Lifetimes of low-spin excitations in the A=100 mass region

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Andreas Zilges
• Subject Area: Nuclear and Elementary Particle Physics, Quantum Mechanics, Relativity, Fields
• Term: since 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 405855296

Atomic nuclei show excitations which have - despite the complexity of the many-body quantum system - rather simple structures. This includes, e.g., collective vibrations of the nuclear surface or shape coexistence, i.e., different shapes of the ground state and excited states of a nucleus. One very important observable to get a deeper understanding is the lifetime of these excitations. However, an absolute measurement of lifetimes poses many experimental challenges and data for a comparison with theory is rather scarce.We have improved the so-called DSA technique by measuring the projectile which has been used to excite the nucleus as well as the gamma rays which are emitted during the decay. This allows us to extract reliable lifetimes for a number of excitations in a single experiment. In this project, we plan to investigate nuclei near the magic Z=50 shell. In those nuclei many of the features described above are expected.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants