Department Seminar: Rare isotopes unveil a new era in nuclear science

Presented by

Dr. Rituparna Kanungo, Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Canada, TRIUMF, Vancouver, Canada

 
Abstract

Our Universe has a variety of visible matter that embodies nature’s beauty of assembling the building blocks, protons and neutrons into complex many-body systems. While much has been understood about the stable nuclei, the short-lived nuclei i.e. the rare isotopes, many of which have a large neutron – proton asymmetry, bring a wealth of new information. The reactions and decays of these isotopes drive the creation of majority of the heavy elements in our Universe and are the powerhouse of exotic cosmic phenomena. 

The presentation will outline how reactions with radioactive ion beams are allowing us to uncover the mysteries embedded in these rare isotopes. This is leading to revelation of unconventional forms of nuclei such as, nuclear halo and skin and fundamental changes of nuclear shells that break the bounds of our traditional knowledge. 

These unexpected features observed in the rare isotopes challenge our understanding of the strong nuclear force of nature force bringing new insight.  The presentation will show how experiments can illuminate on the nuclear force prescriptions. 

The discovery of unconventional features of the rare isotopes brings new information that will lead to an understanding of the behaviour of matter under extreme neutron-rich conditions in our Universe. An outlook will be presented on some future prospects.