Nuclear Physics Consolidated Grant 2013

核物理学旨在了解核系统的结构和动力学。从夸克-胶子等离子体盛行的最初微秒开始，到恒星和星系形成的历史，核反应在能量的产生和元素的创造中都起着至关重要的作用，这是理解宇宙的关键。该领域的应用在从医学、安全到电力生产的各个领域都有益于社会，并对其他科学领域产生了强大的影响。我们的研究兴趣集中在核物理的基本方面，从强子到外来核系统。我们使用互补的方法来解决以下关键问题：核子和轻核的结构和相互作用；集体运动的新形式；核结构演化；以及松散约束系统。曼彻斯特集团是英国核社区的一部分，该社区设计了一种操作模式，使其能够在实验和理论核物理学方面在国际水平上做出领先的贡献。实验工作在特定的海外设施进行，重点投资必要的仪器来开展这项工作。原子核提供了一个独特的量子实验室，在其中可以研究由有效的二体和三体力驱动的微观和介观特征。它们是复杂的多体系统，但往往表现出意想不到的规律和简单的激励模式，这些模式来自底层的壳结构、配对和集体激励模式。更简单的介观系统（例如，金属团簇、量子点和原子凝聚体）也表现出这些特性，对这些特性的理解在很大程度上依赖于核物理学中发展和磨练的技术。一个基本的挑战是从头开始理解核的性质，从强，弱，和电磁力之间的相互作用的单个核子。近年来，这种轻核项目取得了巨大进展。对于较重的原子核，基于有效相互作用的壳层、团簇和其他超平均场多体技术，为关联实验数据提供了必要的框架，但仍然缺乏改进，无法可靠地预测当一个人从接近稳定的原子核移动多个核子时的核性质。我们还致力于在核子的相互作用和描述强作用力的基础理论量子色动力学之间建立联系。关键的量是描述核子的结构如何响应外部电场和磁场的极化率。我们正在开发理论工具，以便从氢和其他轻核的光子散射实验中确定这些。后者需要了解中子的性质，因为它是一种不稳定的粒子。

Nuclear Physics aims to understand the structure and dynamics of nuclear systems. It is key to understanding the Universe from the first microseconds of its inception when the quark-gluon plasma prevailed, through its history of star and galaxy formation where nuclear reactions play an essential role both in the generation of energy and the creation of elements. The field also has applications that benefit society in diverse areas, from medicine and security to power production, and a strong impact on other fields of science.Our research interests are focused on fundamental aspects of nuclear physics ranging from hadrons to exotic nuclear systems. We use complementary methods to address key issues concerning: the structure and interactions of nucleons and light nuclei; new forms of collective motion; evolution of nuclear structure; and loosely bound systems. The Manchester group is part of the UK nuclear community that has devised a mode of operation which enables it to make leading edge contributions at an international level in both experimental and theoretical nuclear physics. Experimental work is performed at specific overseas facilities with focussed investment in the necessary instrumentation to carry out this work.Atomic nuclei provide a unique quantal laboratory in which microscopic as well as mesoscopic features, driven by effective two-body and three-body forces, can be studied. They are complex many-body systems, but often display unexpected regularities and simple excitation patterns that arise from underlying shell structure, pairing and collective modes of excitation. Such properties are also exhibited by simpler mesoscopic systems (for example, metallic clusters, quantum dots, and atomic condensates) the understanding of which draws heavily on techniques developed and honed in nuclear physics. A fundamental challenge is to understand nuclear properties ab-initio from the interplay of the strong, weak, and electromagnetic forces between individual nucleons. In recent years, enormous progress has been made with such programmes for light nuclei. For heavier nuclei, shell, cluster and other beyond mean field many-body techniques, based on effective interactions, provide essential frameworks for correlating experimental data, yet still lack the refinement to reliably predict nuclear properties as one moves more than a few nucleons from nuclei close to stability.We also aim to make connections between the interactions of nucleons and the underlying theory that describes the strong force, Quantum Chromodynamics. Key quantities are the polarisabilities that describe how the structures of nucleons respond to external electric and magnetic fields. We are developing theoretical tools to determine these from experiments on the scattering of photons from hydrogen and other light nuclei. The latter are needed to learn about the the properties of the neutron since it is an unstable particle.