Conveners
Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
- Simon Mullins (iThemba LABS (Gauteng))
Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
- Bruce Mellado (University of the Witwatersrand)
Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
- Muneer Sakildien (iThemba LABS)
Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
- Iyabo Usman (WITS)
Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
- Pete Jones (iThemba LABS)
Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
- Simon Mullins (iThemba LABS (Gauteng))
Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
- Simon Mullins (iThemba LABS (Gauteng))
Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
- Stephan Winkler (NRF/iThemba LABS)
Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
- OBED SHIRINDA (iThemba LABS)
Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
- Deepak Kar (University of Witwatersrand)
Mr
Sizwe Mhlongo
(University of the Western Cape)
26/06/2018, 10:00
Track B - Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
Oral Presentation
The area of Richards Bay is one of the industrialized areas in South Africa and, as a result, it is prone to industrial pollution. Two studies were recently conducted in the area, one of the studies focused on the chemical contamination and radiological risk of water sources in the area and it was found that heavy metals such as As, Mn and Cd were the main contaminants, with Mn being above the...
Ms
Avuyile Sisanda Bulala
(University of Cape Town / iThemba LABS)
26/06/2018, 10:20
Track B - Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
Oral Presentation
Radioactivity has been present on earth since its formation and is part of the environment we live in. Humans are exposed every day to radioactivity through the radioactive elements that occur naturally in the environment. Radionuclides are found naturally in air, water, soil, plants and inside our bodies. In this study, radiometric measurements using various sample holders for environmental...
Ms
Mistura Bolaji Ajani
(University of the Witwatersrand/iThemba LABS)
26/06/2018, 10:40
Track B - Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
Oral Presentation
The environments that surround us contains some amount of radioactive (unstable) materials or radionuclides that are derived from primordial and cosmogenic sources. In addition to naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORMs), there are technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive material (TENORMs) and man-made radionuclides that have been introduced into ecosystems due to...
Mr
Sunday Olorunfunmi
(School of Physics, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.)
26/06/2018, 11:20
Track B - Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
Oral Presentation
Previous studies have shown that fine structure in the excitation energy spectra of nuclear giant resonances can be attributed to different physical processes. For example, characteristic energy scales of the fine structure for the IsoScalar Giant Quadrupole Resonance (ISGQR) arise mainly from the collective coupling of the ISGQR to low-lying surface vibrations, while on the other hand it has...
Ms
Thuthukile Khumalo
(University of Zululand & iThemba LABS)
26/06/2018, 11:40
Track B - Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
Oral Presentation
Magnetic spectrometers have proven to be very useful in the world of experimental nuclear and astrophysics. The focal plane detection system instrumenting these spectrometers is instrumental in their success. A new focal plane detection system is envisaged for the K600 QDD magnetic spectrometer at iThemba LABS in Cape Town, South Africa. The existing focal plane detection system, consisting...
Mrs
Doris Carole Kenfack Jiotsa
(Stellenbosch University/ iThemba LABS)
26/06/2018, 12:00
Track B - Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
Oral Presentation
Neutron-rich beams are being developed at iThemba LABS to study nuclear structure away from stability. This is also the opportunity of deepening our understanding of astrophysical origin of elements. The interest of using (p,xp) reactions in the production of exotic nuclei, lies in the fact that proton beams have a large penetrating power and can be produced with high intensity. Some...
Mr
Bonginkosi Zikhali
(University of wersten cape physics)
26/06/2018, 12:20
Track B - Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
Oral Presentation
An electron spectrometer for the measurement of internal conversion electrons is undergoing development at iThemba LABS. The spectrometer will be used to study the nuclear configuration of multiple excited 0+ states around Z ≈50 region. The purpose of the project is to wider the state of knowledge for electron conversion sources of nuclei with proton number near fifty (Z≈50). In order to...
Mr
Abraham Avaa
(Wits\iThemba)
26/06/2018, 12:40
Track B - Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
Oral Presentation
The study of monopole transitions via excited 0+ states requires the measurement of internal conversion electrons and internal pair formation using an electron spectrometer. Such a spectrometer, consisting of a solenoid magnet transporter and a Si(Li) detector with an array of LaBr3, is undergoing development at iThemba LABS. Performance of the electron spectrometer has been investigated using...
