Department of Physics

Professor Calvin W. Johnson

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RESEARCH in COMPUTATIONAL QUANTUM MECHANICS:

Nuclear structure and nuclear astrophysics
 

My basic training is in nuclear structure. In short, I solve the Schrodinger equation for the atomic nucleus, computing energy levels and wavefunctions. This is an enormously difficult task, so there are many approximations made, and even then the results are heavily computational. 

I generally work in the framework of the interacting shell model, either by Lanczos diagonalization (with the shell model codes Glasgow or REDSTICK) or with Hartree-Fock plus the random phase approximation (using the code SHERPA written by my former student Dr. Stetcu).

I also am using averaging methods to look at secular behavior of highly excited nuclei; I am using this to compute nuclear level densities, which are needed to model statistical capture of neutrons. This is a joint project with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and my postdoc, Dr. Teran, is running most of the calculations.

Ultimately I am very interested in applications to astrophysics, such as computing nuclear masses and weak transitions rates needed for nucleosynthesis and neutrino interactions. I am also starting a new project with Professor Weber, looking at the equation of state for dense nuclear matter in a mean-field approximation, but allowing the Fermi surface to be deformed.

Please see my CV for my training and my list of papers for more information on my research.

Students currently involved in research with me

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Some possible research projects for students

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