Graduate Studies in Nuclear Physics at Washington University in St. Louis
Nuclear People
Faculty (Experiment)
Faculty (Theory)
Research Faculty and Staff
Postdoc
Graduate Students
2
1
3
1
4
Departmental Websites
www.chemistry.wustl.edu
www.physics.wustl.edu
Application Deadline
Chemistry: Rolling
Physics: December 31
Application Sites
www.chemistry.wustl.edu
www.physics.wustl.edu
Contacts in Nuclear Physics
L.G. Sobotka, Experiment lgs@wustl.edu
W.H. Dickhoff, Theory wimd@wuphys.wustl.edu
General Information
Washington University in St. Louis (WU) is a
medium-sized, independent university
dedicated to challenging its students, faculty,
and staff to seek new knowledge and greater
understanding of an ever-changing world. The
university is highly regarded for its
commitment to excellence in learning. WU is
located on two primary campuses: the
Danforth and the Medical campus. The oncampus enrollment at WU for the Fall 2009
semester was approximately 11,000, including
5,000 graduate students. WU has a long
history in nuclear chemistry and physics
research and has the best equipped nuclear
and radiochemistry teaching laboratory in the
nation.
Basic nuclear science research is done by the
Nuclear Chemistry group, a group of
experimentalists with diverse interests with an
expertise in novel detector development and
instrumentation, and a theory group in the
Physics Department.
Nuclear Chemistry and Physics
Research Areas
Low-Energy Nuclear Structure
Low- and Medium-Energy Nuclear Reactions
Nuclear Theory
Instrumentation for Ionizing Radiation Detection
Related Research Areas at WU
Nuclear and radiochemistry teaching
laboratory.
Nuclear Matter/Quark Matter
Space and Earth Sciences with Nuclear Methods
Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics
Imaging with Nuclear Methods
Radiochemistry
Washington University in St. Louis
“Microball” , “Neutronshell”, and “Gammasphere”.
Nuclear Structure: Shapes and Collective Modes
We are conducting experiments with heavy-ion beams
and certain target isotopes, to produce nuclei and study
their shape and structure under conditions of high angular
momentum and low excitation energy. Here, γ radiation
provides insight in shape effects. However, the product
nucleus of interest needs to be selected first. Selection
detectors are “Microball”, “Neutronshell”, and
“Hercules”, built at WU and used in conjunction with the
National γ spectrometer “Gammasphere”. With the
56
“Microball” setup, a football-like shape of Ni was
discovered. With the “Hercules” setup, the level scheme
of 220Th was delineated, suggesting a tidal wave running
on a pear-shaped nuclear surface.
Nuclear many-body theory
Ab initio many-body methods are developed using the
Green’s function method. The implementation for nuclei
is known as the Faddeev random-phase approximation
and includes a detailed description of the role of long- and
short-range correlations on the properties of nucleons in
the medium. The method has also found successful
application in electronic systems. The Green’s function
method also provides a framework for the analysis of
elastic nucleon scattering and level data in the form of the
dispersive optical model. This project involves both
theorists and experimentalists in the group.
Website: http://wuphys.wustl.edu/~wimd/
What nucleons do in the nucleus…
Detector used for four-body decay measurements.
This small detector array is part of the larger HiRA
array built in collaboration with MSU and IU.
Images of two students can be seen reflecting off
the Si detectors.
Reactions Studies of Nuclear Properties
A broad range of types and energies of nuclear reactions
are used to probe correlations of nucleons in nuclei and
nuclear structure research. To explore the dependence of
correlations with large asymmetries of neutrons to protons
and vise versa, we utilize proton and neutron elastic
scattering measurements, total and reactions cross section
measurements, nucleon knockout and transfer reactions.
These measurements have been performed at Michigan
State University (NSCL), Los Alamos (LANSCE), and
Duke University (TUNL). In addition we have a program
at Texas A&M and Michigan State Universities to explore
three-body and higher-order decays of nuclear levels
including a 10C excited state which has a strong “diproton”
decay character.