Mr
Timothy Gary Carolus
(Stellenbosch University)
27/06/2018, 10:00
Track B - Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
Oral Presentation
Nuclear cluster models are a means to describe complex many body systems, specifically to predict nuclear structure properties within strongly correlated subsystem of nucleons. The binary cluster model has shown some success in predicting the alpha decay and spontaneous fission half-lives. A relativistic description of the Binary Cluster Model using the Dirac formulation treats spin...
Ms
Lerato Baloyi
(University of the Witwatersrand)
27/06/2018, 10:20
Track B - Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
Oral Presentation
The study of alpha-cluster in light nuclei have been well documented with experimental evidences. Meanwhile, in the recent experiments performed at iThemba LABS using (p,t) reaction on 22Ne with the K600 magnetic spectrometer, a 22.5 MeV state was found, which accounts for 5-alpha cluster situated at 3.3 MeV above the 5-alpha break-up threshold. However, this state could not be accounted for...
Mr
Christiaan Brits
(University of Stellenbosch)
27/06/2018, 10:40
Track B - Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
Oral Presentation
B(E2: 2+→0+) values of neutron-rich even-even carbon isotopes have been reported up to 20C and do not only provide important information on the evolution of the underlying structural mechanism towards the drip line but also provide critical constraints for theoretical models. The B(E2: 2+→0+) value in 14C can be indispensable to advance our understanding of the Carbon isotopic chain. However,...
Ms
Shell-may Liao
(University of the Witwatersrand, School of Physics, 1 Jan Smuts Avenue, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2000, South Africa”)
27/06/2018, 11:20
Track B - Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
Oral Presentation
A good measurement of missing transverse energy (MET) is pre-eminent for many searches for new physics carried out by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. The measurement of MET in the ATLAS detector makes use of the full event reconstruction and a calibration based on reconstructed physics objects. The performance of MET reconstruction is evaluated using data collected in proton-proton collisions...
Mr
Kehinde Tomiwa
(University of the Witwatersrand)
27/06/2018, 11:40
Track B - Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
Oral Presentation
The missing transverse momentum in the ATLAS experiment is the momentum imbalance in the plane transverse to the beam axis. That is the resultant of the negative vectorial sum of the momenta of all particles that are involved in the proton-proton collision. A precise measurement of the missing transverse energy is essential for many physics studies at the LHC, such as Higgs boson measurements...
Mr
Lebohang Mokoena
(University of the Witwatersrand)
27/06/2018, 12:00
Track B - Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
Oral Presentation
A study is performed to investigate the phenomenological signatures of additional scalar bosons at the LHC. This talk summarizes an overview of the ATLAS detector results for events observing excesses in multi-lepton events with three-leptons and at least two b-jets and number of jets, two and three. The channel investigated is that of $A \rightarrow ZH[250] \rightarrow...
Mr
Mzwandile Thabede
(University of the Witwatersrand)
27/06/2018, 12:40
Track B - Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
Oral Presentation
The search for new heavy particles in the H→ZZ→4l decay channel represents one of the most promising searches in High Energy Physics. This study focuses on the hadronic properties of this channel which leads to the final state consisting of four isolated leptons plus at least two light flavor jets. gg→H signal and qq→ZZ background studies using High mass (m4l > 140 GeV) ATLAS Monte Carlo...
Mampionona Ralaimiaramanana RAJAOFERASON
(Wits-University of Witwatersrand)
27/06/2018, 14:00
Track B - Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
Oral Presentation
The search of a heavy resonance denoted H, decaying into four-leptonic final states through a pair of Z bosons is discussed. This study mainly focuses on the high mass region of the H->ZZ->4l decay channel with the ATLAS detector. Two different sets of signal Monte Carlo (MC) samples produced with different pileup conditions were studied for the gluon-gluon fusion production mode. For the MC...
Mr
Lawrence Christopher
(University of the Witwatersrand)
27/06/2018, 14:20
Track B - Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
Oral Presentation
The standard electron and jet reconstruction processes in ATLAS happen independently, as a result energy deposits from electrons in Electromagnetic calorimeter often end up reconstructed as a jet close to the electron. Also, real jets can end up being reconstructed as a "fake" electron. Therefore, an overlap removal procedure is applied during analysis in ATLAS, where a jet close to an...
