What can we learn from experiments with high-brilliance gamma beams?

Abstract

An overview of the main directions of present-day studies with quasimonochromatic γ beams is presented with an emphasis on the research opportunities which will be provided to the users at the Extreme Light Infrastructure Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP) facility at Magurele near Bucharest. Experiments with γ beams at the extremes of high temperature and high neutron-to-proton ratios will be discussed. The opportunities for nuclear structure studies with γ rays with orbital angular momentum (OAM) are outlined and a few selected physics problems and classes of experiments, related to, e.g., changes of photonuclear cross sections in reactions with OAM photons, as well as the possibility to address nuclear excitations with higher multipolarity are discussed. The perspectives for studies of exotic nuclei within the Gamma Factory experiment at CERN are discussed, too.