A Kent State University doctoral graduate was recently the lead author on an article in the prestigious journal Science. The research results could help guide further study of puzzling nuclear phenomena such as neutron stars, or pulsars. Dr. Ramesh Subedi’s dissertation research was the basis of the article, which reports on research performed at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility by more than 60 scientists.

The paper in Science contains the key results of Dr. Subedi’s Ph.D. dissertation.  His research advisors were Dr. John Watson of Kent State University, and Dr. Douglas Higinbotham of Jefferson Laboratory, both of whom were key participants in the research.

The experiment found that protons are about 20 times more likely to pair up with neutrons than with other protons in the nucleus. The result, based on the first-ever simultaneous measurement of such pairings and their constituents, could have implications for understanding the structure of nuclear systems from light nuclei to neutron stars. The research was conducted in part with large neutron detectors, which were assembled and tested at Kent State.

Neutron stars, sometimes called pulsars, are exotic astronomical objects whose existence was predicted 35 years before one was discovered in 1968. They are the remnants of a star larger than our sun which has burned up most of its fuel and explodes in a supernova. The outer layers of the star shoot outward rapidly during the explosion, while the core collapses into a solid, dense sphere. The density of the neutron star makes exploration of its nature impossible through conventional methods.

The paper, titled “Probing Cold Dense Nuclear Matter,” was published online by the journal Science, at the Science ExpressWeb site. Science and Science Express are published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world's largest general scientific organization.

The experiment collaboration involved more than 30 national and international institutions, and included Dr. Bryon Anderson of Kent State University, who is chair of the physics department. Support for the experiment came from the U.S. Department of Energy; the Israel Science Foundation; the U.S.-Israeli Bi-national Scientific Foundation; the U.K. Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Science & Technology Facilities Council; and the U.S. National Science Foundation.

Jefferson Lab is a basic nuclear physics research laboratory located in Newport News. It partners with industry, universities and defense agencies on research ventures.

See http://www.sciencexpress.org, and also http://www.aaas.org.

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