Travel to GSI (September 2009) and Jyvaskyla (October 2009) for experiments on neutron-rich zirconium nuclei,

原子的大部分质量在原子核中，原子核中含有质子和中子，质子的数量决定了化学元素的数量。原子核由弱力、将质子分开的库仑力和将所有中子和质子拉在一起的核力之间的平衡保持在一起。计算三种力量的相对强度是一种微妙的平衡行为，有许多模型试图解决这个棘手的问题。对于轻稳定核，中子和质子的数目基本相等，但对于较重的核，中子的数目比质子的数目多约40%。在核电工业中，生产的副产品没有这些神奇的比例，它们会通过释放粒子和能量来衰变，直到达到其中一个稳定的组合。为了理解这一过程，并确实预测其他偏离稳定性的核(例如，那些在医学诊断中用作同位素示踪剂的核)将如何表现，有必要在没有用来推导它们的区域测试上面概述的模型。对这一提议特别感兴趣的是质量数~110的原子核，它们有~70个中子和~40个质子，即中子比质子多得多。这些原子核位于大约一半比铁重的稳定原子核被认为是在大爆炸后形成的路线上，因此对于我们理解当前形式的宇宙是如何产生的很重要。这项研究计划将在加速器设施中生产这些原子核，并研究它们的衰变性质。我们的工作结果将被用来确定哪些核行为模式适用于该区域。

Most of the mass of an atom is in the nucleus which contains protons and neutrons with the number of protons defining the chemical element. The nucleus is held together by a balance between the weak force, the Coulomb force which pushes the protons apart and the nuclear force which pulls all the neutrons and protons together. It is a delicate balancing act to calculate the relative strengths of the three forces and there are many models which try to solve this tricky problem. For light stable nuclei, the number of neutrons and protons is essentially equal but for heavier nuclei, the number of neutrons exceeds the number of protons by about 40%. In the nuclear power industry, by-products are made which do not have these 'magic' ratios and they decay by emitting particles and energy until one of the stable combinations is reached. In order to understand this process and indeed predict how other nuclei away from stability (e.g those used as isotope tracers in medical diagnosis) will behave, it is necessary to test the models, outlined above, in regions which were not used to derive them. Of particular interest for this proposal are nuclei with mass number ~110 which have ~70 neutrons and ~40 protons, i.e. a large excess of neutrons over protons. These nuclei lie along the route by which about half the stable nuclei heavier than iron are thought to have been made after the big bang and so are important to our understanding of how the universe in its current form was created. This research programme will produce these nuclei at accelerator facilities and study their decay properties. The results of our work will be used to define which models of nuclear behaviour are appropriate in this region.