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The upcoming 50 kt magnetized iron calorimeter (ICAL) detector at the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) is designed to study the atmospheric neutrinos and antineutrinos separately over a wide range of energies and path lengths. The primary focus of this experiment is to explore the Earth matter effects by observing the energy and zenith angle dependence of the atmospheric neutrinos in the multi-GeV range. This study will be crucial to address some of the outstanding issues in neutrino oscillation physics, including the fundamental issue of neutrino mass hierarchy. In this document, we present the physics potential of the detector as obtained from realistic detector simulations. We describe the simulation framework, the neutrino interactions in the detector, and the expected response of the detector to particles traversing it. The ICAL detector can determine the energy and direction of the muons to a high precision, and in addition, its sensitivity to multi-GeV hadrons increases its physics reach substantially. Its charge identification capability, and hence its ability to distinguish neutrinos from antineutrinos, makes it an efficient detector for determining the neutrino mass hierarchy. In this report, we outline the analyses carried out for the determination of neutrino mass hierarchy and precision measurements of atmospheric neutrino mixing parameters at ICAL, and give the expected physics reach of the detector with 10 years of runtime. We also explore the potential of ICAL for probing new physics scenarios like CPT violation and the presence of magnetic monopoles. v Physics Potential of ICAL at INO vi PrefaceThe past two decades in neutrino physics have been very eventful, and have established this field as one of the flourishing areas of high energy physics. Starting from the confirmation of neutrino oscillations that resolved the decades-old problems of the solar and atmospheric neutrinos, we have now been able to show that neutrinos have nonzero masses, and different flavors of neutrinos mix among themselves. Our understanding of neutrino properties has increased by leaps and bounds. Many experiments have been constructed and envisaged to explore different facets of neutrinos, in particular their masses and mixing.The Iron Calorimeter (ICAL) experiment at the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) [1] is one of the major detectors that is expected to see the light of the day soon. It will have unique features like the ability to distinguish muon neutrinos from antineutrinos at GeV energies, and measure the energies of hadrons in the same energy range. It is therefore well suited for the identification of neutrino mass hierarchy, the measurement of neutrino mixing parameters, and many probes of new physics. The site for the INO has been identified, and the construction is expected to start soon. In the meanwhile, the R&D for the ICAL detector, including the design of its modules, the magnet coils, the active detector elements and the associated electronics, has been underway over the past deca...

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Half life values for proton radioactivity in nuclei have been calculated in the WKB approximation. The microscopic proton-nucleus potential has been obtained by folding the densities of daughter nuclei with two microscopic NN interactions, DDM3Y and JLM. The densities have been obtained in the Relativistic Mean Field approach in the spherical approximation using the force FSU Gold. No substantial modification of results has been observed if other common forces are employed. The calculated results for the decays from the ground state or the low-lying excited states in almost all the nuclei agree well with experimental measurements. Reasons for large deviations in a few cases have been discussed. Results in $^{109}$I and $^{112,113}$Cs show that the effect of deformation is small contrary to earlier calculations. Predictions for possible proton radioactivity have been made in two nuclei, $^{93}$Ag and $^{97}$In

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Neutron rich Ca and Ni nuclei have been studied in spherical Relativistic Mean Field formalism in co-ordinate space. A delta interaction has been has been adopted to treat the pairing correlations for the neutrons. Odd nuclei have been treated in the blocking approximation. The effect of the positive energy continuum and the role of pairing in the stability of nuclei have been investigated using the resonant-BCS (rBCS) approach. In Ca isotopes, N = 50 is no longer a magic number while in Ni nuclei, a new magic number emerges at N = 70. There is a remarkable difference in the relative positions of the drip lines for odd and even isotopes. In Ca isotopes, the last bound even and odd nuclei are found to be 72 Ca and 59 Ca, respectively. In Ni isotopes, the corresponding nuclei are 98 Ni and 97 Ni, respectively. The origin of this difference in relative positions of the dripline in even and odd isotopes in the two chain is traced to the difference in the single particle level structures and consequent modification in the magic numbers in the two elements. Pairing interaction is seen to play a major role. The effect of the width of the resonance states on pairing has also been investigated.PACS numbers: 21.60. Jz,27.40.+z,27.50.+e,27.60.+j In recent years, it has been possible to populate and study a number of neutron rich nuclei from fusion evaporation reactions using radioactive ion beams as well as from fission fragment studies. The last bound neutrons in such a nucleus may lie very close to the continuum and the effect of the positive energy continuum on the structure of such nuclei should be studied carefully. Another very important aspect of nuclei near the drip line is the additional stability provided by the pairing interaction. It is important to study the effect of pairing by studying the odd mass nuclei along with the even mass ones. Although a number of such studies has been undertaken in lighter mass regions, nuclei in the medium and the heavy mass regions have not yet been studied in sufficient detail. In the present calculation, neutron rich Ca and Ni nuclei have been studied using the Relativistic Mean Field (RMF) formalism in co-ordinate space.RMF theory is a major tool of nuclear structure physics. Very often, the RMF equations are solved by expanding in a harmonic oscillator basis. However, it is well known that the basis expansion approach using the harmonic oscillator basis cannot explain the density in halo nuclei near the drip line because of slow convergence in the asymptotic region. Nonrelativistic Hartree Fock Bogoliubov (HFB) and Relativistic Hartree Bogoliubov (RHB) methods in co-ordinate space have emerged as two very accurate approaches of treating the nuclei very close to the drip line.The effect of the states in the continuum has been incorporated in most of the calculations by solving the equations in coordinate space using the box normalization condition, thus replacing the continuum with a set of discrete positive energy states. However, in this case, the single particle energy l...

Microscopic optical potentials obtained by folding the DDM3Y interaction with the densities from Relativistic Mean Field approach have been utilized to evaluate S-factors of low-energy (p, γ) reactions in mass 60-80 region and to compare with experiments. The Lagrangian density FSU Gold has been employed. Astrophysical rates for important proton capture reactions have been calculated to study the behaviour of rapid proton nucleosynthesis for waiting point nuclei with mass less than A = 80.