“To understand the very big from the perspective of the smallest – that is the fascination that drives my research. That’s why I investigate the interaction between individual atomic nuclei via the interaction of their components – the nucleons. But not with large accelerators, rather on paper or with a computer.”

Building on our shared considerations and calculations, my co-workers and I aim to describe scattering processes in accelerator experiments, which in turn promise new insights into the structure of atomic nuclei, but also help us understand processes inside stars.

Our most important model system is the oxygen-oxygen reaction: It plays an important role in aging stars. These burn increasingly heavier elements in their interior over the course of their lives, which then fuse into even heavier atomic nuclei. Eventually, the star can explode in a supernova.

My tool is chiral effective field theory. We continuously develop this theoretical model. So-called double-folding potentials, which we determined for the first time on this basis, prove to be very promising for reproducing experimental results very well. Ultimately, we want to make predictions for further, even more exotic systems that cannot be easily investigated experimentally.”

Dr. Victoria Durant has been a postdoctoral researcher in Prof. Dr. Pierre Capel’s group since 2019. Born in Peru, the 31-year-old initially studied in Barcelona and completed her master’s degree there. She came to TU Darmstadt for her doctoral thesis in 2014. After completing her doctorate, she continued her research in theoretical Nuclear Physics as a postdoctoral researcher in the PRISMA⁺ cluster of excellence.