9312428 Nadasen The nuclear physics research program of the University of Michigan Dearborn is carried out by the principal investigator and about four undergraduates students. It focuses on studies of nuclear structure and nuclear reaction mechanisms in order to evaluate theoretical predictions and to provide a better understanding of nuclear phenomena in general. Elastic scattering of Li 6 ions at 210 and 318 MeV on a range of targets has provided a global macroscopic description of the Li 6 nucleus interaction in terms of its energy and target mass dependence. More fundamentally, the data were used to evaluate microscopic folding model calculations. Extension of these studies to Li 7, Li 9 and Li 11 will illustrate the perturbation caused by the extra neutrons and the effect of using unstable beams. Measurements of light ions emanating from nucleus nucleus collisions using the MSU 4pi Array have elucidated many features of heavy ion reactions. The addition of Bragg curve detectors and parallel plate avalanche counters facilitate measurement of heavier fragments and thus broadened the studies of nuclear matter and dynamics of heavy ion reactions. (p,pHe 4) reaction studies in the 100 200 MeV region and measurements of (He 4, 2He 4) at 580 MeV indicate that projectiles with energies above 100 MeV/Nucleon provide reliable information of alpha clustering in nuclei. These studies will be continued in order to investigate alpha cluster structures of heavier nuclei with the hope of determining alpha decay rates of long lived nuclei.
