Nuclear research @ FIU

Professors and students in nuclear physics are engaged in some very exciting research. Here we highlight three separate research programs wherein FIU’s nuclear physics research is “Worlds Ahead!” The three research programs tie into larger Department of Energy programs that are interested in: (1) understanding the interaction of strange quarks with ordinary matter of the universe which might be detectable in many galaxies and may affect cosmology and the fate of the universe; (2) understanding gluons that bind all matter in the universe in two and three quark particles by exciting the gluons and studying the de-excitation processes; and (3) a better diagnostic for measuring the rate of nuclear fusion reactions in nuclear fusion experiments thereby bringing the world a step closer to electrical power production by nuclear fusion powered by ordinary water as its fuel!

The Hypernuclear Spectroscopy Program

The Hypernuclear Spectroscopy Program funded by the U.S. Department of Energy involves FIU and two other universities as the lead researchers. In an attempt to understand how strange matter (matter containing strange quarks) interacts with ordinary matter and its implication for nuclear physics, astrophysics and cosmology, scientists are implanting strange quarks into various elements and then are analyzing the nuclear particles and radiation that come from these new particles called hyperons. There are six types of quarks, known as flavors: up, down, strange, charm, bottom, and top. Up and down quarks have the lowest energy levels and are the only two that survive and make up the matter of the universe. The four higher energy quarks typically decay rapidly via particle decay into up and down quarks and nuclear radiation. The difference between energy levels of hyperons embedded into ordinary nuclei provides insight into the underlying interaction. While lower atomic number elements such as H, He, Li, Be, B, C, N, O, Al, and Si have been studied with implantation of a strange quark, so have a few higher atomic number elements such as V, Fe, Y, La, Pb and Bi. Supernovae create all elements in the universe with atomic numbers above iron (Fe). Strange quarks may exist in neutron stars, which are created in supernovae.

Start Counter

FIU is playing an instrumental role in the creation of a “Start Counter” for the GlueX Experiment. From the furthest stars to the molecules in your fingernail, everything in the universe is made of tiny particles called quarks. Quarks have a peculiar behavior called “confinement,” which means they are always bound together in groups of two, three or more quarks. The “glue” which binds them is made up of particles called “gluons”. The GlueX experiment in Hall-D will attempt to produce and detect 2-quark particles in which the “glue” has been excited. The signature we will look for is to find particles with properties which cannot be explained by two quarks alone. At the same time, these “exotic” signatures will not match the known spectrum of three quark states. Observing and measuring states with excited glue will give us insight into the nature of “glue” and thus, the nature of confinement. Understanding confinement is considered one of the most important scientific questions of our time.

The “Start Counter” is made of 40 thin plastic scintillators arranged in a bullet-like shape around the liquid hydrogen target at the heart of the GlueX detector. These scintillators will produce light when charged particles pass through them allowing us to identify where, and more importantly, when the particle was there.

New Charged Particle Detection System

FIU is working to create a new charged particle detection system (for products of nuclear fusion reactions). The goal of this detector is to obtain time-dependent, precise information on the d(d,p)t fusion rate profile in nuclear fusion experiments (e.g., NSTX-U) with the more specific goal of determining the neutral beam ion density profile as a function of R, z, and t. Neutral beams are used to heat plasmas and to improve nuclear fusion reaction rates and hence bring us closer to making nuclear fusion a viable energy source of the future.

Ordinary water is di-hydrogen oxide and one out of every 6500 atoms of hydrogen have a single neutron in the nucleus and this form of hydrogen is known as deuterium. By separating the deuterium from a single gallon of water and using to fuel a nuclear fusion reactor of the future, the energy created is 300 times that produced in burning a gallon of gasoline. There is much research and progress needed before nuclear fusion hits a scientific break-even point and even more research before it can produce electricity that is economically competitive with other energy sources available.