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A new facility, named EXOTIC, for the in‐flight production of light low‐energy weakly bound Radioactive Ion Beams (RIBs) is now fully operational at the Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro (LNL) of the INFN. In this contribution we will present the facility, the Monte‐Carlo code we developed to properly describe the reaction dynamics inside the production target, the experimental results achieved and a list of possible RIBs delivered from the facility EXOTIC in the next future.

C( 12 C;a) 20 Ne and 12 C( 12 C; p) 23 Na are the most important reactions during the carbon burning phase in stars. Direct measurements at the relevant astrophysical energy (E=1.5 0.3MeV) are very challenging because of the extremely small cross sections involved and of the high beam-induced background originating from impurities in the targets. In addition, persistent resonant structures at low energies are not well understood and make the extrapolation of the cross section from high energy data very uncertain. As a preliminary step towards the measurements of the 12 C( 12 C;a) 20 Ne and 12 C( 12 C; p) 23 Na reactions we intend to investigate the behaviour of targets under beam bombardment, specifically the quantitative measurement of hydrogen and deuterium content of highly pure stable carbon targets in relation to target temperature. Experiments are taking place at the CIRCE accelerator in Caserta, Italy and preliminary results are presented here.

A new detector apparatus has been designed and developed to be used in experiments performed with radioactive ion beams. It consists of 16 highly segmented silicon strip detectors arranged in two‐layer telescopes and subtending a large solid angle (about 70% of 4π sr). An innovative readout system for the position information that uses highly integrated electronics (ASIC chips) has been implemented. A first successful experiment has been performed at the Argonne National Laboratory (USA) to study the 17F scattering by a 208Pb target at 90.4 MeV of incident energy. The 17F angular distribution has been analyzed and the optical model potential best‐fit parameters determined. The same analysis performed on 17F data taken at higher incident energy, in completely different experimental conditions, gives consistent results. The comparison with experiments performed with stable beams (19F, 16O, 17O) indicates a behavior for the 17F more similar to that of the Oxygen isotopes than to the 19F one. Despite of the short data collection time, also the cross section for the 17F →16O + p break‐up process has been estimated.

On June 2, 2003, SOHO/LASCO coronagraph observed two CMEs at the West limb of the Sun, at 00.30 and 08:54 UT, respectively, which appeared to originate from the same source region. Both CMEs show the typical three‐part structure. These events have been also observed by SOHO/UVCS, allowing us to infer their physical parameters. We also looked for interplanetary signatures of the CMEs in ACE ‘in situ’ observations but we did not find evidence of the ejected flux rope; however, the solar wind appeared significantly distorted, probably as a consequence of the influence of both CMEs on their surrounding interplanetary plasma.

The rotation of the solar corona at different heliolatitudes from 1.5 to 3.0 R⊙ from Sun center has been studied at solar minimum from the reconstructed intensity time series of the O VI 1032 A and H I Lyα l216 A spectral lines and visible light polarized brightness obtained by the observations of UVCS/SOHO instrument. The time period analyzed range from mid May 1996 to mid May 1997, when, at solar minimum, some features persist for several rotations, thus allowing to analyze the UV and visible emission as time series modulated at the period of the solar rotation. The coronal differential rotation rate significantly differs from that of the photospheric plasma. The estimated equatorial synodic rotation period of the corona at 1.5 R⊙ is 27.48±0.15 days. The study of the latitudinal variation shows that the UV corona decelerates towards the photospheric rates from the equator up to the poleward boundary of the mid‐latitude streamers, reaching a peak of 28.16±0.20 days around ±30° from the equator at 1.5 R⊙, while a less evident peak is observed in the northern hemisphere, suggesting a real north‐south rotational asymmetry, the northern hemisphere the rotation looks more solid‐body‐like and slower than in the southern hemisphere. The mid‐latitude results are also confirmed by the visible light data available at 1.75 and 2.0 R⊙. The study of the radial rotation profiles shows that the corona is rotating almost rigidly with height, but we find an abrupt increase by about half a days between 2.3 and 2.5 R⊙. The larger radial and latitudinal gradients of the rotation rates are localized at the boundary between the open and closed field lines, suggesting that in these regions the differential rotation might be a source of magnetic stress and, consequently, of energy release.

The PRISMA‐CLARA setup, consisting of the large solid angle magnetic spectrometer for heavy‐ions PRISMA coupled to the highly efficient CLARA array of 25 Clovers detectors, was operating at LNL since the end of 2003. The first experimental campaign has been completed at the end of 2004. Selected results on the structure of moderately neutron‐rich nuclei, populated in multi‐nucleon transfer and deep‐inelastic reactions, are presented here. Some technical developments related to the setup are also discussed.

We investigated the prompt dipole γ‐ray emission, related with entrance channel charge asymmetry effects, in the 40Ar + 92Zr and 36Ar + 96Zr fusion reactions at Elab= 15 and 16 MeV/nucleon, respectively, with the aim to probe its evolution with incident energy. These reactions populate, through entrance channels having different charge asymmetries, the 132Ce compound nucleus at an average excitation energy of 304 MeV with identical spin distribution. Fusionlike events were selected by detecting high‐energy γ‐rays in coincidence with evaporation residues. By studying the differential γ‐ray multiplicity spectra of the considered reactions, it was shown that the dipole γ‐ray intensity increases by ∼14% for the more charge asymmetric system. This result, associated with those reported for the 32,36S + 100,96Mo reaction pair at lower beam energies, implies a “rise and fall” trend of the prompt dipole γ‐ray emission in the studied beam energy range with a maximum value at 9 MeV/nucleon.

The decays of the neutron deficient nuclei 94,95Ag, 100,102In and 102Sn were investigated at the GSI on‐line mass separator. The Gamow‐Teller decay of 100,102In and 102Sn was studied by using an array of germanium detectors and a total absorption spectrometer. In 94Ag and 95Ag, spin‐gap isomers were identified and their decays were investigated. Results obtained in these studies are discussed and compared to predictions of shell model calculations.

Nuclear fusion reactions play a key role in the understanding of energy production, neutrino emission and nucleosynthesis of the elements in stars. The direct measurement of the cross section of these reactions at the relevant energies is usually hampered by cosmic radiation, beam induced background and/or the radioactivity of the nuclei involved. In order to suppress these background contributions one can either place an experiment underground [1,2] or exploit coincedence techniques between the reaction products. The major aspect in this contribution is the efficient detection of the recoil nucleus in a direct capture reaction.