Department of Physics and Astronomy · Texas Tech UniversityCenter for Emerging Energy Sciences

The Center for Emerging Energy Sciences (CEES) is a research group within the Texas Tech University Department of Physics and Astronomy. CEES is run by Dr. Robert V. Duncan, who has invented or co-invented 13 awarded U.S. patents and 42 international patents, with many other inventions and patent applications in process.

Recently, a new sub-field called quantum nucleonics has emerged which provides a new systematic way to study nuclear science. We are currently conducting several collaborative projects at Texas Tech University and several others with the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR). These involve experimentally determining the source of novel nuclear reactions within various metal hydrides.

Our experiments and simulations seek to determine whether nuclear polarization, nuclear excitation, and quantum population inversion in some nuclei can increase cross sections for nuclear reactions. If it is possible for lattice dynamics to influence nuclear dynamics in metals, then incoherent X-ray or gamma irradiation may make certain nuclear fission and fusion reactions easier to achieve.