LIV.DAT student Magda Satrazani passes her PhD
LIV.DAT student Magda Satrazani has successfully defended her PhD thesis on 'Gamma-ray spectroscopy of neutron-rich cerium isotopes following beta-decay of mass-separated caesium ions’. Her examiners were Dan Doherty (University of Surrey) and Helen Boston. Her supervisors were Liam Gaffney and Robert Page.
In her thesis, Magda studied the properties of excited states in 150Ce (proton number 58, neutron number 92), with a focus on identifying low-lying negative parity states which are important for understanding octupole deformation in nuclei. Using the technique of gamma-ray spectroscopy following beta decay at TRIUMF laboratory in Vancouver, Canada, Magda was able to identify these new states for the very first time, extending our knowledge of pear-shaped nuclei in this region of the nuclear chart. The results show that key states of interest increase slightly in energy compared to the less exotic neighbouring isotopes, implying that the maximum of the octupole correlations has already been reached at neutron number 88 or 90, in line with expectations from nuclear models.
Magda will start a post-doc position at KU Leuven, Belgium next month and we wish her all the best.
Congratulations!