Research group Prof. Dr. Jan Jolie

In our research group we investigate the structure of atomic nuclei. Nuclei consist of protons and neutrons which interact with each other via the strong interaction. Through this interaction excited quantum states are formed that decay into the ground state via gamma transitions. These transitions have a characteristic lifetime. The measurement of lifetimes of excited nuclear states is the main focus of research in our group. We mainly use two methods for these measurements: the fast-timing method and the plunger method. You can find more information about these methods below.
These lifetime results are a key observable to probe theoretical models describing atomic nuclei. The theoretical description of nuclei is especially difficult, because it is usually not possible to exactly describe the respective interactions between all the protons and neutrons inside a nucleus. A statistical description of the system (as, e.g., in thermodynamics) is also not possible, since the number of particles is too small. Thus a number of models exists trying to describe nuclei via different approximations. The experimental probing and subsequent improvement of these models eventually allows to gain a better understanding of the strong interaction - one of the four fundamental forces of our universe.