This NSF-RUI grant will support the study of nuclear reactions by a faculty member at Hope College. The study will by conducted by the faculty member and several undergraduate students (funded by the NSF-REU program). This theoretical project will involve using model simulations of nuclear collisions to study the strong nuclear force. Nucleus-nucleus collisions will be modelled and the evolution of the nucleons and produced particles during and after the collision will be observed. The effects of the nuclear interaction on the final state of the system will be tested and the production, scattering and reabsorption of secondary particles will also be studied. Both elastic and inelastic scattering cross sections of free particles can be measured in the laboratory. However, in nuclear collisions, the particle-particle scattering is affected by the nuclear matter in which the particles exist. Through model calculations the effects of nuclear matter on the scattering probabilities will be probed. In addition, the model calculations will be tested to look for measurable signatures of the modification of the scattering cross-sections.
