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| Department of Physics and Astronomy | |
One basic problem that is common to many areas of physics -- and other
natural sciences such as chemistry -- is the quantum many-particle problem.
Theorists working in atomic, molecular, and condensed matter physics,
in nuclear physics and in some areas of astrophysics face a similar challenge:
how to describe the features of interacting quantum many-particle systems
in terms of suitable constituent particles and the fundamental interactions
between them. Such theories are referred to as "microscopic theories".
The aim of nuclear theory is to study the quantum many-particle aspects of
the strong interaction, which is one of the four fundamental forces of nature.
Because of the large coupling constant of the strong interaction,
the vast majority of nuclear phenomena cannot be treated in perturbation
theory and require large-scale numerical calculations.
At relatively low energy, an atomic nucleus may be viewed as a system
of N point-like protons and neutrons which interact via two-body
Coulomb potentials and via two-body / three-body strong nuclear potentials.
Most of our work uses "nuclear mean-field theories" such as
static Hartree-Fock (HF) and Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov (HFB) to describe
individual nuclei. Reactions between two heavy nuclei are described by
the Time-Dependent Hartree-Fock (TDHF) theory.
One of the fundamental questions of nuclear structure physics is:
what are the limits of nuclear stability? How many neutrons can we add
to a given nuclear isotope before it becomes unstable against spontaneous
neutron emission (neutron radioactivity)? If one connects the isotopes with zero neutron
separation energy, Sn=0, in the nuclear chart one obtains the
neutron dripline. Similarly, the proton dripline is defined
by the condition Sp=0. Another limit to stability is the
superheavy element region around Z=124 and N=184.
The nuclear chart shows less than 300 stable nuclear isotopes, and about 2700 additional
isotopes have been created in heavy-ion accelerators.
Nuclei in between the proton and neutron driplines are unstable against
beta-decay. Nuclei outside the driplines decay by spontaneous neutron
emission or proton radioactivity. The neutron-rich side, in particular,
exhibits thousands of nuclear isotopes still to be explored ('terra
incognita'). Some of these exotic nuclei can be studied with existing
first-generation Radioactive Ion Beam Facilities (e.g. HRIBF at Oak
Ridge National Laboratory). Several countries are constructing new 'second generation' RIB
facilities (RIKEN in Japan, FAIR in Germany, GANIL in France).
In the United States, construction has begun of FRIB (Facility for Rare
Isotope Beams) at Michigan State University.
Theories predict profound
differences between the known isotopes near stability and the exotic
nuclei at the driplines: for neutron-rich nuclei, as the Fermi level
approaches the particle continuum at E=0, weakly bound neutron states
couple strongly to the continuum giving rise to neutron halos and
neutron skins. Theories also expect large pairing correlations and new
types of collective modes (giant mutipole resonances), a weakening of the
spin-orbit force leading to a quenching of the shell gaps, and perhaps
new magic numbers.
Furthermore, Radioactive Ion Beam Facilities will allow us to address
fundamental questions in nuclear astrophysics: more than half of all
elements heavier than iron are thought to be produced in
supernovae explosions by the rapid neutron capture process (r-process).
The r-process path contains many exotic neutron-rich nuclei which can
only be studied with these new heavy-ion accelerators.
Specifically, our research concentrates on the following topics:
1. Fusion, capture, and deep-inelastic reactions of neutron-rich nuclei
in the vicinity of the Coulomb barrier.
2. Hot and cold fusion reactions leading to superheavy elements.
3. Microscopic dynamic calculation of nuclear excitation energies during
heavy-ion collisions.
4. Microscopic study of clusters (e.g. triple-alpha reaction).
5. Microscopic description of nuclear fission dynamics.
The Vanderbilt Nuclear Theory group has been funded since 1984 by the U.S. Department of Energy, Division of Nuclear Physics.
