1. A novel approach to β-decay: PANDORA, a new experimental setup for future in-plasma measurements
- Author
-
David Mascali, Domenico Santonocito, Simone Amaducci, Lucio Andò, Vincenzo Antonuccio, Sándor Biri, Alfio Bonanno, Vincenza Piera Bonanno, Stefan Briefi, Maurizio Busso, Luigi Celona, Luigi Cosentino, Sergio Cristallo, Marco Cuffiani, Costantino De Angelis, Giacomo De Angelis, Davide De Salvador, Loreto Di Donato, Jean-Eric Ducret, Aref Eshkevar Vakili, Ursel Fantz, Alessio Galatà, Carmelo Sebastiano Gallo, Santo Gammino, Tommaso Isernia, Hannu Koivisto, Karl-Ludwig Kratz, Risto Kronholm, Marco La Cognata, Silvia Leoni, Andrea Locatelli, Mario Maggiore, Fabio Maimone, Luciana Malferrari, Giorgio Mancini, Laurent Maunoury, Giorgio Sebastiano Mauro, Maria Mazzaglia, Alberto Mengoni, Andrea Miraglia, Bharat Mishra, Mario Musumeci, Daniel Ricardo Napoli, Eugenia Naselli, Fabrizio Odorici, Libero Palladino, Giuseppe Palmisano, Santi Pavone, Salvatore Pennisi, Albino Perego, Angelo Pidatella, Richard Rácz, Riccardo Reitano, Danilo Rifuggiato, Matteo Rinaldi, Antonio Domenico Russo, Filippo Russo, Gaetano Schillaci, Stefano Selleri, Stefano Simonucci, Gino Sorbello, Roberta Spartà, Simone Taioli, Klaus Tinschert, Giuseppe Torrisi, Antonio Trifirò, Sedina Tsikata, Aurora Tumino, Diego Vescovi, Luca Vincetti, ITA, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Catania (INFN), Università degli studi di Catania = University of Catania (Unict), INAF - Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania (OACT), Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Institute for Nuclear Research [Budapest] (ATOMKI), Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA), Max Planck Institute for Plasma physics (IPP-MPG), Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Department of Physics and Geology [Perugia], Università degli Studi di Perugia = University of Perugia (UNIPG), Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Perugia (INFN, Sezione di Perugia), Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bologna (INFN, Sezione di Bologna), Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Milano (INFN), Università degli Studi di Padova = University of Padua (Unipd), Grand Accélérateur National d'Ions Lourds (GANIL), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), University of Jyväskylä (JYU), Institute for Nuclear Chemistry, University of Mainz, GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung (GSI), Università degli Studi di Camerino = University of Camerino (UNICAM), University of L'Aquila [Italy] (UNIVAQ), University of Catania [Italy], University of Trento [Trento], Università degli Studi di Pavia = University of Pavia (UNIPV), Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro (LNL), Università degli studi di Parma = University of Parma (UNIPR), Trento Institute for Fundamental Physics and Applications, Italy, Department of Mathematical and Computer Science, Physical Sciences and Earth Sciences (MIFT), Università degli Studi di Messina = University of Messina (UniMe), Institut de Combustion, Aérothermique, Réactivité et Environnement (ICARE), Université d'Orléans (UO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut des Sciences de l'Ingénierie et des Systèmes (INSIS - CNRS), and Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main
- Subjects
plasma diagnostics ,astrofysiikka ,Plasma trap ,General Physics and Astronomy ,nucleosynthesis ,Beta decay ,plasmatekniikka ,plasmafysiikka ,Plasma diagnostics ,ilmaisimet ,beta decay ,plasma trap ,[PHYS.ASTR]Physics [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph] ,ydinfysiikka ,Nucleosynthesis - Abstract
International audience; Theoretical predictions as well as experiments performed at storage rings have shown that the lifetimes of β-radionuclides can change significantly as a function of the ionization state. In this paper we describe an innovative approach, based on the use of a compact plasma trap to emulate selected stellar-like conditions. It has been proposed within the PANDORA project (Plasmas for Astrophysics, Nuclear Decay Observation and Radiation for Archaeometry) with the aim to measure, for the first time in plasma, nuclear β-decay rates of radionuclides involved in nuclear-astrophysics processes. To achieve this task, a compact magnetic plasma trap has been designed to reach the needed plasma densities, temperatures, and charge-states distributions. A multi-diagnostic setup will monitor, on-line, the plasma parameters, which will be correlated with the decay rate of the radionuclides. The latter will be measured through the detection of the γ-rays emitted by the excited daughter nuclei following the β-decay. An array of 14 HPGe detectors placed around the trap will be used to detect the emitted γ-rays. For the first experimental campaign three isotopes, 176Lu, 134Cs, and 94Nb, were selected as possible physics cases. The newly designed plasma trap will also represent a tool of choice to measure the plasma opacities in a broad spectrum of plasma conditions, experimentally poorly known but that have a great impact on the energy transport and spectroscopic observations of many astrophysical objects. Status and perspectives of the project will be highlighted in the paper.
- Published
- 2022
- Full Text
- View/download PDF