Nuclear Theory

The Nuclear Theory Program at LBNL covers a wide spectrum of nuclear physics, ranging from high-energy heavy-ion physics to nuclear structure, nuclear astrophysics and QCD in hadronic physics. The research program is particularly focused on the study of the physical properties of nuclear matter under extreme conditions- from the formation of the quark-gluon plasma in high-energy heavy-ion collisions to dense matter in neutron stars, from effective field theories for few-body systems to macroscopic properties of super-deformed nuclei and production of superheavy elements. We seek theoretical understanding of properties of nuclear matter under different conditions from both fundamental and effective theories of the strong interaction by developing phenomenological methods for the analysis and interpretation of experimental data.