Nuclear reactions are a key instrument to understand how protons and neutrons interact inside nuclear matter. By studying these reactions at different energies we can uncover details of the structure of exotic nuclear systems as well as reproduce the processes that take place in star explosions and lead to the production of the elements in our universe. The group NUC-RIA (NUClear Reactions, Instrumentation, and Astrophysics) focuses on the study of these processes working within international collaborations in European facilities devoted to the production and understanding of the properties of exotic nuclei.

The FAIR (Facility for Antiprotons and Ion Research) facility in Darmstadt, Germany, will be in the next years the world-wide leading facility in the production of exotic nuclei. By accelerating them at energies close to the speed of light, these nuclei can be studied in the R3B (Reactions with Relativistic Radioactive Beams) experiment. The NUC-RIA group has performed analysis of reaction data on halo nuclei at relativistic energies, as well as contributed to the development phases of the CALIFA electromagnetic calorimeter.

The high temperatures that can be reached in star explosions translate into very low energy reactions, involving most of the time radioactive nuclei. The study of these processes is as well a topic on which the group works, participating in experiments at the HIE-ISOLDE facility at CERN.

The development of instrumentation associated to the detection of ionizing radiation and the production of thin films for nuclear reaction processes (via thermal evaporation) are also aspects that the group works on.

Photos

Contacts

Group Leader:  

Daniel Galaviz

galaviz@lip.pt