Python coding for Atomic and Nuclear Astrophysics research

Join Us in Exploring the Reactions that Power the Stars!

At the Nuclear Science Laboratory (NSL) website, we investigate nuclear reactions that fuel stars and make them shine. One of our primary tools, the St. George Recoil Separator, applies principles from your freshman E&M (Electromagnetism) class to study how helium nuclei fuse with heavier elements. For example, when helium fuses with carbon-12, it forms oxygen-16, a key process in stellar evolution!

Here’s how it works: We accelerate a beam of heavy ions and direct it at a helium target. Most of the ions pass through without much happening, but occasionally, fusion occurs. The products of these rare reactions move in the same direction as the beam. Magnetic and electrostatic fields then separate the reaction products from the rest of the beam, guiding them into a detector for analysis.

While the concept seems simple, things get tricky because both the beam ions and reaction products randomly gain or lose electrons as they pass through the target. Predicting how many electrons surround the ions is critical but challenging. Existing codes can help predict this, but their data is optimized for higher-energy ions, which isn’t ideal for the lower energies we use in nuclear astrophysics.

That’s where you come in!

What You’ll Do:

• Use Python programming to interact with this code.
• Automate input for large-scale calculations.
• Modify atomic cross sections (probabilities) to better match experimental data, extending the code to the energy ranges we care about.

You'll work closely with me (Manoel Couder) using your own computer or those of the CRC (Center for Research Computing). While some Python experience would be helpful, we welcome students eager to learn and explore.