Post Hatree-Fock methods of many-body theory are now capable to provide ab initio predictions of nuclei up to masses of A [approximately] 100 nucleons. Among these, I will concentrate on the self-consistent Green's function approach (SCGF) that allows direct access to the nuclear spectral functions and the information on nuclear correlations contained in it. The SCGF was the first of such methods to be extended to open shell isotopes and has been used extensively to benchmark chiral nuclear interactions and to investigate the single-particle structure of neutron rich nuclei. In this talk I plan to discuss (1) our results regarding the dependence of shell closures and spectroscopic factors on isospin asymmetry, (2) the application of SCGF to develop microscopic optical potentials and (3) the importance of knowing the spectral functions for understanding the response to neutrinos under the wide range of energies relevant to oscillation experiments.

The HUNTER apparatus (Heavy Unseen Neutrinos from Total Energy-momentum Reconstruction) is designed to allow precision measurements of electron-capture decays occurring in a magneto-optically trapped radioactive atom sample. A search for sterile neutrinos with masses in the keV range will be the initial application, reconstructing the neutrino missing mass from 131-Cs (t1/2= 9.3 days) electron capture decays. Reaction-microscope spectrometers will be used to detect all charged decay products with high solid angle efficiency and LYSO scintillators read out by silicon photomultiplier arrays detect x-rays, each with sufficient resolution to reconstruct the neutrino missing mass. The overall design of this W. M. Keck Foundation-funded experiment will be discussed and future applications discussed. Upgrades which would improve the sterile neutrino mixing angle sensitivity by orders of magnitude will be described.

Committee: Remco Zegers(Chairperson), B. Alex Brown, Sean Couch, Morten Hjorth-Jensen, Artemis Spyrou (Thesis is on display in 1312 BPS bldg. and the NSCL Atrium)

In this semi-staged production of Ricky Ian Gordon’s Orpheus and Euridice, enter into a modern reimagining of Virgil’s classic myth of love, loss, and beauty by setting it within the context of today’s #MeToo movement. What if it wasn’t a snake that attacked Euridice? What if she didn’t die and descend to Hades, but instead the world as she knew it crumbled around her after a sexual assault, becoming her own personal living hell? What can Orpheus do to try to rescue her from a situation she can’t find words to express? How can goodness and beauty come out of all this suffering? There is a powerful message of hope and strength in this piece. Join us for our musical journey.

As 2019 is the year of the period table, it is fun to consider some of the lesser-known aspects of this powerful and useful way to organize the building blocks of our world. This talk will review some of the history of elements and the efforts to develop an understanding of nature. It will also explore the existence of isotopes (roughly translated from Greek as “at the same place”) of the elements. We think of elements as unchanging, but this is not correct. Radioactivity is evidence for one element changing into another and is a part of nature. A somewhat related topic was the goal of alchemists to transform metals to gold, the element that was considered perfect, and to find a path to perfection. They had no idea of radioactivity, or of what it would really take to change one element into another. We will look at the transformation of elements from a modern perspective and talk about how at least part of the goal of alchemy has been achieved by research laboratories such as FRIB.

Since 2014, development of superconducting quarter-wave resonator (SC-QWR) with its resonant frequency of 75.5 MHz was performed. The SC-QWR which operates at 4 K is designed for ion acceleration with an optimum beta of 0.08. We succeeded to develop one SC-QWR with Q of 2.3E9 at an acceleration gradient 4.5 MV/m. After the study of surface treatment, the cavity was integrated to a prototype cryomodule which is capable to contain two SC-QWRs. The cryomodule is equipped with a thermal shield which is cooled by a cryocooler. The cavity was cooled by liquid helium transferred from a dewar. A coaxial probe-type RF fundamental power coupler, together with the cavity, was developed to transmit RF power of 5 kW. In this seminar development of a SC-QWR, design of the prototype cryomodule and result of rf test will be discussed. Construction of superconducting RIKEN linac, so-called SRILAC, is underway for the experiments of new super-heavy-element synthesis. The SRILAC consists of three cryomodules based on ten SC-QWRs with an operation frequency of 73.0 MHz. The fabrication and surface treatment of the SC-cavities were performed in basically the same way. Results from acceptance tests of these cavities and construction status will be also reported.