Areas of Research

Research - Weak Interactions and Nuclear Physics

Experimental Nuclear Physics Research at NC State includes a wide variety of experiments in low energy nuclear physics, chaos in nuclei, fundamental interactions, nuclear physics and neutrinos. The seven faculty and their graduate students conduct research at nearby facilities (PULSTAR at the NC State Nuclear Reactor and at the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory (TUNL)) and at laboratories around the world, such as Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Center for Neutron Research at NIST, and KVI in the Netherlands. The group carries out technically challenging experiments that deal with fundamental physics problems. Students gain hands-on skills in experiments and have the opportunity to work with collaborators from around the world. Our graduates have gone on to successful careers and leadership roles in universities, national laboratories and industry. To see what we are doing right now, please visit the Experimental Nuclear Physics group website. Faculty Members: Dr. Robert Golub Dr. Christopher Gould Dr. David Haase Dr. Paul Huffman Dr. John Kelly Dr. Albert Young		Experiments with ultracold neutrons (UCN's) make up a large part of the current research effort of the NC State nuclear physics group. Here, graduate student Chris O'Shaughnessy is shown with the apparatus he helped develop at NIST for measuring the neutron lifetime using magnetically trapped UCN's. Improving the limits on the neutron lifetime has implications for Big Bang Nucleosynthesis and for tests of unitarity of the CKM matrix.