$U(r)=-\frac{W_0r_0}{r}\exp\left(-\frac{r}{r_0}\right)$
$\frac{E_{bind}}{c^2}=a_1A-a_2A^{2/3}-a_3\frac{Z(Z-1)}{A^{1/3}}-a_4\frac{(N-Z)^2}{A}+\epsilon a_5A^{-3/4}$
$R=R_0\left[1+\sum_{lm}a_{lm}Y_l^m(\theta,\varphi)\right]$

Matthew Mumpower

Staff Scientist @ Los Alamos National Lab

I'm a theoretical physicist working at Los Alamos National Lab. I received my PhD at North Carolina State University under the direction of Gail McLaughlin. At the University of Notre Dame I worked under the direction of Ani Aprahamian and Rebecca Surman. My research interests are in nuclear structure and reaction mechanisms. The study of these models has a wide range of applicability from nuclear medicine, to stockpile stewardship and even the cosmos.

At Los Alamos we seek to solve national security challenges through scientific excellence. This means we not only apply our models to the task at hand, but we seek to push them to the limits by probing the edges of our knowledge with basic science research. One way I contribute to basic science research at the lab is to study the applicability of LANL nuclear models to nucleosynthesis. Nucleosynthesis is the study of the processes by which chemical elements are synthesized in cosmic environments. In other words, this part of my research focuses on how the elements on the periodic table were created. This field is extremely challenging and also very rewarding with many real world applications. Check out the research section of this website for more information.

I firmly believe that practicing in scientific inquiry is both empowering and a necessary requirement for success in today's world. You can learn more about my teaching efforts in the teach section of this website.

Outside of Physics I enjoy keeping up with latest technology trends and coming up with unique solutions to challenging problems. For more about my entrepreneurial endeavours check out Solace Development Group. In my free time I try to stay in shape by playing racquetball. If you are interested in a game, shoot me an e-mail.

Latest Paper (July 18th 2018)

Actinide production in neutron-rich ejecta of a neutron star merger

The rapid-neutron-capture ("$r$") process is responsible for synthesizing many of the heavy elements observed in both the solar system and Galactic metal-poor halo stars. Simulations of $r$-process nucleosynthesis can reproduce abundances derived from observations with varying success, but so far fail to account for the observed over-enhancement of actinides, present in about 30% of...

Select Papers

Precision Mass Measurements of Neutron-Rich Neodymium and Samarium Isotopes and Their Role in Understanding Rare-Earth Peak Formation

R. Orford et al.
PRL 120, 262702 - Published June 29th 2018
The Canadian Penning Trap mass spectrometer at CARIBU was used to measure the masses of eight neutron-rich isotopes of Nd and Sm. These measurements are the first to push into the region of nuclear masses relevant to the formation of the rare-earth abundance peak at A$\sim$165 by the rapid neutron-capture process. We compare our results with theoretical predictions obtained from reverse-engineering'' the mass surface that best reproduces the observed solar abundances in this region through a Markov Chain Monte Carlo technique. Our measured masses are consistent with the reverse-engineering predictions for a neutron star merger wind...

Sensitivity studies for a main $r$ process: nuclear masses

A. Aprahamian, I. Bentley, M. Mumpower, R. Surman
AIP Advances 4, 041101 - Published February 16th 2014
The site of the rapid neutron capture process ($r$ process) is one of the open challenges in all of physics today. The $r$ process is thought to be responsible for the creation of more than half of all elements beyond iron. The scientific challenges to understanding the origin of the heavy elements beyond iron lie in both the uncertainties associated with astrophysical conditions that are needed to allow an $r$ process to occur and a vast lack of knowledge about the properties of nuclei far from stability. One way is to disentangle the nuclear and astrophysical components of the question. On the nuclear physics side, there is great global competition to access and measure the most exotic nuclei that existing facilities can reach, while simultaneously building new, more powerful accelerators to make even more exotic nuclei. On the astrophysics side, various astrophysical scenarios for the production of the heaviest elements have been proposed but open questions remain. This paper reports on a sensitivity study of the $r$ process to determine the most crucial nuclear masses to measure using an $r$-process simulation code, several mass models (FRDM, Duflo-Zuker, and HFB-21), and three potential astrophysical...

Racquetball

In my free time I play competitive racquetball. I was one of the top ranked players of the North Carolina State University Racquetball Club from 2008 to 2012. I designed their website which you can find an image of right here.