PSI Seminar
| Dates: | 13 March 2024 |
|---|
| Times: | 12:00 - 13:00 |
|---|
| What is it: | Seminar |
|---|
| Organiser: | Photon Science Institute |
|---|
| Who is it for: | University staff, Current University students |
|---|
| Speaker: | Dr. Kara Lynch |
|---|
|
Join us for this PSI seminar with guest speaker Dr Kara Lynch. At the edges of the nuclear landscape, a rare form of radioactive decay occurs where the nucleus emits a proton. But what is the shape of the nucleus in the moments before it emits a proton? And how does the shape of the nucleus change when the proton becomes unbound? We hope to answer these questions by studying proton-emitting nuclei with laser spectroscopy.
Laser spectroscopy measures the hyperfine structure of atoms, an atomic fingerprint that allows nuclear properties (e.g. spin, electromagnetic moments and charge radii) to be measured. For example, the charge radius tells us about the proton distribution in the nucleus i.e. its shape. By measuring nuclei across the proton-drip line (beyond which proton decay occurs), we hope to gain a unique insight into how a single proton can influence the behaviour of the whole nucleus.
In this talk, I will introduce the concept of proton emission from a nucleus, describe how laser spectroscopy can measure fundamental nuclear properties and outline my plans for measuring the shape of proton-emitting nuclei for the first time.
Speaker
Dr. Kara Lynch
Organisation: University of Manchester
Biography: Dr Kara Lynch is a nuclear physicist using laser spectroscopy and decay spectroscopy to understand the nuclear structure of exotic nuclei. Obtaining her Ph.D. with the University of Manchester as a CERN Doctoral student, she conducted research at the CERN-ISOLDE facility as a Marie Curie Pegasus Fellow and a CERN Research Fellow. After an academic career break as a part-qualified UK patent attorney, Kara returned to nuclear physics research as a post-doctoral research associate with the University of Manchester. She recently started a new research programme, as a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellow, aiming to study the charge radii of proton emitting nuclei.
Travel and Contact Information
Find event
3.306
Alan Turing Building
Manchester
