Carlos Bertulani

Last updated
Carlos A. Bertulani
CarlosBertulani.jpg
Born
Nationality Brazil
United States
Alma mater University of Bonn
Known forElectromagnetic processes with relativistic heavy ions, nuclei far from stability
AwardsBrazilian National Merit Fellowship (CNPq)
Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst Fellow
John Simon Guggenheim Fellow
Fellow of the American Physical Society
Scientific career
Fields Physics
Institutions Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
Michigan State University
Brookhaven National Laboratory
University of Arizona
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Gesellschaft fuer Schwerionenforshung (GSI)
Texas A&M University-Commerce.

Carlos A. Bertulani is a Brazilian and American theoretical physicist and professor at the department of physics of the Texas A&M University-Commerce. He graduated, PhD, at University of Bonn and works on nuclear physics and nuclear astrophysics. [1] He was formerly a professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro from 1980-2000. [2]

Contents

Research

Bertulani's thesis work on electromagnetic processes in relativistic heavy ion collisions is often taken as the standard reference for gamma-nucleus and gamma-gamma physics in collisions with heavy nuclei. Numerous processes related to lepton-pair (e.g., e+e, or quark-antiquark) production, and to meson production in Peripheral nuclear collisions were first discussed and proposed in his thesis. The excitation of multiple giant resonances (i.e., a giant resonance on top of another) in nuclei was also a prediction of his thesis work. The excitation of multiple dipole resonances were verified in experiments at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI), Germany. The Coulomb dissociation method was another product of his earlier work as a doctoral student, in 1986. This method is now used in several nuclear accelerators worldwide to extract information on radiative capture processes in stars, which often cannot be measured directly. [3]

His APS Fellowship citation is:

For leading the development of theories for electromagnetic processes in heavy-ion collisions, including many pioneering and successful predictions for reactions involving nuclei far from the stability line.

Bertulani works on the physics of nuclei far from the stability line, e.g. halo nuclei; he has contributed to pioneering theoretical articles on the subject, as far back as 1986, on the nature of the 11Li nucleus. [4] He has co-authored the first theoretical review of reactions with rare nuclear isotopes in 1993 and the first textbook in 2002.Physics of Radioactive Nuclear Beams. 2002. Bertulani has published textbooks on nuclear physics and nuclear astrophysics, and edited books of international conferences that he organized. He is often involved in popularizing science, e.g. a feature article on Physics Today, March 1994. [5]

He was a recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship in 2000-2001, [6] an APS Fellow in 2012 [7] and the Fulbright Scholarship in 2014. [8]

Teaching

Bertulani has taught more than 75 courses at the undergraduate and graduate level at universities in Brazil, United States and Germany. [9] He has advised PhD and MSc students and mentored undergraduate students. Bertulani was chair of the PhD program at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro for 3 years. He participated and chaired committees on education and graduate student fellowships for the CNPq, Coordenadoria de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, National Science Foundation, and chaired (2015-2016) of the Committee of Education for the American Physical Society.

Publications

Selected scientific publications

Textbooks

Related Research Articles

Neutronium is a hypothetical substance made purely of neutrons. The word was coined by scientist Andreas von Antropoff in 1926 for the hypothetical "element of atomic number zero" that he placed at the head of the periodic table. However, the meaning of the term has changed over time, and from the last half of the 20th century onward it has been also used to refer to extremely dense substances resembling the neutron-degenerate matter theorized to exist in the cores of neutron stars; hereinafter "degenerate neutronium" will refer to this.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antihydrogen</span> Exotic particle made of an antiproton and positron

Antihydrogen is the antimatter counterpart of hydrogen. Whereas the common hydrogen atom is composed of an electron and proton, the antihydrogen atom is made up of a positron and antiproton. Scientists hope that studying antihydrogen may shed light on the question of why there is more matter than antimatter in the observable universe, known as the baryon asymmetry problem. Antihydrogen is produced artificially in particle accelerators.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ionization</span> Process by which atoms or molecules acquire charge by gaining or losing electrons

Ionization is the process by which an atom or a molecule acquires a negative or positive charge by gaining or losing electrons, often in conjunction with other chemical changes. The resulting electrically charged atom or molecule is called an ion. Ionization can result from the loss of an electron after collisions with subatomic particles, collisions with other atoms, molecules, electrons, positrons, protons, antiprotons and ions, or through the interaction with electromagnetic radiation. Heterolytic bond cleavage and heterolytic substitution reactions can result in the formation of ion pairs. Ionization can occur through radioactive decay by the internal conversion process, in which an excited nucleus transfers its energy to one of the inner-shell electrons causing it to be ejected.

