Theoretical Nuclear Physics and Nuclear Astrophysics
Among the primary goals of nuclear physics are: (1) Understanding many-body hadronic phenomena in terms of fundamental constituents and their interactions; (2) Extracting information on the elementary processes using nuclei as natural laboratories. As the meaning of "fundamental" and "elementary" changes, the domain and methodology of nuclear physics are steadily expanding. I list below two of my recent main research areas.
Effective Field Theory Approach to Nuclear Physics --- With the advent of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) as a fundamental theory of strong interactions, a big challenge is to make connection between nuclear phenomena and QCD. Effective field theory provides a powerful tool for tackling this problem; in particular, nuclear chiral perturbation theory has been revealing many interesting consequences of chiral symmetry for low-energy nuclear phenomena. Our work in this domain is primarily concerned with: (i) Nuclear exchange currents; (ii) Ab initio calculations of electroweak processes in few-body systems; (iii) Extension of nuclear chiral perturbation theory to higher energy-momentum transfer regimes.
Nuclear Astrophysics --- Astrophysical processes often depend on the behavior of nuclear systems under extreme conditions (ultra-high temperature, ultra-high pressure, etc.). We have been trying to deepen our understanding of these exotic systems; for instance, we are studying the possibility of strangeness condensation in a dense medium and its consequences in astrophysical phenomena and heavy-ion collisions. In neutrino astrophysics reliable estimates of neutrino-nucleus reaction cross sections are crucially important. Our group has been actively engaged in theoretical studies of these reactions.
Selected Publications
Neutrino reactions on deuteron,"
Phys. Rev. C, 63, 034617 (2001), with S. Nakamura, T. Sato and V. Gudkov.
"Capture rate and neutron helicity asymmetry for ordinary muon capture in hydrogen,"
Phys. Rev. C, 63, 015203 (2001), with S. Ando and F. Myhrer.
"Effective field theory for nuclei: Confronting fundamental questions in astrophysics,"
Nucl. Phys. A, 684, 101 (2001), with T.-S. Park, D.-P. Min and M. Rho.
"Effective field theory approach to n+p → d+γ at threshold,"
Phys. Lett. B, 472, 232 (2000), with T.-S. Park, D.-P. Min and M. Rho.
"The power of effective field theories in nuclei: the deuteron, NN scattering and electoweak processes,"
Nucl. Phys. A, 646, 83 (1999), with T.-S. Park, D.-P. Min and M. Rho.
