Research will be carried out in experimental nuclear physics and new tools will be developed for teaching nuclear physics at the graduate level. The central research activity is a series of experiments designed to elucidate nuclear structure contributions to weak interaction processes in complex systems. The decays of unstable nuclei are driven principally by the weak interaction. The proposed measurements are very precise in nature and will address small effects which limit our detailed understanding of the weak interaction. Specifically, measurements will be carried out aimed at improving the understanding of the rare double beta decay process, of isospin symmetry breaking and the complexities it introduces in extracting the weak interaction strength using weak probes or hadronic probes, of possible effects of meson exchange currents on weak interaction strengths, and of possible small scalar parts of the weak interaction (which is predominantly vector/pseudo- vector in nature). Integration of education and research is an equally important facet of the proposed activity. The experiments will be carried out at the Notre Dame tandem Van de Graaff, and at several particle accelerators in Europe. Graduate and undergraduate students will work on all aspects of the proposed research to broaden their research training and develop their research skills. Relating explicitly to the teaching part of this PI's overall academic activity, a new set of problems in nuclear physics will be developed which will provide a more contemporary basis for teaching nuclear physics at the graduate level.
