Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2010 Fall Meeting of the APS Division of Nuclear Physics
Volume 55, Number 14
Tuesday–Saturday, November 2–6, 2010; Santa Fe, New Mexico
Session AA: Progress Towards the Long Range Plan for Nuclear Science |
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Chair: W.A. Zajc, Columbia University Room: Sweeny E/F |
Wednesday, November 3, 2010 3:00PM - 3:36PM |
AA.00001: The Physics of the Jefferson Lab 12 GeV Upgrade Invited Speaker: Since 1995, the high luminosity, polarized electron beam of the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) at Jefferson Lab (JLab) has provided a powerful experimental tool for our studies of the strong interaction and its theory QCD, and the structure of the proton, the neutron, and nuclei. The 12 GeV Upgrade of JLab, currently underway, will open a new era for frontier research in nuclear and hadronic physics. The new experimental Hall D will use the electron beam to produce a tagged coherent bremsstrahlung beam and will house a solenoidal detector to carry out a program in gluonic spectroscopy. It will experimentally test current understanding of quark confinement. The three existing halls (A, B and C) will be upgraded to receive the new 11 GeV beam. Halls B and C will house a new toroidal detector (CLAS12) and a new high momentum spectrometer (the SHMS) respectively. Hall A is anticipated to focus on experiments utilizing specialized apparatus. There have been four reviews of proposals by the Program Advisory Committee, which approved 45 experiments (13 being conditionally approved) in all four experimental halls. In addition to quark confinement, we are expecting to gain precision knowledge of the spin, flavor, and transverse structures of the nucleon and its valence quark structure; the nucleon generalized parton distributions; nucleon and meson form factors; and the quark and gluon structure of nuclei. High-precision parity violation experiments will test the electroweak Standard Model and will provide the potential to study possible new physics. [Preview Abstract] |
Wednesday, November 3, 2010 3:36PM - 4:12PM |
AA.00002: Nuclei: From Structure to Exploding Stars Invited Speaker: Our world is comprised of less than 300 different naturally occurring isotopes, but they exhibit rich structures, including tightly bound nuclei with ``magic'' numbers of protons or neutrons and nuclei whose energy spectra show simple collective patterns despite the many microscopic degrees of freedom. However, naturally occurring isotopes represent only the most stable combinations of protons and neutrons, and short-lived nuclei with more exotic combinations are key to developing a comprehensive model of nuclear structure and reactions. These isotopes provide new insights by amplifying aspects of the nuclear force that are less apparent in the most stable isotopes. For example, as new capabilities at existing facilities have reached deeper into the realm of unstable nuclei over the last decade, experiments have revealed that even some of the magic numbers, long a cornerstone of our understanding of nuclear structure, are modified. The study of short-lived nuclei and reactions with them are crucial to understanding the origins of the isotopes themselves in stellar explosions. While experiments have recently addressed some key uncertainties in environments like novae, the lack of data on unstable nuclei is still a major obstacle in more dramatic explosions like supernovae and X-ray bursts. Key rare isotopes also offer unique opportunities in fundamental physics and for societal applications. I will review some exciting recent highlights with rare isotope beams that are helping to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the structure of nuclei and their origins in stellar explosions. I will also describe the path towards the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) that will be a world-leading laboratory for the study of short-lived nuclei. [Preview Abstract] |
Wednesday, November 3, 2010 4:12PM - 4:48PM |
AA.00003: COFFEE BREAK
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Wednesday, November 3, 2010 4:48PM - 5:24PM |
AA.00004: What nuclear physics tells us about physics beyond the nucleus Invited Speaker: One of the great intellectual strengths of nuclear physics is the breadth of phenomena that it encompasses. This diversity promotes the exchange of new ideas and techniques within our field, while also extending its impact to related disciplines such as high energy physics, astrophysics, and cosmology. Nuclear physicists, through the study of fundamental symmetries, are addressing the origin of the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the universe, the fundamental nature of the neutrino, and the existence of supersymmetry and dark matter. In the three years since our last long-range plan was developed, we have explored the interior of the sun and the earth with neutrinos, developed new theoretical tools to guide us and to interpret our experiments, and greatly advanced our ambitious plans to search for new symmetries and new symmetry-violating processes. We describe here the status of our program and the prospects for further progress in the next decade. [Preview Abstract] |
Wednesday, November 3, 2010 5:24PM - 6:00PM |
AA.00005: The Phases of Nuclear Matter Invited Speaker: Over the past decade, the experiments at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider have produced tantalizing evidence for a new state of nuclear matter. The study of this phase presents to us the opportunity to study the strong force at high temperature. Much as the field of condensed matter has benefited through the study of collective phenomena based on Quantum Electro-Dynamics (QED), we are at the beginning of our study of the unique properties that matter possesses when interacting through Quantum Chromo-Dynamics (QCD). The quark-gluon plasma that has been observed in the collisions at RHIC showcases some intriguing properties. The bulk of the matter produced during the highest temperature phase exhibits near perfect liquid behavior. At the same time, the plasma is extremely opaque to the passage of high energy color-charged partons, a phenomenon christened ``jet quenching.'' The density is large enough that even the massive quarks, charm and beauty, show evidence for a surprising amount of quenching. These findings attest to the success of the RHIC program in the past decade. As we look forward to another decade, we aim to study these exciting phenomena with increased precision in order to make quantitative assessments of the medium properties. In order to achieve this, a ten-fold increase to the RHIC collider luminosity, targeted detector upgrades, and advances in theory are envisioned. In this talk, we present an overview of current results, the key questions that we aim to address in the next decade, and how the planned new capabilities of accelerators and detectors can help us to answer them. [Preview Abstract] |
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