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Opportunities for Undergraduate Research in Nuclear Physics

University of Dallas (UD) physics majors are offered a variety of undergraduate research opportunities in nuclear physics through an established program at the University of Kentucky Accelerator Laboratory (UKAL). The 7-MV Model CN Van de Graaff accelerator and the neutron production and detection facilities located there are used by UD students to investigate how neutrons scatter from materials that are important in nuclear energy production and for our basic understanding of how neutrons interact with matter. Recent student projects include modeling of the laboratory using the neutron transport code MCNP to investigate the effectiveness of laboratory shielding, testing the long-term gain stability of C 6 D 6 liquid scintillation detectors, and deducing neutron elastic and inelastic scattering cross sections for 12 C. Finally, results of these student projects are presented that indicate the pit below the scattering area reduces background by as much as 30%; the detectors show no significant gain instabilities; and new insights into existing 12 C neutron inelastic scattering cross-section discrepancies near a neutron energy of 6.0 MeV are obtained.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Quantum chaos in nuclear physics

A definition of classical and quantum chaos on the basis of the Liouville–Arnold theorem is proposed. According to this definition, a chaotic quantum system that has N degrees of freedom should have M < N independent first integrals of motion (good quantum numbers) that are determined by the symmetry of the Hamiltonian for the system being considered. Quantitative measures of quantum chaos are established. In the classical limit, they go over to the Lyapunov exponent or the classical stability parameter. The use of quantum-chaos parameters in nuclear physics is demonstrated.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

California Bridge to the EIC: Building a Diverse Workforce for Nuclear Physics Research at the Electron Ion Collider

The California Bridge to the Electron Ion Collider traineeship program established an integrated workforce development effort connecting University of California campuses, California State University Minority Serving Institutions, and DOE national laboratories. The program expanded participation in nuclear physics research among students from underrepresented and socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds while strengthening collaborative activities aligned with the future Electron Ion Collider. During the award period, trainees conducted experimental, theoretical, and computational research, participated in consortium meetings and national laboratory collaborations, and received structured mentoring and professional development. The program achieved strong outcomes in graduate school placement, STEM career transitions, and sustained engagement with DOE Nuclear Physics research.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Quantum computing for nuclear physics

Future quantum computers are anticipated to be able to perform simulations of quantum many-body systems and quantum field theories that lie beyond the capabilities of classical computation. This will lead to new insights and predictions for systems ranging from dense non-equilibrium matter, to low-energy nuclear structure and reactions, to high-energy collisions. I present an overview of digital quantum simulations in nuclear physics, with select examples relevant for studies of quark matter.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Advances in Beam Dynamics at Nuclear Physics Accelerator Facilities

Beam dynamics of particle accelerators is a rich subfield that enables accelerators to be used in pursuit of fundamental topics in particle physics in increasingly complex ways. The field is constantly evolving as new and advanced accelerators push the limits of energy, luminosity, and accelerated species. This talk will cover some recent beam dynamics developments for future operation of DOE nuclear physics user facilities, including upgrade options for Jefferson Lab's 12 GeV CEBAF. This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Nuclear Physics under contract DE-AC05-06OR23177.

Sy, Amy↗

Lattice QCD for nuclear physics

A brief overview of the current and expected contributions of lattice QCD to various aspects of low-energy nuclear physics is presented. Recent investigations of light nuclei, hyperon-nucleon and nucleon-nucleon interactions are discussed and a first investigation of multi-hadron structure is highlighted.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

An updated nuclear-physics and multi-messenger astrophysics framework for binary neutron star mergers

