Conveners
Nuclear Physics
- Simon Lechner (CERN)
Nuclear Physics
- Phillip Imgram (KU Leuven (BE))
Halo nuclei exist at the extremes of nuclear structure where a isotopes’ mass distribution extends far outside the compact core: a consequence of a weakly bound nucleon(s). The unique properties of these isotopes provide stringent tests for nuclear structure models. These nuclei are positioned on the nuclear driplines, often restricting experimental access due to low production rates or short...
We present the development of a novel Penning ion trap for precision spectroscopy of symmetry-violating electroweak properties using single trapped molecular ions [1]. The high magnetic field of the Penning trap can be used to Zeeman shift two molecular states of opposite parity to near degeneracy, enhancing the sensitivity of parity-violating nuclear properties by more than 11 orders of...
The $^{229}$Th nucleus assumes a unique role in the nuclear landscape for its low-lying isomeric first excited state $^{229m}$Th with an excitation energy of $8.338 \pm 0.024$ eV [1], accessible with modern VUV-laser systems. A nuclear clock based on this thorium isomer holds promise not only to push the limits of high-precision metrology with a fractional uncertainty expected in the range of...
Precision mass measurements are necessary in almost all aspects of nuclear physics, including nuclear structure, nuclear astrophysics, and fundamental symmetries. Currently, the Low Energy Beam and Ion Trapping (LEBIT) facility employs two well-established techniques: Time-of-Flight Ion Cyclotron Resonance (TOF-ICR) and Phase-Imaging Ion Cyclotron Resonance (PI-ICR). While these two techniques...
The NEXT experiment [1] is currently being built at the AGOR facility in Groningen. NEXT aims to study Neutron-rich EXotic, heavy nuclei around N=126 and in the transfermium region which are produced in multinucleon Transfer reactions. Precision mass spectrometry and decay spectroscopy will be used to characterize these nuclei.
The target-like transfer products are pre-separated from the...
A host of techniques have been developed to study the nuclear properties of exotic isotopes produced at radioactive ion beam (RIB) facilities. One such technique is collinear laser spectroscopy (CLS), which provides a nuclear model-independent way of extracting observables such as nuclear charge radii, electromagnetic moments, and spins from the hyperfine spectrum of a particular atomic...
At the Institute for Nuclear and Radiation Physics of KU Leuven (IKS) we started a project to measure data on the magnetic octupole moment ($\Omega$) of single valence radioactive nuclei. While currently this observable has only scarcely been measured, and is thus poorly understood, preliminary shell model and Density functional theory (DFT) calculations indicate $\Omega$ may display a strong...
