This INTPART partnership project will strengthen the research and education collaboration of the University of Oslo with the following partner institutions: University of California Berkeley and Michigan State University, USA, TU Darmstadt, Germany, IPN Orsay and University Paris-Saclay, France, iThemba Labs and the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. This is a continuation of the highly successful INTPART-project "Nuclear shapes and resonances in education", now with four new collaborators after seeing the benefits of this successful project.
The first objective is to do excellent research and involve students in the research project "Nuclear shapes and resonances" which addresses some of the key questions of modern nuclear physics. How do nuclear shapes and the shell structure evolve across the nuclear chart toward more exotic nuclei? Providing experimental data related to these questions is essential to benchmark and improve theoretical nuclear structure models. The existence of resonances in nuclei is widely believed to have an impact on nuclear astrophysics, helping to understand how heavy elements are made in the universe and improve our understanding of reactions occurring in nuclear reactors.
The project will help increase master and PhD student participation in cutting edge research, by supporting their travel to study exotic nuclei at ISOLDE CERN and NSCL Michigan, USA and nuclear resonances at iThemba LABS, South Africa, LBNL Berkeley, USA, and at the Oslo Cyclotron Laboratory, Norway. Collaboration meetings, scientific staff exchange, workshops, and summer schools will be organized. Students will be given guidance and financial support to participate and present their work. Another objective is to make student exchange on all levels easier, by getting good agreements in place between the Universities and pre-approved bachelor course packages. A third objective is to collaborate on education and develop intensive courses for master students and PhD students which will give credits at all partner universities.
Despite the limitations on international travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic, slowing down normal progression, this project and its predecessor supported two recently finished master student projects. H. L. Ekeberg and N. I. J. Pettersen, in Oslo in finishing their theses in the fall of 2020 and early 2021, co-supervised by Dr. A. Voyles (Berkeley). The projects have also produced long-term results in collaboration. One of the newly employed post-doc researchers in Oslo, Dr. K. C. W. Li, was previously a student at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, and has also participated in previous summer schools sponsored by the INTPART program.
For this project, an exchange was planned for PhD student D. Gjestvang from Oslo to Berkeley in the autumn of 2020, which has been postponed to 2022. She recently participated in an INTPART collaboration meeting together with Dr. K. C. W. Li in Paris in October 2021. The project has enabled the student exchange of Dr. E. F. P. Matthews, from Berkeley to Oslo for his final year of PhD from August 2020 to August of 2021. He has, during this stay, presented topics related to his research, and closely collaborated with other PhD students in Oslo.
Due to COVID-19, there has been no possibility of planning international summer schools in 2020 or 2021. A partially digital summer school with combined online and in-person lectures is being developed, which is being held in the fall of 2021. A local intensive school is planned to take place in Oslo at the end of November 2021. The delayed summer schools are also currently being planned for 2022.
Agreements on exchange for students, from bachelors-, masters-, and PhD, have been established by the previous project and will be resumed when travel is more feasible.
This project is a continuation of the highly successful INTPART-project "Nuclear shapes and resonances in education". Both the first and this new INTPART project are based on the research project "Nuclear shapes and resonances" which addresses some of the key questions of modern nuclear physics: How does the nuclear structure change with temperature? How do nuclear shapes and the shell structure evolve across the nuclear chart toward more exotic nuclei? Providing experimental data related to these questions is essential to benchmark and improve theoretical nuclear structure models. It can furthermore have an impact on nuclear astrophysics, helping to understand how heavy elements are made in the universe and improve our understanding of reactions occurring in nuclear reactors. It includes experiments to study exotic nuclei at ISOLDE, CERN and complementary experiments at IThemba Labs, TU-Darmstadt, LBNL Berkeley, IPN Orsay, and the Oslo Cyclotron.
The INPART project aims to strengthen collaboration with the University of California Berkeley, USA, TU Darmstadt, Germany, IPN Orsay and University Paris-Saclay, France, iThemba Labs and the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. Both scientifically and for education. This project also aims to increase master and PhD student participation in cutting edge research, by supporting their travel to the experiments at ISOLDE CERN, at iThemba LABS, South Africa, LBNL Berkeley, USA and at the Oslo Cyclotron, Norway.
We will also organize collaboration meetings, scientific workshops, and summer schools. Make student exchange at all levels easier, by getting good agreements in place between the Universities and pre-approved bachelor course packages.
We will develop and teach intensive courses for master (and PhD) students which will give credits at all 3 universities.
The project is divided into 3 work packages focused on research, education and student exchange, respectively.
