Edinburgh Nuclear Physics Group Consolidated Grant Proposal

爱丁堡核物理小组综合赠款提案

基本信息

批准号：
ST/J00006X/1
负责人：
Philip J Woods
金额：
$ 161.5万
依托单位：
University of Edinburgh
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2011
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2011 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ST%2FJ00006X%2F1
关键词：
Edinburgh Nuclear Physics Group Consolidated

项目摘要

The chemical elements we observe today were mostly created from the ashes of ancient stellar explosions. The most spectacular events of this type are supernovae. With very high sensitivity modern telescopes we can study the chemical abundances of material ejected from distant supernovae and compare with those abundances found in our own solar system. Understanding how extreme astrophysical events produce the stable elements observed today in telescopes, and meteorites, depends critcially on the properties of unstable exotic nuclei which were originally present in the extreme high temperature and density stellar environments in which the elements were forged, before ultimately decaying back to the stability. We are lucky that now we have the tools with modern accelerators and detector systems to study these exotic nuclei and their reactions for the first time. Exotic nuclei can exhibit remarkable properties, possessing different microscopic shell structure compared with isotopes found in nature. At the extremes of nuclear existence, known as the drip-lines, nuclei can decay by emitting their constituent nucleons. This is a very basic quantum tunneling process, whose rate is remarkably sensitive to the shape of the nuclear surface. Some nuclei can possess more than one stable shape, a phenomenon known as shape coexistence, which represents a unique laboratory to study the influence of shapes on quantum tunnelling. In the case of neutron emission, so-called 1-neutron radioactivity has yet to be discovered at all, although it might be observable in experiments from the decay of exotic metastable states in regions of very neutron-rich nuclei, such as are produced in supernovae explosions. While assemblies of nucleons in nuclei behave in remarkable ways, there are also many questions about how the nucleons themselves are formed.This is a very exciting field that naturally leads to consideration of the roles of quarks inside the nucleons themselves, and other bound quark systems. Exciting possibilities exist in the coming decade to obtain a more fundamental understanding of the processes involved ,based on modern theories such as Quantum Chromo Dynamics (QCD). Such theories suggest the existence of remarkable undiscovered particles called glueballs, and quark-gluon hybrids; we will search for these in future experiments. The Edinburgh Group uses its world-leading expertise to develop advanced silicon strip detector and instrumentation systems that are used for key scientific experiments at major international accelerator facilities, by group members, UK scientists and International collaborators. This is a vital technology for the scientific exploitation of new generation Radoactive Ion Beam facilities, and is a field where the UK has a world lead using products jointly developed with UK firms.

我们今天观察到的化学元素大部分是由古代恒星爆炸的灰烬产生的。这种类型中最壮观的事件是超新星。借助非常高灵敏度的现代望远镜，我们可以研究遥远超新星喷射物质的化学丰度，并与我们太阳系中发现的化学丰度进行比较。了解极端天体物理事件如何产生今天在望远镜和陨石中观察到的稳定元素，关键取决于不稳定的奇异核的特性，这些核最初存在于极端高温和密度的恒星环境中，在这些环境中元素被锻造，然后最终衰变回来到稳定。我们很幸运，现在我们拥有带有现代加速器和探测器系统的工具，可以首次研究这些奇异的原子核及其反应。奇异核可以表现出显着的特性，与自然界中发现的同位素相比，具有不同的微观壳结构。在核存在的极端情况下，即所谓的滴水线，核可以通过发射其组成核子来衰变。这是一个非常基本的量子隧道过程，其速率对核表面的形状非常敏感。一些原子核可以拥有多个稳定的形状，这种现象称为形状共存，它代表了研究形状对量子隧道影响的独特实验室。就中子发射而言，所谓的 1 中子放射性尚未被发现，尽管它可以在实验中从富含中子的核区域中奇异亚稳态的衰变中观察到，例如在超新星爆炸。虽然原子核中的核子集合体表现得非常出色，但关于核子本身是如何形成的也存在许多问题。这是一个非常令人兴奋的领域，自然会导致人们考虑核子本身以及其他束缚夸克系统内部夸克的作用。基于量子色动力学 (QCD) 等现代理论，未来十年存在着令人兴奋的可能性，可以对所涉及的过程获得更基本的理解。这些理论表明存在着一种未被发现的显着粒子，称为胶球和夸克-胶子混合体。我们将在未来的实验中寻找这些。爱丁堡集团利用其世界领先的专业知识开发先进的硅带探测器和仪器系统，由集团成员、英国科学家和国际合作者用于主要国际加速器设施的关键科学实验。这是新一代放射性离子束设施科学开发的重要技术，并且英国在该领域利用与英国公司联合开发的产品处于世界领先地位。