Giant Resonances: Fundamental modes and probes of nuclear properties

by Muhsin N. Harakeh (University of Groningen)

Thursday 26 Jan 2023, 10:00 → 13:00 Europe/Warsaw

The lecture will be part of the ceremony of conferring the title of Honorary Professor of the IFJ PAN to Profesor Muhsin N. Harakeh (RUG)
https://www.ifj.edu.pl/en/news/2023/23-01-20/
 

To study the properties of nuclear matter, we use nuclear reactions to excite the fundamental modes of the nucleus, which can yield information on the equation of state (EOS) and are also important for understanding nuclear structure aspects of nuclei. Furthermore, it is very important to understand the nuclear processes that precede a supernova event and to understand the properties of nuclear matter in order to explain why stars sometimes explode throwing most of the star material into space leaving a neutron star or a black hole behind. Following the extensive studies of the isovector giant dipole resonance (IVGDR), after its discovery in the forties of the twentieth century, the compression modes, the isoscalar giant monopole (ISGMR) and dipole resonances (ISGDR), were extensively studied in the last four decades, because of their importance for the determination of the nuclear-matter incompressibility and consequently their implications for the EOS of nuclear matter. Though the nuclear matter incompressibility (K∞) has been reasonably well determined (240 ± 20 MeV) through comparison of experimental results on several spherical nuclei with microscopic calculations, the asymmetry term was determined with larger uncertainty. This has been addressed in measurements on a series of stable Sn and Cd isotopes, which resulted in a value of Kt = -550 ± 100 MeV for the asymmetry term in the nuclear incompressibility. Perspectives on improving on this uncertainty are available through inverse-reaction studies with exotic nuclei using the active-target and storage-ring techniques.