Maria Gatu Johnson
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MA·Physics
Nearly every element around us, from the oxygen we breathe to iron and uranium, was forged by nuclear reactions in stars or in the Big Bang. To explain how much of each element exists, scientists need to know how likely each reaction is under stellar conditions.
- Fields
Physics
Astronomy & Astrophysics
- Topics
nuclear astrophysics
nucleosynthesis
high energy density physics
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2027
What they work on
- Use new diagnostic instruments at laser facilities to study six-nucleon reactions that produce three particles, such as those in the Sun's proton-proton fusion cycles.
- Develop a laser-driven plasma platform to study reactions of medium-weight ions in the carbon-nitrogen-oxygen (CNO) cycle, the alternative route by which stars burn hydrogen.
- Work toward the first laboratory measurement of plasma screening, the effect by which surrounding electrons alter fusion rates, using high-energy-density plasmas at OMEGA and NIF.
- Develop a platform that uses high-performing National Ignition Facility implosions to measure neutron capture on nuclei in excited states, a process involved in forming heavy elements.
More about the research
Those reactions cannot be measured directly in space. Particle accelerators have been the standard tool, but they fire beams at solid or gas targets. Inside stars, matter is a plasma, a hot state in which atoms are split into charged ions and electrons. There are reasons to think reaction rates differ in a plasma. This project uses powerful lasers to create star-like plasmas in the laboratory and measure nuclear reactions inside them.
Why it matters
This work could improve our understanding of how the chemical elements formed. It does so by testing, for the first time in experiments, how a plasma environment changes nuclear reaction rates. Better reaction data could sharpen models of stars and of element abundances in the universe. The work may also help efforts to develop fusion energy and support national security science.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Yuan Shi
University of Colorado Boulder, CO·Physics
Test the hypothesis that a strong magnetic field suppresses energy transfer between parallel-polarized crossing laser beams while enabling transfer between perpendicular-polarized beams, using experiments at the OMEGA Laser Facility.
Wick Haxton
University of California-Berkeley, CA·Physics
Develop the theory of kilonovae, the light emitted after neutron star mergers, to determine whether merger debris can sustain the chain of nuclear reactions that forges heavy elements, using high-fidelity merger simulations.
Pierre Gourdain
University of Rochester, NY·Physics
Measure the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulent spectrum, how energy is spread among eddies of different sizes, down to the viscous scale in a magnetized plasma made in the HADES pulsed power facility.
The school
Massachusetts Institute of Technology: 25 labs on PI Pages, $1.1B a year on research, 692 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.