Carlos Yero
Catholic University of America, DC·Physics
Atomic nuclei are made of protons and neutrons held together by the nuclear force. At very short distances this force must turn strongly repulsive, or ordinary matter would collapse.
- Fields
Physics
- Topics
nuclear physics
deuteron
deuterium
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2027
What they work on
- Analyze data from a completed Jefferson Lab experiment in which electrons broke deuterons apart at proton–neutron relative momenta up to about 1.2 GeV/c, to probe the repulsive core of the nuclear force.
- Compare the measured deuteron data, which deviate from theory above about 700 MeV/c, with new calculations that include relativistic effects.
- Develop a dedicated Jefferson Lab experiment to measure final state interactions, the continued interactions of the knocked-out proton and neutron, at missing momenta above 500 MeV/c.
- Develop deuteron experiments that look for the onset of color transparency, where particles cross the nucleus with reduced interaction.
More about the research
How this repulsive core balances the force's attractive part is a question that dates back to the discovery of the deuteron, the simplest nucleus, made of one proton and one neutron. The answer also matters for understanding extremely dense objects such as neutron stars.
Why it matters
This is basic nuclear physics research. It seeks the origin of the repulsive part of the nuclear force, which keeps ordinary matter from collapsing. Precise measurements at very short distances between nucleons could test and improve theories of the strong nuclear force. Over time, they could inform models of extremely dense matter such as neutron stars.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Wim Cosyn
Florida International University, FL·Physics·Early-career
Model high-energy electron scattering off the deuteron and helium using light-front quantum mechanics to separate nuclear structure from reaction dynamics.
Rakitha Beminiwattha
Louisiana Tech University, LA·Physics
Design and develop two charged-particle detection systems and a polarimeter electron detector, which measures beam polarization, for parity-violating electron scattering experiments at Jefferson Lab.
Huey-Wen Lin
Michigan State University, MI·Physics
Compute parton distribution functions of nucleons and mesons with lattice QCD at high precision, varying lattice spacing and volume and working at the physical pion mass to control errors from the simulation.
The school
Catholic University of America: 2 labs on PI Pages, $58M a year on research, 79 research doctorates a year.
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