Tetraneutron is considered an unbound isotope with a lifetime around 10-22 seconds. The stability of this cluster of four neutrons is not supported by current models of nuclear forces. Recent empirical evidence is "consistent with a quasi-bound tetraneutron state existing for a very short time".

The carbon-burning process or carbon fusion is a set of nuclear fusion reactions that take place in the cores of massive stars (at least 8 at birth) that combines carbon into other elements. It requires high temperatures (> 5×108 K or 50 keV) and densities (> 3×109 kg/m3).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuclear reaction</span> Transformation of a nuclide to another

In nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry, a nuclear reaction is a process in which two nuclei, or a nucleus and an external subatomic particle, collide to produce one or more new nuclides. Thus, a nuclear reaction must cause a transformation of at least one nuclide to another. If a nucleus interacts with another nucleus or particle, they then separate without changing the nature of any nuclide, the process is simply referred to as a type of nuclear scattering, rather than a nuclear reaction.

Gottfried Münzenberg was a German physicist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Two-photon physics</span> Branch of particle physics concerning interactions between two photons

Two-photon physics, also called gamma–gamma physics, is a branch of particle physics that describes the interactions between two photons. Normally, beams of light pass through each other unperturbed. Inside an optical material, and if the intensity of the beams is high enough, the beams may affect each other through a variety of non-linear effects. In pure vacuum, some weak scattering of light by light exists as well. Also, above some threshold of this center-of-mass energy of the system of the two photons, matter can be created.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ISOLDE</span> Physics facility at CERN

The ISOLDE Radioactive Ion Beam Facility, is an on-line isotope separator facility located at the centre of the CERN accelerator complex on the Franco-Swiss border. Created in 1964, the ISOLDE facility started delivering radioactive ion beams (RIBs) to users in 1967. Originally located at the Synchro-Cyclotron (SC) accelerator, the facility has been upgraded several times most notably in 1992 when the whole facility was moved to be connected to CERN's ProtonSynchroton Booster (PSB). ISOLDE is currently the longest-running facility in operation at CERN, with continuous developments of the facility and its experiments keeping ISOLDE at the forefront of science with RIBs. ISOLDE benefits a wide range of physics communities with applications covering nuclear, atomic, molecular and solid-state physics, but also biophysics and astrophysics, as well as high-precision experiments looking for physics beyond the Standard Model. The facility is operated by the ISOLDE Collaboration, comprising CERN and sixteen (mostly) European countries. As of 2019, close to 1,000 experimentalists around the world are coming to ISOLDE to perform typically 50 different experiments per year.

Although there are nine known isotopes of helium (2He), only helium-3 and helium-4 are stable. All radioisotopes are short-lived, the longest-lived being 6
He
with a half-life of 806.92(24) milliseconds. The least stable is 10
He
, with a half-life of 260(40) yoctoseconds, although it is possible that 2
He
may have an even shorter half-life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electron scattering</span> Deviation of electrons from their original trajectories

Electron scattering occurs when electrons are displaced from their original trajectory. This is due to the electrostatic forces within matter interaction or, if an external magnetic field is present, the electron may be deflected by the Lorentz force. This scattering typically happens with solids such as metals, semiconductors and insulators; and is a limiting factor in integrated circuits and transistors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuclear astrophysics</span> Field of nuclear physics and astrophysics

