April 2020
Reaching for the stars
“Understanding the big picture by looking at the smallest things – that is the fascination that drives me in my research. That's why I study the interaction between individual atomic nuclei via the interaction of their components – the nucleons. But not with large accelerators, but on paper or with a computer.
©: Torsten Zimmermann
Based on our joint considerations and calculations, my colleagues and I want to describe scattering processes in accelerator experiments, which in turn promise new insights into the structure of atomic nuclei, but also to understand processes in the interior of stars.
Our most important model system is the oxygen-oxygen reaction: it plays an important role in ageing stars. In the course of their lives, they burn heavier and heavier elements in their interior, which fuse to form even heavier atomic nuclei. Eventually, the star can explode in a supernova.
My tool is the chiral effective field theory. We are continuously developing this theoretical model. So-called double folding potentials, which we have determined for the first time on this basis, are proving to be very promising for reproducing experimental results very well. Ultimately, we want to make predictions for other even more exotic systems that cannot be easily investigated experimentally.”
Dr. Victoria Durant has been a postdoc in Professor Pierre Capel's group since 2019. Born in Peru, the 31-year-old initially studied in Barcelona, where she completed her Master's degree. She came to TU Darmstadt for her PhD in 2014. After completing her PhD, she continues her research in theoretical nuclear physics as a postdoc in the Cluster of Excellence PRISMA +.