Research

My research investigates the strong nuclear force between neutrons at low energies. Interactions between neutrons and protons, or nucleons, are governed by quantum chromodynamics (QCD), the fundamental theory that describes the strong color force between quarks and gluons. However, due to the non-perturbative nature of QCD at low energies, our theoretical understanding of the nucleon-nucleon (NN) interaction is based on effective field theories in which nucleons are the effective degrees of freedom and light mesons are the force-mediating particles.

Effective field theories describe most few-nucleon scattering data well. However, a few notable exceptions remain, one of which is the cross section for neutron-neutron quasifree scattering (nn QFS) in neutron-deuteron (nd) breakup. This is a specific kinematic configuration in nd breakup where the proton remains at rest in the laboratory. Neutron-neutron quasifree scattering is dominated by the neutron-neutron interaction. Recent measurements of the nn QFS cross section demonstrated that theory underpredicts the data by as much as 18%.

My thesis project aims to measure the nn QFS cross section to verify these measurements and explore the discrepancy between theory and experiment. I am conducting this measurement at Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory using standard neutron time-of-flight techniques.

I have also contributed to other projects in areas ranging from testing models of nuclear wavefunctions using two-proton drop-off reactions to measuring neutron-induced error rates in commercially available computer electronics. The common thread connecting these projects is using scattered neutrons as a probe to understand the underlying physical processes.