An RUI Proposal to Investigate the Neutron Drip Line Using the Modular Neutron Array

Central Michigan University is a charter member of a collaboration of 10

institutions that worked together to construct a million dollar, high

efficiency neutron detector for use at the National Superconducting

Cyclotron Laboratory. The Modular Neutron Array (MoNA) is a critical

instrument in the study of nuclei far from stability. One of the unique

aspects of the collaboration is that many of the members of the

collaboration are from primarily undergraduate institutions and the

involvement of undergraduate students is fundamental goal of the project.

In the MoNA collaboration undergraduate students from Central Michigan

University have play integral roles in the construction and operation of

MoNA; they have built detector bars, wired electronics, written code, sat

shifts, and done both on- and off-line data analysis.

The MoNA collaboration has been remarkably successful at involving

undergraduate students in front-line research. This proposal will permit

the PI and his undergraduates from Central Michigan University to continue

to participate in the experimental program. In addition, the proposal

presents a model for not only sustaining the momentum of an active

collaboration based on students and faculty from undergraduate

departments, but also moves the collaboration to more actively involve

undergraduates in all the experimental runs and in data analysis. If these

measures are successful, they will provide a prototype for involving

undergraduates in cutting-edge experimental physics at user facilities.