His interest in the field of nuclear chemistry stems from these early days and his undergraduate research experience.
Prof. deSouza has diverse research interests ranging from the nuclear equation of state to understanding the process by which elements are formed in supernova explosions.
The focus of our research is heavy-ion reaction dynamics spanning the range from the Coulomb barrier to intermediate energies (upto 200A MeV). Our research emphases are:
- near and sub-barrier fusion of neutron-rich light-ions (relevant to the crust of neutron stars and X-ray superbursts)
- possible suppression of the fusion probability in the deep sub-barrier regime.
- probing the nuclear equation of state (EOS), in particular how the density dependence of the symmetry energy affects the properties of nuclear matter; and the interplay between the statistical and dynamical break-up of nuclei under extreme conditions of density, temperature, shape, and isospin (neutron-proton asymmetry).
- fission barriers of neutron-deficient sub-actinides.
