Nuclear Physics
Atomic nucleus is the core of atom and contains more than 99% of the total mass. It is a quantum many body system at macroscopic level. Over 100 years, people have drawn an enriched picture of the nuclei and developed very sophisticated experimental methods that are not only used to explore nuclear physics, but also widely applied in various fields like human health and safety. Yet more and more discoveries are reported and keep nuclear physics as an extremely important frontier in nature science until now. The research of nuclear physics focuses on the fundamental structure and properties of nucleons, nuclei and nuclear matter, as well as the development and application of new detection techniques.
Nuclear researches in the Department of Physics, Tsinghua University dated back to 1930s when it became one of the key institutions of nuclear science in China. Upon the dawn of the new century, nuclear physics in the department has seen great achievements in both education and scientific research. The current team of 8 faculty members, 4 full professors and 4 associate professors, have received high reputation internationally with their contributions in the fields of nuclear structure, hadron physics, nuclear reactions and equation of state at intermediate energies, relativistic heavy ion collisions and QGP.
Currently theoretical nuclear research in our department covers a variety of topics from nuclear structure at low energy to the heavy ion collisions at relativistic energy regime. We develop the quantum transport theory to describe the transport process of heavy ion collision, the phase transition of the strongly interacting matter and the signature of onset of QGP. Meanwhile, we explore the symmetries of the quantum system using mathematical physics and extend the applications of the group theory and Lie-Algebra in nuclear physics.
The experimental activities in nuclear physics in our department are known for the contributions to the nuclear spectroscopies covering collective motion, shape coexistence and deformation driving effect in nuclei in the A=100 and 130 mass region. The studies on the isospin dynamics in heavy ion reactions and the asymmetrical nuclear equation of state also received worldwide attention. Detection technology, including silicon strip telescopes and modern gaseous detectors are under development in our department.