Mr
Xolani Mapekula
(University of Johannesburg)
27/06/2018, 14:40
Track B - Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
Oral Presentation
A search is described for a new boson that lies beyond the standard model is conducted where the progenitor 125 GeV Higgs Boson decays ultimately to four leptons (electrons or muons). The Higgs boson provides a portal into the hidden sector, which contains dark particles. The processes under consideration include H → ZX→ 4l and H → XX → 4l where X is the dark vector boson Zd or the...
Mr
Fortune Mhlanga
(Wits student)
27/06/2018, 15:00
Track B - Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
Oral Presentation
A previous search for W'->tb decays in the hadronic final state using collisions at sqrt(s) = 13 TeV with luminosity of 36.1 fb^-1 of the data collected by the ATLAS detector in 2015 and 2016 at the Large Hadron Collider was conducted. At 1-5 TeV mass range the search was interpreted for both left-handed and right-handed chiral W' boson. It was observed that the top and bottom quark masses...
Prof.
Mandla Msimanga
(Tshwane University of Technology)
28/06/2018, 10:00
Track B - Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
Oral Presentation
The use of heavy ion beams (Z>2) in ion beam materials analysis (IBA) techniques has been shown to enhance the sensitivity of these techniques when compared to using light ions (H, He). The development of theoretical models to describe various ion beam-matter interaction phenomena for use in IBA analytical software is strongly dependent on the availability of experimental data to test these...
Mr
Masedi Masekane
(University of South Africa)
28/06/2018, 10:20
Track B - Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
Oral Presentation
Experimental X-Ray production cross sections (i.e. probability of X-ray generation in a target by an incoming MeV heavy ion beam) are useful not just for fundamental ion beam-matter interaction studies,but also for the development of new ion beam materials analysis techniques such as the Heavy Ion Particle Induced X-Ray Emission (HI-PIXE) spectroscopy. Unfortunately, while theoretical...
Dr
Stephan Winkler
(NRF/iThemba LABS)
28/06/2018, 10:40
Track B - Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
Oral Presentation
10Be is an important isotope for accelerator mass spectrometry system of iThemba LABS in Johannesburg, because of local demand for cosmogenic radionuclide dating methods in the local earth science and paleosciences community. This demand also meets a very suitable basic AMS setup with its ion-source based on a version of the Cesium Sputter source of the Lawrence Livermore National...
Mr
Lumkile Msebi
(iThemba Labs, UWC)
28/06/2018, 11:20
Track B - Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
Oral Presentation
The progressive development of the scintillator detectors has made it possible to do direct electronic lifetime determination. The 2” x 2” LaBr3:(Ce) detectors provide a combination of excellent time resolution and good energy resolution. With these detectors it is possible to do direct lifetime measurements of excited nuclear states up to a few hundred nanoseconds. Six 2” x 2”...
Ms
Sandile Jongile
(Stellenbosch/ iThemba LABS)
28/06/2018, 11:40
Track B - Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
Oral Presentation
The project focuses on studying the evolution of the N=20 shell gap. The shell gaps have been previously investigated through studies of nuclear levels, using various experimental approaches namely: Coulomb excitation, knockout reactions, transfer reactions and g-factor measurements. In exotic nuclei with an imbalanced number of neutrons and protons, significant modifications of the nuclear...
Dr
Caspah Kamunda
(Rusangu University)
28/06/2018, 12:00
Track B - Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
Oral Presentation
This paper evaluates the health risk caused by heavy metals in water around a gold mining area. In this study, samples of water were collected around the mining area. After appropriate preparation, all samples were analyzed for As, Pb, Hg, Cd, Cr, Cu, Zn, Co and Ni using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). Measured concentrations of the various heavy metals were then used...
