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 7 faculty members, 4 full professors and 3 associate professors, have received high reputation internationally with their contributions in the fields of hadron physics, nuclear reactions and equation of state at intermediate energies and relativistic heavy ion collisions and QGP studies.

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 study the existence of the exotic states of hadrons. 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 have been known for the contributions to the nuclear spectroscopy covering collective motion, shape coexistence and deformation driving effect in nuclei. The studies on the short range correlation of nucleon in nucleus by eA scattering, the isospin dynamics in heavy ion reactions and the asymmetrical nuclear equation of state have also received worldwide attention. New instrumentation and techniques, including silicon strip telescopes, modern gaseous detectors and trigger system based on FPGA, are under development. The research teams in our department are making increasingly significant contribution in the R&D of the HIRFL-CSR external-target experiment (CSR) and the spectrometer on the electron-ion collider of China (EICC).