Nuclear astrophysics is an interdisciplinary part of both nuclear physics and astrophysics, involving close collaboration among researchers in various subfields of each of these fields. This includes, notably, nuclear reactions and their rates as they occur in cosmic environments, and modeling of astrophysical objects where these nuclear reactions may occur, but also considerations of cosmic evolution of isotopic and elemental composition (often called chemical evolution). Constraints from observations involve multiple messengers, all across the electromagnetic spectrum (nuclear gamma-rays, X-rays, optical, and radio/sub-mm astronomy), as well as isotopic measurements of solar-system materials such as meteorites and their stardust inclusions, cosmic rays, material deposits on Earth and Moon). Nuclear physics experiments address stability (i.e., lifetimes and masses) for atomic nuclei well beyond the regime of stable nuclides into the realm of radioactive/unstable nuclei, almost to the limits of bound nuclei (the drip lines), and under high density (up to neutron star matter) and high temperature (plasma temperatures up to 109 K). Theories and simulations are essential parts herein, as cosmic nuclear reaction environments cannot be realized, but at best partially approximated by experiments. In general terms, nuclear astrophysics aims to understand the origin of the chemical elements and isotopes, and the role of nuclear energy generation, in cosmic sources such as stars, supernovae, novae, and violent binary-star interactions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Impact parameter</span> Distance between a projectile path and center of a potential field affecting it

In physics, the impact parameterb is defined as the perpendicular distance between the path of a projectile and the center of a potential field U(r) created by an object that the projectile is approaching (see diagram). It is often referred to in nuclear physics (see Rutherford scattering) and in classical mechanics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quark–gluon plasma</span> Phase of quantum chromodynamics (QCD)

Quark–gluon plasma is an interacting localized assembly of quarks and gluons at thermal and chemical (abundance) equilibrium. The word plasma signals that free color charges are allowed. In a 1987 summary, Léon van Hove pointed out the equivalence of the three terms: quark gluon plasma, quark matter and a new state of matter. Since the temperature is above the Hagedorn temperature—and thus above the scale of light u,d-quark mass—the pressure exhibits the relativistic Stefan-Boltzmann format governed by temperature to the fourth power and many practically massless quark and gluon constituents. It can be said that QGP emerges to be the new phase of strongly interacting matter which manifests its physical properties in terms of nearly free dynamics of practically massless gluons and quarks. Both quarks and gluons must be present in conditions near chemical (yield) equilibrium with their colour charge open for a new state of matter to be referred to as QGP.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gamma ray</span> Energetic electromagnetic radiation arising from radioactive decay of atomic nuclei

A gamma ray, also known as gamma radiation (symbol
γ
), is a penetrating form of electromagnetic radiation arising from the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei. It consists of the shortest wavelength electromagnetic waves, typically shorter than those of X-rays. With frequencies above 30 exahertz (3×1019 Hz) and wavelengths less than 10 picometers (1×10−11 m), gamma ray photons have the highest photon energy of any form of electromagnetic radiation. Paul Villard, a French chemist and physicist, discovered gamma radiation in 1900 while studying radiation emitted by radium. In 1903, Ernest Rutherford named this radiation gamma rays based on their relatively strong penetration of matter; in 1900, he had already named two less penetrating types of decay radiation (discovered by Henri Becquerel) alpha rays and beta rays in ascending order of penetrating power.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alpha particle</span> Ionizing radiation particle of two protons and two neutrons

Alpha particles, also called alpha rays or alpha radiation, consist of two protons and two neutrons bound together into a particle identical to a helium-4 nucleus. They are generally produced in the process of alpha decay but may also be produced in other ways. Alpha particles are named after the first letter in the Greek alphabet, α. The symbol for the alpha particle is α or α2+. Because they are identical to helium nuclei, they are also sometimes written as He2+
or 4
2
He2+
indicating a helium ion with a +2 charge. Once the ion gains electrons from its environment, the alpha particle becomes a normal helium atom 4
2
He
.

STARlight is a computer simulation event generator program to simulate ultra-peripheral collisions among relativistic nuclei. It simulates both photonuclear and two-photon interactions. It can simulate multiple interactions among a single ion pair, such as vector meson photoproduction accompanied by mutual Coulomb excitation.

The Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro is one of the four major research centers of the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN). The primary focus of research at this laboratory is in the fields of nuclear physics and nuclear astrophysics, where five accelerators are currently used. It is one of the most important facilities in Italy for research in these fields. The main future project of the laboratory is the Selective Production of Exotic Species (SPES), in which various radionuclides will be produced for research and medicinal purposes.

Ulrich Mosel is a German theoretical physicist, professor emeritus at Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen, Germany

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miniball experiment</span>

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References