General information
Organisation
The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) is a key player in research, development and innovation in four main areas :
• defence and security,
• nuclear energy (fission and fusion),
• technological research for industry,
• fundamental research in the physical sciences and life sciences.
Drawing on its widely acknowledged expertise, and thanks to its 16000 technicians, engineers, researchers and staff, the CEA actively participates in collaborative projects with a large number of academic and industrial partners.
The CEA is established in ten centers spread throughout France
Reference
SL-DRF-24-0294
Direction
DRF
Thesis topic details
Category
Corpuscular physics and outer space
Thesis topics
Variety of nuclear shapes in 96Zr studied with AGATA and GRIFFIN gamma-ray spectrometers
Contract
Thèse
Job description
The thesis will focus on the experimental study of the nuulear properties of the heaviest stable zirconium isotope (96Zr).
Recently, observation of a low-lying deformed state in this magic nucleus has been explained by a reorganization of nuclear shells in function of their occupation by protons and neutrons. These sophisticated nuclear-structure calculations predict a variety of shapes, both ellipsoidal and pear-like, to appear at low excitation energy in the 96Zr nucleus. We will investigate them using the powerful Coulomb-excitation technique, which is the most direct method to determine the shapes of nuclei in their excited states. The experiment will be performed using AGATA, a new-generation gamma-ray spectrometer, consisting of a large number of finely segmented germanium crystals, which allows us to identify each point where a gamma ray interacts with the detector material and then, using the so-called “gamma-ray tracking” concept, to reconstruct the energies of all emitted gamma rays and their angles of emission with highest precision. A complementary measurement will be performed at TRIUMF (Vancouver, Canada) using the world’s leading setup for beta-decay measurements called GRIFFIN. This project is a part of an extensive experimental program on shape coexistence and evolution of nuclear shapes undertaken by our group.
University / doctoral school
PHENIICS (PHENIICS)
Paris-Saclay
Thesis topic location
Site
Saclay
Requester
Position start date
01/10/2024
Person to be contacted by the applicant
Zielinska Magdalena magda.zielinska@cea.fr
CEA
DRF/IRFU/DPhN/LENA
DSM/IRFU/DPhN
Bat 703 Orme des Merisiers
91191 Gif/Yvette cedex
01 69 08 74 86
Tutor / Responsible thesis director
Zielinska Magdalena magda.zielinska@cea.fr
CEA
DRF/IRFU/DPhN/LENA
DSM/IRFU/DPhN
Bat 703 Orme des Merisiers
91191 Gif/Yvette cedex
01 69 08 74 86
En savoir plus
https://irfu.cea.fr/Phocea/Vie_des_labos/Ast/ast_visu.php?id_ast=483
https://irfu.cea.fr/Phocea/Vie_des_labos/Ast/ast_technique.php?id_ast=790