The preparation of undergraduate students for their future careers or graduate school requires additional experiences outside the classroom. A new faculty member at Augustana College (a small, undergraduate-only, liberal arts institution), will address this need by establishing an undergraduate research group in nuclear physics to perform experiments at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) at Michigan State University (MSU). The primary experimental goal is to study the atomic nucleus 28F. Determining the structure of 28F will help to constrain current theoretical models of nuclei.
For this study the neutron and charged particle are detected in coincidence since 28F is so unstable that it immediately falls apart into 27F and a neutron. Charged particles are bent away from the neutrons with a large-gap dipole magnet where their properties are measured using a suite of charged particle detectors. The neutrons are detected in the Modular Neutron Array (MoNA). MoNA was built by a collaboration of mostly undergraduate institutions of which Augustana is now a member. The analysis of the experiment is currently underway. The grant provides support for undergraduate student research and dissemination of results at conferences. In addition, the grant will support the investigation of possible improvements to the overall detector system and performing similar experiments to 28F described above.
This grant supported the establishment of an undergraduate physics research group to study properties of the atomic nucleus. This group from Augustana College (a small, undergraduate-only, liberal arts institution) located in Rock Island, IL travels to the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory located on the campus of Michigan State University (MSU) to perform experiments on unstable nuclei produced at this facility. Improving our understanding of nuclei that don’t naturally occur on earth improves our theoretical understanding of these systems and requires new experimental techniques to continue cutting-edge research. The research projects involved other institutions, faculty investigators, personnel from MSU, and undergraduate/graduate students from within the MoNA (Modular Neutron Array) collaboration. One major goal of this research group was complex data analysis. Undergraduate students and the faculty member participated, analyzed, and published results of exotic nuclei such as the first published measurement of 27,28F, which was the main experimental goal of this work. Other experiments performed by members of the collaboration resulting in published work were also supported by this grant. In addition, unpublished data were worked on moving toward final results to be published. The other major goal of this research group was detector development. A new detector called a hodoscope was successfully installed in February 2012 to provide better identification of nuclei studied. This system was successfully used in multiple experiments. Optimization of the detector system and development of new analysis codes is on-going. In addition, an active target system was simulated to demonstrate the improvement over existing targets. A target is a material that is used to help produce nuclei for study. The simulation justified designing and constructing such a detector system. The mechanical segmented target design was completed using Inventor® 3D CAD software, which was used to produce a 3D printed prototype to verify the soundness of the design. All goals of this research project involved undergraduate students. A total of 12 students participated in all aspects of the research and gained skills useful for a career in a STEM field. They learned how to perform analysis of complex data along with how to communicate results in presentations at national physics meetings. They learned how to work in a group since knowledge and ideas were shared between students at Augustana and with graduate and undergraduate students within the MoNA Collaboration. Most of these Augustana undergraduate students have gone onto graduate work in physics or closely related STEM fields, which was an important outcome of this work.
