NuSTAR

Journal article, 2006

Our knowledge of the properties of atomic nuclei rests mainly on the study of nuclear reactions and radioactive decays. The latter is extremely valuable and often provides the first information on newly synthesized nuclei, but the former has the great advantage of its flexibility. It allows us to vary the degrees-of-freedom in the nucleus that are important such as the excitation energy, the angular momentum, or the rotational frequency (spin) of the final products. By selecting a suitable combination of projectile target and beam energy, we can obtain a variety of results ranging from the reaction products to the character of the states that are populated. © 2006, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.