Structure and Electromagnetic Moments of Exotic Nuclei

Intellectual Merit

One of the frontier areas of nuclear physics involves the study of the structure of the nuclei

of atoms which are very dierent from the stable nuclei that represent matter as we know it.

These nuclei are unstable and have to be produced in dedicated accelerators. In nuclei in general,

the excitations of individual nucleons from one energy level to another are expected to change

as a function of the constituent number of protons or neutrons. The characteristics of any one

single nucleon, whether proton or neutron, can be probed by reactions in which individual nucleons

are transferred from one nucleus to another during a collision. Reactions in which a neutron is

transferred will be studied at relatively low energies with rare isotope beams of nuclei that contain a

large number of neutrons. These studies can only be carried out with beams such as those produced

at the Holield Radioactive Ion Beam Facility (HRIBF) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Another challenge in nuclear physics aims at understanding the excitations of nuclei far-from-

stability as a function of energy and angular momentum. The second focus of this proposal will

address, via measurements of magnetic properties, the microscopic structure of excited states.

These studies will impact on the understanding of the interactions between nucleons, and will

illuminate the interplay of individual particles with the underlying spherical or deformed nuclear

cores. New techniques involving bombarding light nuclei with heavier ones have been developed

and tested with radioactive beams. The method will now be applied at HRIBF.

Broader Impacts.

The structure of the proposed activities is designed to have as large as possible an impact on the

education and training of graduate and undergraduate students, as well as postdoctoral associates.

The project will also serve to enhance the diversity of the nuclear science workforce by including

early career scientists who are women or come from other under-represented backgrounds. The

participation of these early career scholars in the forefront research would prepare them for careers

in education and basic and applied research, in national laboratories and industry.

The nuclear physics results are also of importance in astronomy, to understand the abundance

of elements observed in the galaxy, condensed matter physics, to understand the microscopic com-

ponents of the transient hyperfine, and national security, to understand properties of and

reactions on fission fragments.