斯分校，学生们还将在当地的一个小实验室里从事高纯度锗(HPGe)探测器的工作。所有实验将与UWL本科生合作进行、分析和传播。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Nuclei are the basic building blocks of matter and understanding their fundamental properties is the main goal of this award. The PI and her team of undergraduate students will use the newly developed La Crosse fIREBAll detector system, located at the University of Notre Dame’s Nuclear Science Laboratory, to measure conversion electrons in the Erbium-166 nucleus. This information will be combined with previous data to address an open question in nuclear physics about how or if nuclei vibrate. This research program will involve the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse undergraduate students early in their scientific career in publishable research through detector development, data analysis, and collaborative projects. The students will present their work at national conferences, be involved in writing results in peer-reviewed papers, and acquire skills important for the next generation of scientists.Nuclei show some emergent collective behavior across isotopic and isobaric chains and are known to be deformed in shape in regions of the chart of nuclides away from closed shell. This award will investigate the vibrational degrees of freedom superimposed on the deformed ground states and the expected rotational excited states built upon them. The PI and her team of undergraduate students aim to determine the characteristics of excited state by the measurement of conversion electrons in coincidence with gamma rays, using the only array of its kind in the US. At the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse students will also work on High Purity Germanium (HPGe) detectors in a small local laboratory. All experiments will be performed, analyzed, and disseminated in collaboration with UWL undergraduate students.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.