Main topics in the research
My research is presently focussed on the exotic cluster and molecular-like
structures of excited states in the light nuclei and the studies of reactions
involving weakly bound and strongly deformed nuclei, as well as on the
studies of nuclear reactions relevant to nuclear astrophysics and nucleosynthesis.
In light nuclei the rotational band states are predicted, associated with
chain configurations made of several alpha-particles and valence neutrons,
which bear analogy to atomic molecules. A study of such states in the neutron
rich isotopes of Be and B has been performed using coincidence detection
of particles from many-body nuclear reactions in the arrays of charged
particle detector telescopes. Based upon these observations, it is very
interesting to search for similar chain configurations made of alpha-particles
and valence protons in proton rich light nuclei. In the special case of
J=0 target, projectile and detected nuclei, angular correlations allow
for spin assignment to the resonances and thus measurement of the moment
of inertia of the associated configurations. Various reactions, particularly
those using the radioactive beams and targets, can be used for production
of highly deformed excited states possessing molecular structure. Transfer
and break-up reactions accompanied with the kinematically complete measurements
of many-body exit channels have already been shown to be a powerful tool
in studying these exotic configurations. Kinematically complete measurements,
at properly chosen projectile energy and with sufficient statistics, of
the reactions between neutron rich nuclei can characterize structure of
excited states in 10,12,14Be, 14,16,18C and18,20O
in the excitation regions in which the molecular configurations could exist.There
is also interest in similar chain structures made of sequences of weakly
bound nuclei 6,7Li, which possess pronounced alpha+d (alpha+t)
cluster structure, e.g. 6Li+6Li configuration of
12C
and 7Li+7Li in 14C as well as in 6,8Li+4,6,8He
configurations of 12,14B nuclei. Detailed spectroscopy of the
proton rich light nuclei 6Be,
9B, 9,10C
etc. and search for molecular-like structures can be done using the reactions
with light deformed N=Z nuclei like 6Li as well as by use of
radioactive proton rich 7Be beam.
The measurements of such reactions may, at the same time, give information
relevant to nuclear astrophysics, namely cross sections and astrophysical
factors required for light isotope production estimates in nucleosynthesis.
Indirect methods are particulary useful in the investigations of nuclear
astrophysics key reactions. One of them, used to extract information on
two-body reactions from the measured three-body quasi-free reactions, is
the Trojan Horse Method. Next promising indirect way to determine astrophysical
S factors is determination of asymptotic normalization coefficients from
transfer reactions. It is very interesting to test both methods using 9Be
projectile, which has pronounced alpha+alpha+n cluster structure, for the
three-particle interactions which play important role in nucleosynthesis.
The best known examples are triple alpha process 4He(24He
, gamma)12C, then 4He(4He n, gamma)9Be
and 7Li(4He n, n)11B which help to bypass
the mass 5 and 8 instability gaps. Other example is a sequence of two-neutron
capture reactions 4He(2n, gamma)6He(2n, gamma)8He
which can be determined using radioactive 6,8He beams.
Various processes can be envisioned to further probe the reliability of
these indirect methods and to determine low-energy astrophysical factors
of key reactions, including the crucial reaction 12C(4He,
gamma)16O.
However, my research interests are not limited to mentioned topics. I would
like and I am able to work in a wide area of experimental research related
to nuclear physics and astrophysics as well as high energy physics.