Mr
Kgashane Malatji
(iThemba LABS / Stellenbosch University)
28/06/2018, 12:20
Track B - Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
Oral Presentation
The rare-earth isotopic chain of Samarium provides an excellent opportunity to systematically investigate the evolution of nuclear structure effects from the near spherical (β2=0.09) 144Sm isotope to the highly-deformed system 154Sm (β2=0.34). As the nuclear shape changes, statistical properties such as the nuclear level density (NLD) and γ-strength function (γSF) are expected to be affected....
Mr
Muneer Sakildien
(iThemba LABS)
28/06/2018, 12:40
Track B - Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
Oral Presentation
To enhance high charge state ion beam production it is imperative to maximize the electron confinement time of the heated electron populations of an Electron Cyclotron Resonance Ion Source (ECRIS). A key loss mechanism for heated electrons are induced by the injected microwaves which heats the plasma electrons of an ECRIS. This electron loss mechanism is thought to limit ultimate source...
Mr
Elijah Niyoyadutumye
(University of Johannesburg)
29/06/2018, 10:00
Track B - Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
Oral Presentation
A novel position-sensitive electron detector has been developed, which is able to detect each electron in a dispersed beam individually using silicon photo-multipliers (SiPMs) technology. SiPMs consist of an array of Geiger-mode Avalanche Photo-Diodes (APDs). When the APDs are operated in Geiger-mode, i.e. with the applied reverse voltage being greater than the breakdown voltage of the diode,...
Mr
Gaogalalwe Mokgatitswane
(Botswana International University of Science and Technology)
29/06/2018, 10:20
Track B - Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
Oral Presentation
We report on the optical and structural properties of plastic scintillators irradiated with a neutron beam produced by the IBR-2 reactor of the Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics in JINR, Dubna. Blue and green shifting Ukraine polystyrene-based scintillators UPS 923A were irradiated with neutron fluence ranging from 3 x 10^(13) to 1.7 x 10^(16) n/cm^2 and neutron energy E > 1 MeV....
Dr
Oluwaseyi M. Oderinde
(Department of Medical Physics, University of the Free State)
29/06/2018, 10:40
Track B - Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
Oral Presentation
The purpose of this study is to investigate the possibility of verifying the planning system photon beams using EGSnrc Monte Carlo (MC) code. The advantage of MC simulation over conventional measurement is that the linac output can be fine-tuned to eliminate uncertainties with a clear understanding of dose distribution and it's convenient to calculate dose distribution in complex geometries. A...
Mr
Dimbiniaina Soanasolo Rafanoharana
(University of the Witwatersrand)
29/06/2018, 11:20
Track B - Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
Oral Presentation
Improvement in Monte Carlo (MC) event generators is critical for precise measurements in top quark events at the LHC. In fact, modelling of the color reconnection (CR), a mechanism that describes the interactions between coloured particles during the hadronization, and the underlying event (UE), defined as all particles produced from soft-hadronic processes and partially radiation form the...
Mr
Phuti Ntsoko Rapheeha
(University of the Witwatersrand)
29/06/2018, 11:40
Track B - Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
Oral Presentation
The discovery of the Higgs boson opened up possibilities for searches Beyond the Standard Model. During the analysis of the run 1 data, it was observed that there were a number of features in the data that can't explained by the Standard Model.
One of the models to explain the features is a Heavy-Scalar model where a heavy scalar decays into a Higgs boson and missing transverse energy. The...
Mr
Robert Hambrock
(University of Cape Town)
29/06/2018, 12:00
Track B - Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
Oral Presentation
We compute the suppression, angular, and rapidity distribution of single open heavy flavour and the momentum, angular, and rapidity correlations for pairs of open heavy flavour at RHIC and LHC from an AdS/CFT-based energy loss model. We quantitatively compare these strongly-coupled QGP predictions to the weakly-coupled QGP predictions of Nahrgang et al., PRC90 (2014) [arXiv:1305.3823]. In the...
Prof.
Bruce Mellado
(University of the Witwatersrand)
29/06/2018, 12:20
Track B - Nuclear, Particle and Radiation Physics
Oral Presentation
With the discovery of a Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) new
window of exploration of fundamental interactions is now available. The study of the couplings of this Higgs boson to other particles and the search for new bosons have become a focus. Based on features of the data collected by experiments at the LHC during Run 1 the hypothesis of a new boson was formulated and the...
