Indirect neutron-capture cross-section measurements with the CeBrA-SPS setup at FSU

ORAL

Abstract

The abundances of heavy elements in the universe depend sensitively on the neutron-capture reaction rates. However, direct measurement of these reaction rates is often experimentally infeasible, while theoretical estimates have huge uncertainties. As a result, several indirect experimental techniques, including the Surrogate Reaction Method (SRM) and the Oslo method, have been developed to indirectly constrain neutron-capture reaction rates. At a high level, these indirect approaches use charged particle reactions to mimic the neutron-induced reaction of interest and then utilize these data to constrain nuclear statistical models. The present work investigates the usage of deuterium and tritium beams at Florida State University (FSU) to perform (d, p𝛾) and (t, p𝛾) reactions to indirectly constrain the neutron-capture rates on heavy elements. These measurements are performed with the CeBrA-SPS setup for detecting particle-𝛾 coincidences. I will present the simulations using ‘ReacTool’ for this setup and the first results from the 180Hf (d, p𝛾) experiment with implications for the planned 180Hf (t, p𝛾) measurement.

*This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under contract DE-AC52-07NA27344. This work is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant Nos. PHY-2405485 [MRI: Equipment: A New CeBr3 Gamma-Ray Detection Array (CeBrA) for Particle-Gamma Coincidence Experiments at the FSU Super-Enge Split-Pole Spectrograph] and PHY-2412808 [Studies of Nuclear Structure and Nuclear Astrophysics (FSU)]. This material is also based upon work supported by the Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration, under Award Number DE-NA0004150, the Center for Excellence in Nuclear Training And University-based Research (CENTAUR).

–

Presenters

  • Rahul Jain

    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Authors

  • Rahul Jain

    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

  • Richard O Hughes

    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

  • Andrea L Richard

    • Ohio University

  • Mark Spieker

    • Florida State University

  • Rajat Aggarwal

    • Florida State University

  • Samuel Oluwamayowa Ajayi

    • Florida State University

  • Maria Anastasiou

    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

  • Lagy Baby

    • Department of Physics, Florida State University

  • Alex L Conley

    • Florida State University

  • Jacob Davis

    • Florida State University

  • Chris Esparza

    • Department of Physics, Florida State University

  • Ian Hay

    • Florida State University

  • Bryan Kelly

    • Department of Physics, Florida State University

  • Ibraheem Khurram

    • Florida State University

  • Matthew Mestayer

    • Florida State University

  • Ashton Brooke Morelock

    • Department of Physics, Florida State University

  • Wei Jia Ong

    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

  • Andrew Peters

    • Florida State University

  • Austin Rambo

    • Ohio University

  • Lew Riley

    • Ursinus College

  • Adam Ring

    • Florida State University

  • River Sheridan

    • Florida State University

  • Vignesh Sitaraman

    • Florida State University

  • Ingo Wiedenhoever

    • Florida State University