核物理学是对处于许多状态的核物质以及其他核子和亚原子粒子与其相互作用的研究。从低能搜索暗物质和中微子物理学到高能电子从核靶标散射，范围广泛。杜克大学物理系是三角大学核实验室（TUNL）的主持人，杜克大学，北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校和北卡罗来纳州立大学的研究合作。TUNL拥有数个用于核天体物理学的加速器和利用杜克自由电子激光的高强度伽马射线源。杜克大学的研究人员还在弗吉尼亚的JLAB，日本的KEK和新墨西哥的Los Alamos实验室工作。
Nuclear physics is the study of nuclear matter in its many states and the interactions of other nucleons and sub-atomic particles with them. This ranges from low-energy searches for dark matter and neutrino physics to high energy electron scattering off of nuclear targets. The Duke physics department is the host of the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory (TUNL) at which researches from Duke, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and North Carolina State University work together. TUNL hosts several accelerators for nuclear astrophysics and a high intensity gamma-ray source which utilizes the Duke free electron laser. Duke researchers also work at JLAB in Virginia, KEK in Japan and Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico.