项目介绍

2023年12月10日

This PhD position is located in the Institute for Nuclear and Radiation Physics (Instituut voor Kern- en Stralingsfysica) which is a research unit of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the KU Leuven. You will become part of a team of several other postdoctoral researchers, PhD students, master students and senior staff carrying out experimental research on matter on the femtoscale. You will join in ongoing efforts to develop precision laser spectroscopy techniques to study the nuclear structure of short-lived isotopes and to contribute to the search for physics beyond the standard model. Research is performed both at the KU Leuven and at international large-scale facilities, with the latter giving us access to short-lived isotopes which do not occur in nature.

Project

Is a nucleus spherical or deformed? Do nucleons behave as individual entities or should they be considered as the building blocks of a collective state? How does the structure of an atomic nucleus change when extreme amounts of protons or neutrons are present? These are only a few examples of questions which our group is trying to answer. In cooperation with other international research teams and using the results of experimental and theoretical studies, we probe the unknown properties of the strong interaction. To reach this goal, our research focuses on the structure of exotic nuclei, i.e. nuclei with extreme proton to neutron ratios. Especially among these isotopes, new nuclear phenomena appear such as changes in the conventional shell structure, the presence of new magic numbers, configuration mixing, shape coexistence and nuclear deformation.
The spin and the static moments of the nucleus are excellent probes to study nuclear structure. Over the years, the group has developed expertise in measurements of these static moments on short-lived isotopes, mainly using laser spectroscopy techniques. With these techniques, the nuclear moments are obtained from measurements of atomic hyperfine structure. The first observable we can access in this way is the mean square charge radius, which gives an indication for the extension of the nuclear charge in space. Additional insight into the charge distribution is obtained from the next electric observable, the electric quadrupole moment, which probes the average deviation of the nuclear charge distribution from a sphere. Complimentary to these electrical observables, the magnetic moments are sensitive to the quantum configuration of the valence nucleons.
The study of nuclei with low number of neutrons, compared to the stable isotopes is of particular interest, as their study enables to probe the isospin symmetry, and the evolution of nuclear properties in proton-rich systems.  Within this PhD project, you will perform experiments on short-lived isotopes in the calcium-nickel region and from the data you will extract the nuclear electromagnetic moments, charge radii and spin, to investigate the quantum structure and how it changes along the isotopic chain. In collaboration with nuclear theorists you will test the current state-of-the-art in nuclear theory calculations. You will also join or take the lead in some technical upgrades that are needed to push our method to even higher sensitivity and selectivity, to enable the proposed studies.

Profiel

You preferably have a Master of Science in Physics.
You are curiosity-driven, detail-oriented, and an independent thinker.
You enjoy working in an international environment and excel at teamwork.
You are willing to travel regularly to participate in experiments.
You are eager to learn about different experimental tools, such as ultra-high vacuum, lasers, data acquisition, particle detectors, ….

Aanbod

We offer a full-time, 4-year PhD-position, in a dynamic scientific environment, at a top international university.

Interesse

For further information, please contact prof. dr. Agi Koszorus, tel.: +32 16 32 84 54, e-mail: agi.koszorus@kuleuven.be.

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