Recent Exotic Nuclear Studies at CENS and New Opportunities with RAON

Sunghoon (Tony) Ahn (Center for Exotic Nuclear Studies (CENS), IBS, South Korea)

Exotic nuclei provide essential information for understanding the structure of nuclear matter, the origin of the elements, and the nucleosynthesis that govern stellar explosions. Because many nuclei of interest are short-lived and difficult to access experimentally, major progress depends on both advances in rare-isotope beam facilities and the development of dedicated detector systems.
The research program at the Center for Exotic Nuclear Studies (CENS) in Korea addresses these topics through experimental and theoretical studies of nuclear astrophysics, nuclear structure, and nuclear reactions. Current efforts include direct measurements of key reactions, studies of unstable nuclei with rare-isotope beams, and detector developments such as silicon detector arrays, active-target TPCs, and beamline devices for future experiments.
At the same time, the RAON rare-isotope accelerator is opening new opportunities for low-energy rare-isotope research in Korea. The combination of new beam capabilities and experimental systems, including the KoBRA beamline, is expected to support a wide range of user experiments and international collaborations.
An overview of recent CENS activities, selected experimental programs, detector developments, and scientific prospects with RAON will be presented.