Manchester Nuclear Physics Consolidated Grant Request

核物理学的目标是了解核系统的结构和动力学。这是理解宇宙的关键，从宇宙诞生的第一微秒开始，当时夸克-胶子等离子体占主导地位，通过它的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发挥着至关重要的作用。该领域的应用也造福于社会的各个领域，从医学、安全到电力生产，并对其他科学领域产生了强烈的影响。原子核是一个独特的量子实验室，可以在其中研究由有效的二体和三体作用力驱动的微观和介观特征。它们是复杂的多体系统，但通常表现出意想不到的规律和简单的激发模式，这些模式源于底层的壳结构、配对和集体激发模式。更简单的介观系统(例如，金属团簇、量子点和原子凝聚体)也表现出这样的性质，对这些系统的理解在很大程度上依赖于核物理中开发和磨练的技术。一个根本的挑战是从单个核子之间的强、弱和电磁力的相互作用中从头开始理解核属性。近年来，针对轻核的这类计划取得了巨大进展。对于较重的核、壳层、团簇和其他超越平均场的多体技术，基于有效的相互作用，为关联实验数据提供了必要的框架，但仍然缺乏精细化来可靠地预测核性质，因为人们从研究得很好的稳定核中移动了不止几个核子。我们计划使用激光测量转移反应、粒子和伽马衰变、态寿命、基态和同分异构体的性质，以及中子诱导的反应，以产生数据，用这些数据来研究核形状的发展，奇异同位素中核结构的演变，以及对S和r核合成路径重要的反应。我们的目标也是在核子的相互作用和描述强力的基本理论--量子色动力学之间建立联系。关键量是描述核子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，通过光子与氢和其他光核的散射实验来确定这些参数。后者需要了解中子的性质，因为它是一种不稳定的粒子，对于少体系统中核力的测试和Muonic原子Lamb位移的计算也很有趣。有关拟议研究的更多细节，请参阅支持案例。

Nuclear Physics aims to understand the structure and dynamics of nuclear systems. It is the 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.Atomic nuclei are 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 well-studied stable nuclei.We plan to make measurements of transfer reactions, particle and gamma decays, state lifetimes, ground-state and isomer properties using lasers, and neutron-induced reactions to yield data with which to study the development of nuclear shapes, the evolution of nuclear structure in exotic isotopes and the reactions important for the s and r nucleosynthetic pathways. 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, and are also interesting for the testing of nuclear forces in few-body systems and for the calculation of muonic atom Lamb shifts.See the Case for Support for more details about the proposed research.