Grant: Subatomic Physics Envelope - Project

Amongst the most fundamental charateristics of an atomic nucleus are its shape and size whilst in the ground state configuration. As, in general, this is the form in which the nucleus resides for the majority of its lifetime it appears logical to study this in order to further the understanding of nuclear structure away from the stable isotopes. Laser spectroscopy has long been regarded as a powerful tool in this respect. In all but the lightest of nuclei, it is possible to extract precise systematic effects along a chain of isotopes without the requirement for in depth knowledge of either the absolute nuclear or atomic wavefunctions. Althougth this has been an active area of research ever since the first tuneable laser was installed at a radioactive beam facility over 30 years ago constant improvements in both experimental techniques and the intensities of radioactive beams that are available mean that new, hitherto unexplored areas of the nuclear chart are accessible for the first time. This proposal sets out a program of such measurements to be performed at the ISAC radioactive beam facility, TRIUMF. By making use of existing facilities such as the TITAN ion trapping system and material science beta-NMR and beta-NQR it should be possible to perform spectroscopy measurements on ion beams with intensities as low as a few tens of ions per second.