Title Promoter Affiliations Abstract "Coulomb excitation studies with radioactive ion beams from HIEISOLDE" "Piet Van Duppen" "Nuclear and Radiation Physics" "The major fraction of the visible mass of the universe is situated in the nucleus of the atom: the heart of the matter. This nucleus is a compact object made of protons and neutrons (so-called nucleons) that interact through the strong and the electromagnetic force. Together with the electrons, that surround the nucleus at large distances, it constitutes the atom. While hydrogen (one proton surrounded by one electron) and helium atoms were produced in the very early phase of the universe, most of the heavier atoms (including the once present in our body) are cooked in the stars through nuclear reactions. The aim of the current research project is to investigate the strong interaction through studies of the collective behavior of the nucleons in atoms with an unusual number of protons and/or neutrons. These atoms are radioactive and often live only a fraction of a second. They are not available on earth and have to be produced using large accelerators like the ISOLDE facility at CERN (CH). By transferring them into ion beams and accelerate them to higher energies, allows us to bring the atomic nucleus into a higher lying excited state. These excitations are fingerprints of the collective motion of the nucleons in an atomic nucleus and allow us to verify and modify state-of-the- art nuclear models. In this way we obtain a better understanding on the way the nucleons interact with each other and, indirectly, of stellar evolution." "Coulomb excitation of Polonium isotopes." "Piet Van Duppen" "Nuclear and Radiation Physics, Faculty of Science" "The neutron-deficient polonium isotopes, with only 2 protons outside the Z = 82 shell closure, are situated in an interesting region of the nuclear chart. In the neighboring lead (Z = 82) and mercury (Z = 80) isotopes, experimental and theoretical efforts identified evidence of shape coexistence. Shape coexistence is the remarkable phenomenon in which two or more distinct types of deformation occur in states of the same angular momentum and similar excitation energy in a nucleus. The neutron-deficient polonium isotopes have also been studied intensively, experimentally as well as theoretically. The closed neutron-shell nucleus 210Po (N = 126) manifests itself as a two-particle nucleus where most of the excited states can be explained by considering the degrees of freedom of the two valence protons outside of 208Pb. The near-constant behavior of the yrast 2+ and 4+ states in the isotopes with mass A=200-208 can be explained by coupling the two valence protons to a vibrating lead core. 200Po seems to mark the end of this regular seniority-based character, with a sudden downsloping trend of almost all the excited states in the lighter isotopes with mass A" "Radioactive ion beam research." "Piet Van Duppen" "Nuclear and Radiation Physics" "This project aims at an experimental study of the structure of nuclei with an unusual proton-to-neutron ratio using low- and medium energy radioactive ion beams. Radioactive decay studies, in-source laser spectroscopy measurements, Coulomb excitation experiments and nuclear reaction studies are proposed using state of the art production and detection techniques that have been developed by the proposing group over the last decade. Crucial information for a better understanding of the nuclear many-body quantum system will be gathered. The obtained data will be confronted with modern theoretical nuclear structure and reaction models. The focus of the experimental program lies at ISOLDE-CERN but experiments at LISOL-Louvain-la-Neuve, GSI-Darmstadt, KVI Groningen, IKP-Köln, TUMünchen and GANIL are foreseen as well.Additionally, a dedicated upgrade program for the detection systems and the production schemes is proposed together with the preparation of the long-term future for experiments at HIE-ISOLDE, SPIRAL-2 and MYRRHA."