Rituparna Kanungo

Associate Professor

Astronomy and Physics

Saint Mary’s University

Office : Atrium 312

Email : ritu@triumf.ca, rkanungo@ap.smu.ca,

Research :

Experimental subatomic physics

--- Exotic forms of nuclear isotopes: halo, skin

--- Change of shell structure in exotic nuclei

--- Nuclear excitations

--- Synthesis of elements in nature

Nuclei, that make up 99% of our body weight, are the core of all matter around us and the driving fuel for the stars. I find it fascinating to explore the properties of these tiny (~10^-15 m ) objects that have led to the creation of our lives. How, why and where did oxygen, carbon that are necessary for our lives be created in nature ? It turns out that most of the nuclear species that we find on our earth today were created in the core of exploding stars, like the supernova. In this creation process are involved nuclei that have very usual properties than what we find on our earth. My research involves re-creating these species in our laboratories and inducing further reactions with them. Accelerated beams of such species are called radioactive ion beams (RIB).

Reactions with RIB that I pursue at the accelerator centers are, reactions to determine radii and density of a nucleus that allows us to discover exotic phenomena such as nuclear halo and skin. Knockout and transfer reactions to study nucleon arrangements from which we have discovered new magic numbers and a new view of nucleon arrangement inside nuclei. Inelastic scattering experiments to study the discover new energy levels and excitation phenomena. Reaction rates by transfer reactions can provide information relevant for nucleosynthesis.

Interested students are welcome to contact me.

PUBLICATIONS (click here)

News clips on our research activities

(i) Nobel Symposium on rare isotope beams

(ii) Nature News and Views, ²⁴O a doubly magic nucleus,

Nature 459, 1069-1070

(iii) Physics World highlights : new magic nucleus ²⁴O

(iv) The Chronicle Herald (front cover news) : CANREB project

(v) Radio Canada International : CANREB project

(vi) Nova Scotia Research and Innovation Trust (highlights) : IRIS project

(v) TRIUMF news headlines : Isotope project

Accelerator centers where my group performs experiments:

• TRIUMF , Vancouver, Canada (National Laboratory of Canada)
• GSI, Darmstadt, Germany
• RIKEN, Wako-shi, Japan

Awards/Honors

• NSERC, DAS Award 2011
• Named one of most valued reviewers of 2010, Elsevier Nuclear and High energy Physics,
• Alexander von Humboldt fellowship 2005
• GSI Exotic Nuclei Community Award 2003

Research Grants (Principal Investigator)

• CFI-New Initiatives fund award - CANREB project @ TRIUMF
• DAS Award
• NSERC Subatomic Physics Discovery Grant
• NSERC Subatomic Physics Project Grant

• CFI-New Initiatives fund award - IRIS Project @ TRIUMF
• Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, Saint Mary’s University,
• RIKEN Strategic Research Project Grant

Group Members

Post Doctoral

• Dr. Hicham Al Falou
• Dr. Alfredo Estrade
• Dr. Alisher Sanetuallev

Graduate-(Masters/Ph.D.)

• Aaron Gallant (UBC, cosupervision)
• Patrick Fortier
• Jaspreet Singh Randhawa
• Amit Kumar
• Ghazaleh Ahmadian

Undergraduate

• Aaron Gallant , Saint Mary’s University, 2007-2008
• Christopher Perro, Saint Mary’s University, 2007-2008
• Jia Dian Chen, Saint Mary’s University, 2008-2009
• Masaki Uchida, Saint Mary’s University, 2008-2010
• John Burns, St. Francis Xavier University, 2008-2009
• Darien Niamir, Stanford University, 2009
• Stephen Campbell, Saint Mary’s University, 2010
• Andrew Valencik, Saint Mary’s University, 2010-2011
• Gregory Tomney, Saint Mary’s University, 2011-
• Joel Atkinson, Saint Mary’s University, 2011-
• Pauline McLeod 2012-2013
• Corwin Trottier 2012-2013
• Julia Purcell 2013-
• Matthew Keefe 2013-

Job openings

Graduate students (2014) : Interested students please contact me.

Undergraduate research program (2014) : Interested students please contact me.

Professional Association/Services

• Member, Board of Directors, Canadian Institute of Nuclear Physics, 2012-
• Member of TRIUMF Policy, Planning and Advisory Committee, 2008-2011
• Executive committee member of TRIUMF Users’ group, 2008-2010
• Judge, DNP Thesis Prize Canada, 2007
• Member Division of Nuclear Physics, Canadian Association of Physicists
• Super FRS, R3B, EXL projects in FAIR Collaboration, GSI, Germany
• Active Target – TPC (AT-TPC) collaboration, NSCL, USA
• EMMA collaboration, TRIUMF
• TIGRESS collaboration, TRIUMF