The multi-messenger detection of the gravitational-wave signal GW170817, the corresponding kilonova AT2017gfo and the short gamma-ray burst GRB170817A, as well as the observed afterglow has delivered a scientific breakthrough. For an accurate interpretation of all these different messengers, one requires robust theoretical models that describe the emitted gravitational-wave, the electromagnetic emission, and dense matter reliably. In addition, one needs efficient and accurate computational tools to ensure a correct cross-correlation between the models and the observational data. For this purpose, we have developed the Nuclear-physics and Multi-Messenger Astrophysics framework NMMA. The code allows incorporation of nuclear-physics constraints at low densities as well as X-ray and radio observations of isolated neutron stars. In previous works, the NMMA code has allowed us to constrain the equation of state of supranuclear dense matter, to measure the Hubble constant, and to compare dense-matter physics probed in neutron-star mergers and in heavy-ion collisions, and to classify electromagnetic observations and perform model selection. Here, we show an extension of the NMMA code as a first attempt of analyzing the gravitational-wave signal, the kilonova, and the gamma-ray burst afterglow simultaneously. Incorporating all available information, we estimate the radius of a 1.4M ⊙ neutron star to be $R$ $=$ $11.98^{+0.35}_{-0.04}$ km.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

100th Anniversary of the Compton Effect: Its Discovery and Present-Day Impact on Nuclear Physics

This year is the 100th anniversary of the discovery of the Compton effect marked by A. H. Compton’s 1923 Physical Review article. On this occasion, we reflect on the effect’s impact on Nuclear Physics and celebrate the event a century ago and the eminent scientist who made the discovery. Much of the historical comments rely on the article by R. H. Stuewer. A recent Physics Today article presents a historical perspective of Compton’s work and provides more details. The various applications of the Compton effect and its “derivatives” (e.g. inverse Compton scattering) impact many areas of Physics and Chemistry. Here, this short article is restricted to examples taken from the authors' surroundings: the focus is on nuclear-structure experiments with γ-spectroscopic methods and nuclear cross-section measurements relevant for astrophysics.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Overview of Nuclear Physics at Jefferson Lab

The Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) and associated experimental equipment at Jefferson Lab comprise a unique facility for experimental nuclear physics. This facility is presently being upgraded, which will enable a new experimental program with substantial discovery potential to address important topics in nuclear, hadronic, and electroweak physics. Further in the future, it is envisioned that the Laboratory will evolve into an electron-ion colliding beam facility.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

The harmonic oscillator and nuclear physics

The three-dimensional harmonic oscillator plays a central role in nuclear physics. It provides the underlying structure of the independent-particle shell model and gives rise to the dynamical group structures on which models of nuclear collective motion are based. It is shown that the three-dimensional harmonic oscillator features a rich variety of coherent states, including vibrations of the monopole, dipole, and quadrupole types, and rotations of the rigid flow, vortex flow, and irrotational flow types. Nuclear collective states exhibit all of these flows. It is also shown that the coherent state representations, which have their origins in applications to the dynamical groups of the simple harmonic oscillator, can be extended to vector coherent state representations with a much wider range of applicability. As a result, coherent state theory and vector coherent state theory become powerful tools in the application of algebraic methods in physics.

Rowe, D. J.↗

A nuclear physics program at the Rare Isotope Beams Accelerator Facility in Korea

This paper outlines the new physics possibilities that fall within the field of nuclear structure and astrophysics based on experiments with radioactive ion beams at the future Rare Isotope Beams Accelerator facility in Korea. This ambitious multi-beam facility has both an Isotope Separation On Line (ISOL) and fragmentation capability to produce rare isotopes beams (RIBs) and will be capable of producing and accelerating beams of wide range mass of nuclides with energies of a few to hundreds MeV per nucleon. The large dynamic range of reaccelerated RIBs will allow the optimization in each nuclear reaction case with respect to cross section and channel opening. The low energy RIBs around Coulomb barrier offer nuclear reactions such as elastic resonance scatterings, one or two particle transfers, Coulomb multiple-excitations, fusion-evaporations, and direct capture reactions for the study of the very neutron-rich and proton-rich nuclides. In contrast, the high energy RIBs produced by in-flight fragmentation with reaccelerated ions from the ISOL enable to explore the study of neutron drip lines in intermediate mass regions. The proposed studies aim at investigating the exotic nuclei near and beyond the nucleon drip lines, and to explore how nuclear many-body systems change in such extreme regions by addressing the following topics: the evolution of shell structure in areas of extreme proton to neutron imbalance; the study of the weak interaction in exotic decay schemes such as beta-delayed two-neutron or two-proton emission; the change of isospin symmetry in isobaric mirror nuclei at the drip lines; two protons or two neutrons radioactivity beyond the drip lines; the role of the continuum states including resonant states above the particle-decay threshold in exotic nuclei; and the effects of nuclear reaction rates triggered by the unbound proton-rich nuclei on nuclear astrophysical processes.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Quantum Monte Carlo methods for nuclear physics

