Structure and Reactions of Exotic Nuclei

The project will use theoretical techniques to study the properties of atomic nuclei with unusual numbers of protons or neutrons, as are being revealed by accelerator facilities that exploit beams of radioactive nuclei. The Surrey Nuclear Physics Group has an international reputation for theoretical and experimental research in this area. The project focus will be on the microscopic description of the nuclear many-body problem, the way predicted nuclear structures can be probed by dynamical behaviours and reactions of the exotic nuclei, and/or their applications to nuclear astrophysics. The project emphasis will be identified at an early stage depending to the skills set and the interests of the applicant. The project will involve both formal and computational physics developments and will involve the candidate in work at the interface of theoretical predictions with state-of-the-art measurements. As for all projects within the Surrey group, the research effort will benefit from strong interactions between nuclear theorists and experimenters that exist and are encouraged.

The Department has over 80 PhD students, working on leading-edge projects in pure and applied physics. It is part of a Faculty Graduate School, and the SEPnet consortium offering a postgraduate skills development programme, and an annual conference for PhD students. The Department has a strong reputation for research. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), the majority of the Department's research was classified as either world leading or internationally excellent. Our PhD students have also received recognition, for example the 2010 and 2012 Early Career Researcher Prize awarded by the Nuclear Physics Group of the UK Institute of Physics.