Nuclear Physics at North Carolina A&T State University

Nuclei are the basic building blocks of matter and understanding their fundamental properties is the main goal of this award. This project will investigate the vibrational degrees of freedom superimposed on the deformed ground states and the expected rotational excited states built upon them in rare earth nuclei. The investigators aim to determine the characteristics of excited states by the measurement of conversion electrons in coincidence with γ rays using fIREBAll, the only array of its kind in the US. Undergraduate and graduate students are trained in each step of the process, taking advantage of the unique training opportunities at an NSF-funded laboratory. The North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NCA&T) group will train students in hands-on research including accelerator operations to begin filling the gap that is forming in our nuclear workforce and training a globally competitive STEM workforce. This project will also inform the public through the podcast, My Nuclear Life which explores the intersection of nuclear science and society. Nuclei show some emergent collective behavior across isotopic and isobaric chains and are known to be deformed in shape in regions of the chart of nuclides away from closed shells. The existence of vibrational degrees of freedom superimposed on rotational states addresses a degree of freedom in nuclei and is one of the open questions in nuclear structure physics today. This project will use the newly commissioned fIREBAll spectrometer located at the University of Notre Dame's (ND) Nuclear Science Laboratory and multiple (α,2n) reactions to measure conversion electrons in rare-earth nuclei. From these experiments, extracted electron conversion coefficients will be used to calculate E0 components of the relevant transition probabilities depopulating relevant levels. Analyses will be performed at NCA&T during the academic year and at the Institute for Structure & Nuclear Astrophysics at ND during the summer months while the group is in residence. Results will be widely distributed by all members of the group via conference presentations and peer-reviewed journal publications. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. NSF Award ID: 2514819 | Program: 01002627DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT | Principal Investigator: Shelly Lesher | Institution: North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University, GREENSBORO, NC | Award Amount: $299,999 View on NSF Award Search: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/show-award/?AWD_ID=2514819 View on Research.gov: https://www.research.gov/awardapi-service/v1/awards/2514819.html