Search

The study of nuclide production and its properties in the N=126neutron-rich region is prevalent in nuclear physics and astrophysics research. The upcoming High-energy FRagment Separator (HFRS) at the High-Intensity heavy-ion Accelerator Facility (HIAF), an in-flight separator at relativistic energies, is characterized by high beam intensity, large ion-optical acceptance, high magnetic rigidity, and high momentum resolution power. This provides an opportunity to study the production and properties of neutron-rich nuclei around N=126. In this paper, an experimental scheme is proposed to produce neutron-rich nuclei around N=126and simultaneously measure their mass and lifetime based on the HFRS separator; the feasibility of this scheme is evaluated through simulations. The results show that under the high-resolution optical mode, many new neutron-rich nuclei approaching the r-process abundance peak around A=195can be produced for the first time, and many nuclei with unknown masses and lifetimes can be produced with high statistics. Using the time-of-flight corrected by the measured dispersive position and energy loss information, the cocktails produced from 208Pb fragmentation can be unambiguously identified. Moreover, the masses of some neutron-rich nuclei near N=126can be measured with high precision using the time-of-flight magnetic rigidity technique. This indicates that the HIAF-HFRS facility has the potential for the production and property research of neutron-rich nuclei around N=126, which is of great significance for expanding the chart of nuclides, developing nuclear theories, and understanding the origin of heavy elements in the universe.

The $${}^{12}$$12C+$${}^{12}$$12C fusion reaction is famous because of its complication of molecular resonances, and it plays an important role in both nuclear structural research and astrophysics. It is extremely difficult to measure the cross sections of $${}^{12}$$12C+$${}^{12}$$12C fusions at energies of astrophysical relevance because of the very low reaction yields. To measure the complicated resonant structure that exists in this important reaction, an efficient thick target method has been developed and applied for the first time at energies $$E_{\mathrm{c.m.}}<5.3$$Ec.m.<5.3MeV. A scan of the cross sections over a relatively wide range of energies can be carried out using only a single beam energy. The result of measurement at $$E_{\mathrm{c.m.}}= 4.1$$Ec.m.=4.1MeV is compared with results from previous work. This method will be useful for searching for potentially existing resonances of $${}^{12}\hbox {C}+{}^{12}\hbox {C}$$12C+12Cin the energy range 1 MeV$$< E_{\mathrm{c.m.}}<$$