Nuclear Structure
As the name implies, Nuclear Structure Physics is the study of the structure of the nucleus. Gamma-ray analysis helps us to understand features of nuclear levels and transitions. Transition features such as the energy, intensity, parity, transition probability, and the arrangement of transitions among the excited states are studied to increase our understanding of nuclear structure physics. The depth and detail of our understanding of nuclear structure physics is in part contingent upon our knowledge of the excited nuclear states. Therefore, the study of gamma-ray emission has become a standard technique of nuclear structure physics.
- High Spin States
- Gamma-ray Spectoscopy
- Superdeformation
- Hyperdeformation
- Nuclei Far From Stability
Nucleon Structure
These studies seek to understand the internal structure of hadrons in terms of the underlying quark and gluon degrees of freedom of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). QCD is the fundamental theory of the strong force and it has been tested extremely well in the very high energy regime, i.e., the perturbative QCD (pQCD) regime, but little is known in the non-perturbative regime where ordinary matter exists. One of the important motivations of this area of research is to understand the transition from the nucleon-meson to the quark-gluon degrees of freedom. One of the techniques used is to undertake experiments in search of signatures of QCD in nuclei.
Fundamental Symmetries and Precision Tests of the Standard Model
Three of the four fundamental forces in nature (weak, strong and electromagnetic) have been combined (unified) into one mathematically consistent quantum field theory known as the Standard Model (SM). The SM predicts or is consistent with all known aspects of the elementary particles and their interactions over an impressive range of probes and scales. Precision experiments which test the predictions of the SM and look for violations of fundamental symmetries are therefore searches for New Physics beyond the SM.
