The nucleus ${}^{163}\mathrm{Lu}$ has been populated through the fusion-evaporation reaction ${}^{139}\mathrm{La}{(}^{29}\mathrm{Si},5n{)}^{163}\mathrm{Lu}$ with a beam energy of 152 MeV. The electromagnetic properties of several connecting transitions between two presumably triaxial, strongly deformed (TSD) bands have been studied. Evidence is presented for the assignment of the excited TSD band as a wobbling mode built on the yrast TSD band, based on comparisons to new calculations in which an aligned particle is coupled to a strongly deformed triaxial rotor. The wobbling mode is uniquely related to triaxiality in nuclei.

The emergence of a new era reaching beyond current state-of-the-art ultrashort and ultraintense laser technology has been enabled by the approval of around € 850 million worth of structural funds in 2011–2012 by the European Commission for the installation of Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI). The ELI project consists of three pillars being built in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Romania. This challenging proposal is based on recent technical progress allowing ultraintense laser fields in which intensities will soon be reaching as high as I₀ ∼ 10²³ W cm⁻². This tremendous technological advance has been brought about by the invention of chirped pulse amplification by Mourou and Strickland. Romania is hosting the ELI for Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP) pillar in Măgurele near Bucharest. The new facility, currently under construction, is intended to serve the broad national, European, and international scientific community. Its mission covers scientific research at the frontier of knowledge involving two domains. The first is laser-driven experiments related to NP, strong-field quantum electrodynamics, and associated vacuum effects. The second research domain is based on the establishment of a Compton-backscattering-based, high-brilliance, and intense γ beam with E_γ ≲ 19.5 MeV, which represents a merger between laser and accelerator technology. This system will allow the investigation of the nuclear structure of selected isotopes and nuclear reactions of relevance, for example, to astrophysics with hitherto unprecedented resolution and accuracy. In addition to fundamental themes, a large number of applications with significant societal impact will be developed. The implementation of the project started in January 2013 and is spearheaded by the ELI-NP/Horia Hulubei National Institute for Physics and Nuclear Engineering (IFIN-HH). Experiments will begin in early 2020.

The nucleus ${}^{\mathrm{163}}\mathrm{L}\mathrm{u}$ has been populated through the reaction ${}^{\mathrm{139}}\mathrm{L}\mathrm{a}({}^{\mathrm{29}}\mathrm{S}\mathrm{i},5n)$ with a beam energy of 157 MeV. Three triaxial, strongly deformed (TSD) bands have been observed with very similar rotational properties. The first excited TSD band has earlier been assigned as a one-phonon wobbling excitation built on the lowest-lying (yrast) TSD band. The large $B(E2{)}_{\mathrm{o}\mathrm{u}\mathrm{t}}/B(E2{)}_{\mathrm{i}\mathrm{n}}$ value obtainable for one of four observed transitions between the second and first excited TSD bands is in good agreement with particle-rotor calculations for a two-phonon wobbling excitation.

Proton and heavy ion acceleration in ultrahigh intensity $(\sim 2\times {10}^{20}\mathrm{W}{\mathrm{cm}}^{-2})$ laser plasma interactions has been investigated using the new petawatt arm of the VULCAN laser. Nuclear activation techniques have been applied to make the first spatially integrated measurements of both proton and heavy ion acceleration from the same laser shots with heated and unheated $\mathrm{Fe}$ foil targets. $\mathrm{Fe}$ ions with energies greater than $10\mathrm{MeV}$ per nucleon have been observed. Effects of target heating on the accelerated ion energy spectra and the laser-to-ion energy conversion efficiencies are discussed. The laser-driven production of the long-lived isotope ${}^{57}\mathrm{Co}$ (271 days) via a heavy ion induced reaction is demonstrated.