VIRTUAL

 Thursday, June 30th 2022

3:45 – 4:45 pm (MT)

WEBEX 

 Speaker: Prof. René Reifarth

Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany

“Ion storage rings for nuclear astrophysics and applications”

 

Abstract: 

Most of the time, stars gain their energy from fusion of the very light left-overs of the Big Bang into heavier elements up to iron over long periods of time. During the last stages also the elements beyond iron are formed, sometimes in explosive scenarios. The observation of radioactive isotopes in different regions of the Universe is an indicator of this ongoing nucleosynthesis. In addition, short-lived nuclei are often intermediate steps during the nucleosynthesis. A quantitative analysis of these relations requires a precise knowledge of reaction cross sections involving unstable nuclei. These concepts can be applied in many nuclear applications too. The corresponding measurements are very demanding and the applied techniques therefore manifold. 


Ion storage rings offer unprecedented possibilities to investigate radioactive isotopes in inverse kinematics. During the last years, a series of pioneering experiments proofed the feasibility of this concept with charged-particles at the Experimental Storage Ring (ESR) at GSI. In particular (p,g) and (p,n) reactions were successfully measured on short-lived isotopes. I will present recent experiments and ideas for future experiments at GSI. 


Neutron-induced reactions on short-lived nuclei are extremely difficult to measure in the energy regime between 1 keV and 10 MeV, which is of interest for astrophysics and many applications. The combination of a spallation neutron source and an ion storage ring offers a solution to this long-standing experimental challenge. I will present the general concept and ideas for a possible realization at LANL.