Hayes' talk is co-sponsored by the Los Alamos Women in Science organization.
A technical staff member in Los Alamos' Theoretical Astrophysics Group, Hayes will discuss the nuclear physics needs for the type of problems of interest to national security. According to an abstract of her talk, a large number of problems key to stockpile stewardship and homeland defense rely on knowledge of nuclear physics in regimes inaccessible to experiment.
In nuclear explosions, unstable nuclei and nuclear isomers are produced in copious quantities and are used to diagnose the explosion. Similarly, analysis of the unstable nuclei from the debris will be key to attribution in the event of a terrorist domestic nuclear attack. In the case of nuclear non-proliferation a number of new schemes are being considered by the International Atomic Energy Agency to address the ever-greater needs, including neutrino monitoring of the plutonium content of reactors. For all of these problems detailed nuclear physics is required.
Hayes received her undergraduate degree from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland and her doctoral degree from Yale University. She held postdoctoral positions at the University of Minnesota and at the Laboratory.
Hayes left Los Alamos to become a staff member in theoretical physics at Chalk River Labs in Canada, but returned to the Laboratory in 1997 as a technical staff member in nuclear theory. Her research interests at the Laboratory include the application of nuclear physics to threat reduction and national security.
Hayes was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society in 2002 and serves on the executive committee of the division of nuclear physics.
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For more information, contact Pat Berger at 665-0896.
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