1) Award for " The best Ph. D. thesis written at the Goethe
University of Frankfurt in 1977 " (awarded in 1978 by the
Association of Friends and Supporters of the Goethe - University
in Frankfurt am Main, Germany)
2) DOE Grand Challenge Award, High-Performance Computing and
Communications Program, project entitled "The Quantum Structure of
Matter", Vanderbilt - ORNL - Univ. Tennessee collaboration, 1992
Presentation at 11th International Conference on Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions (NN2012),
San Antonio, Texas (May 27 - June 1, 2012)
(PDF, 2.6 MB)
The reaction 20O + 12C at Ecm = 9.5 MeV
Heavy-ion fusion at b = 2.5 fm (MPEG4 movie, 340 kb)
The reaction 132Sn + 48Ca at Ecm = 130 MeV for two different impact parameters
Heavy-ion fusion at b = 4.45 fm (MPEG4 movie, 540 kb)
Deep-inelastic reaction at b = 4.60 fm (MPEG4 movie, 540 kb)
David Pigg (Ph.D. in Aug. 2012, 'First Ab-Initio, Coupled-Cluster Solution of the
Time-Dependent Schroedinger Equation for Atomic Nuclei', Adviser: Prof. Umar);
Research Associate, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (2012-13),
Assistant Professor of Physics, Lee University, Cleveland, TN (Fall 2013 - )
Nikolaus Loebl (March - June 2011); visiting graduate student from Universitaet Frankfurt, Germany
Artur Blazkiewicz (Ph.D. in December 2005, '2D Coordinate Space
Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov Calculations for Neutron-Rich Nuclei in the
A~100 Mass Region', Adviser: Prof. Oberacker); software designer,
Glasgow, KY (2006-)
Edgar Teran (Ph.D. in May 2003, 'Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov Calculations for
Nuclei far from Stability', Adviser: Prof. Umar), postdoc at
San Diego State University (2003-2006); Associate Scientist, PROS software
company in Houston, TX (Sep. 2006 - )
Jun Chen, (1998 -2001, Adviser: Prof. Oberacker); Computational Analyst
at Bloomberg Financial Services, New York City
Alan C. Calder, (Ph.D. 1997, 'Multidimensional simulations of core
collapse
supernovae using multigroup neutrino transport', Adviser: Prof. Umar);
Research Associate, U. Illinois (Urbana); Research Associate, U. Chicago; Senior
Scientist, U. Chicago Flash Center for Astrophysics. Recipient of the Gordon Bell
prize. Assistant Professor at SUNY Stony Brook.
D. Russell Kegley, (Ph.D. 1996, 'Spline techniques for modeling weakly
bound nuclear systems' , Adviser: Prof. Oberacker); currently RF
Engineering Manager at Teledyne Electronic Manufacturing Services,
Lewisburg, Tennessee.
Mehmet Cem Guclu, (Ph.D. 1995, 'Monte-Carlo Calculations of Lepton-Pair
Production in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions', Adviser: Prof. Umar);
currently Associate Professor, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey
Dr. Jack Wells, (Ph.D. 1994, 'Electromagnetic Lepton-Pair Production
with
Capture in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions', Adviser: Prof.
Oberacker); Research Associate, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics; Wigner Fellow and
Staff Member at ORNL; first recipient at ORNL of the "Computing and Computational
Sciences Fellow" award (2004); Group Leader of the Computational Materials Sciences
Group and Group Leader of the Nanomaterials Theory Institute (2008-2009);
Director of Institutional Planning at ORNL (2009 - present).
Dr. David Dean, (Ph.D. 1991, 'The String-Parton Model', Adviser:
Prof. Umar); Research Associate, Caltech; Wigner Fellow, Staff Member, Oak Ridge National
Laboratory, DOE Young Scientist Award, and a Presidential Early Career Award
(1997); Group Leader, Nuclear Physics Theory Program at ORNL;
Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary for Science, Department of Energy (August
2009-present).
Dwight P. Russell (1983-1986); Asst. and Assoc. Professor, University
of
Texas at El Paso; currently Assoc. Professor at Baylor University,
Waco, Texas.
Mohammad W. Katoot (1983 - 1986), Chairman and CEO, MK Industries,
Tucker, GA; deceased Aug. 2000
Dr. Recep Keser (April 2011 - April 2012), Ph.D. Rize University, Turkey
Dr. Clayton R. Chinn (1994-1996), Ph.D. University of Maryland; currently
Senior Scientist at Arete Associates (Arlington, VA)
Dr. Guenter Plunien (1992), Ph.D. Universitaet Frankfurt, Germany; currently
Privatdozent at Technische Universitaet Dresden, Germany
Dr. Martin Greiner (1988), Ph.D. Universitaet Frankfurt, Germany