202 FRIB Graduate Brochure

Christopher Wrede
Professor of Physics
Keywords: Nuclear Astrophysics, Thermonuclear Reaction Rates, Fundamental
Symmetries, Beta Decay
Experimental Nuclear Physics
About
• MSc, Physics, Simon Fraser University, 2003
• MS, M. Phil., Physics, Yale University, 2006
• PhD, Physics, Yale University, 2008
• Joined the laboratory in August 2011
• wrede@frib.msu.edu
Research
How Students can Contribute as Part
of my Research Team
Students in our group have opportunities to propose,
prepare, execute, analyze, and interpret nuclear-physics
experiments at FRIB and other laboratories, to publish
the results in leading scientific journals, and to present
the results at national and international conferences. Our
alumni have advanced to positions in national laboratories,
academic institutions, and industry.
Our research focuses on studying nuclei experimentally
to probe fundamental questions about our Universe.
For example, we measure nuclear reactions, decays, and
masses in the laboratory to learn about the reactions
that power exploding stars or affect their synthesis of
chemical elements. In the near future, our program at
FRIB will be focused on measuring the beta and electroncapture
decays of proton-rich nuclides using the GADGET
and PXCT detection systems. With these experiments, we
hope to constrain the nuclear-structure details that are
most influential on photodisintegration in supernovae
and the explosive burning of hydrogen and helium on the
surfaces of accreting compact stars such as white dwarfs
and neutron stars. Similar experiments can allow us to
test hypotheses that could explain the origins of dark
matter in the universe or to better constrain the effects
of isospin-symmetry breaking in nuclei on tests of the
unitarity of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix, a
cornerstone of the Standard Model.
Biography
I was born in Vancouver, Canada, to Finnish parents,
and began my research career in experimental nuclear
astrophysics at Canada’s TRIUMF laboratory. In 2008,
I obtained a PhD in Physics from Yale University based
on work at the Wright Nuclear Structure Laboratory
in the same research field. From there, I moved to
a postdoctoral Research Associate position at the
University of Washington’s Center for Experimental
Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics. Since 2011, I have been
leading a research group at NSCL and FRIB with a primary
interest in nuclear astrophysics and secondary interests in
fundamental symmetries and nuclear structure.
The Gaseous Detector with Germanium Tagging
(GADGET) prior to an FRIB experiment to determine the
isotopic ratios expected in microscopic grains of stardust.
Selected Publications
Low-energy
23
Al B-delayed proton decay and
22
Na
destruction in novae, M. Friedman et al., Phys. Rev. C 101,
052802(R) (2020)
GADGET: a Gaseous Detector with Germanium Tagging, M.
Friedman et al., Nucl. Instrum Methods Phys. Res., Sect. A
940, 93 (2019)
Doppler Broadening in 20 Mg (B, p, y) 19 Ne Decay, B. E.
Glassman, D. Perez-Loureiro, C. Wrede et al., Phys. Rev. C
99, 065801 (2019)
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