Quantum Monte Carlo methods have proved very valuable to study the structure and reactions of light nuclei and nucleonic matter starting from realistic nuclear interactions and currents. These ab-initio calculations reproduce many low-lying states, moments and transitions in light nuclei, and simultaneously predict many properties of light nuclei and neutron matter over a rather wide range of energy and momenta. We review the nuclear interactions and currents, and describe the continuum Quantum Monte Carlo methods used in nuclear physics. These methods are similar to those used in condensed matter and electronic structure but naturally include spin-isospin, tensor, spin-orbit, and three-body interactions. We present a variety of results including the low-lying spectra of light nuclei, nuclear form factors, and transition matrix elements. We also describe low-energy scattering techniques, studies of the electroweak response of nuclei relevant in electron and neutrino scattering, and the properties of dense nucleonic matter as found in neutron stars. A coherent picture of nuclear structure and dynamics emerges based upon rather simple but realistic interactions and currents.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

From QCD to Nuclear Physics

Lattice QCD offers the promise of quantitatively connecting low-energy nuclear physics with the fundamental theory of strong interactions. Significant progress in achieving this goal has been made in the last few years, with, for example, the first definitive calculations of light nuclei recently appearing. There remain significant challenges which must be overcome to connect these calculations to experimental results, including the ability to perform calculations with physical pion masses. I will review lattice QCD calculations of multi-hadron systems, providing a status report as well as future prospects.

Walker-Loud, Andre↗

Dibaryon resonances in hadron and nuclear physics: New results

The old and new experimental studies of dibaryon resonances are reviewed, and their results are interpreted theoretically. Main emphasis is made on the research in this and related areas of relativistic nuclear physics carried out at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna, starting from its foundation in mid-1950s. The dibaryon studies are shown to be pivotal for JINR together with the research in such related areas as the cumulative processes, subthreshold production of mesons, single and double pion production in NN collisions, and short-range NN correlations in nuclei.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

A Program in Medium-Energy Nuclear Physics

We report here on the final stages of the Berman grant. The study of the spectrum and properties of the excited states of the nucleon (the N* states) is one of the highest-priority goals of nuclear physics and one of the major programs of Jefferson Lab, especially in Hall B. We have most recently focused our attention on exclusive studies (in both spin and strangeness) of the neutron in the deuteron. Our g13 experiment, “Production of Kaons from the Deuteron with Polarized Photons” [Nadel-Turonski (2006)], was carried out between October 2006 and June 2007. This experiment was done using both linearly and circularly polarized photons, mainly to try to unscramble the multitude of wide and overlapping N* states and to measure their properties by studying in fine detail their decays into strange-particle reaction channels. To this end, one of our students, Edwin Munevar, has analyzed the γn→K + Σ - reaction channel for his Ph.D. topic. The strangeness-production channels constitute the subject of the original GW group’s g13 proposal. But the g13 data set, by virtue of its statistics, polarization, and kinematic coverage, is ideally suited for many other reaction channels as well. Among these is the azimuthal angular asymmetry for deuteron photodisintegration, which was analyzed by another of our students, Nicholas Zachariou, for his Ph.D. topic, with help from Nickolay Ivanov (from the Yerevan Physics Institute in Armenia). This study required a deuterium target and a linearly polarized photon beam.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