Manchester Nuclear Physics Consolidated Grant 2020

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，从医学和安全到电力生产，并对其他科学领域产生了强烈影响。曼彻斯特集团是英国核能社区的一部分，该社区设计了一种运营模式，使其能够在国际层面做出前沿贡献。实验工作是在海外特定的设施中进行的，集中投资于进行这项工作所需的仪器。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基本的框架，但仍然缺乏完善的方法来可靠地预测核性质，因为人们从研究充分的稳定核中移动了几个以上的核子。实验测量使用了转移反应、伽马射线光谱和激光测量超精细原子效应的技术。我们的目的也是在核子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。

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. The Manchester group is part of the UK nuclear community which has devised a mode of operation that enables it to make leading edge contributions at an international level. Experimental work is performed at specific overseas facilities with focussed investment in the necessary instrumentation to carry out this work.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. Experimental measurements are made using the techniques of transfer reactions, gamma-ray spectroscopy and measurements of hyperfine atomic effects using lasers.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.