Search

The observational 19F abundance in stellar environments systematically exceeds the predicted one, thus representing one of the unsolved challenges for stellar modeling. It is therefore clear that further investigation is needed in this field. In this work, we focus our attention on the measurement of the 19F(α, p) 22Ne reaction in the astrophysical energy range, between 0.2 and 0.8 MeV (far below the Coulomb barrier, 3.8 MeV), as it represents the main destruction channel in He-rich environments. The lowest energy at which this reaction has been studied with direct measurements is ∼0.66 MeV, covering only the upper tail of the Gamow window, causing the reaction-rate evaluation to be based on extrapolation. To investigate lower energies, the 19F(α, p) 22Ne reaction has been studied by means of the Trojan horse method, applied to the quasi-free 6Li (19F, p22Ne)2H reaction at Ebeam = 6 MeV. The indirect cross section of the 19F(α, p) 22Ne reaction at energies ≲1 MeV was extracted, fully covering the astrophysical region of interest and overlapping existing direct data for normalization. Several resonances have been detected for the first time inside the Gamow window. The reaction rate has been calculated, showing an increase up to a factor of 4 with respect to the literature at astrophysical temperatures. This might lead to potential major astrophysical implications.

In this work the effects of the segmentation of the electrodes of Double Sided Silicon Strip Detectors (DSSSDs) are investigated. In order to characterize the response of the DSSSDs we perform a first experiment by using tandem beams of different energies directly sent on the detector and a second experiment by mean of a proton microbeam. Results show that the effective width of the inter-strip region and the efficiency for full energy detection, varies with both detected energy and bias voltage. The experimental results are qualitatively reproduced by a simplified model based on the Shockley-Ramo-Gunn framework.

We describe the design, construction and performance of the PIBETA detector built for the precise measurement of the branching ratio of pion beta decay, pi+ -> pi0 e+ nu, at the Paul Scherrer Institute. The central part of the detector is a 240-module spherical pure CsI calorimeter covering 3*pi sr solid angle. The calorimeter is supplemented with an active collimator/beam degrader system, an active segmented plastic target, a pair of low-mass cylindrical wire chambers and a 20-element cylindrical plastic scintillator hodoscope. The whole detector system is housed inside a temperature-controlled lead brick enclosure which in turn is lined with cosmic muon plastic veto counters. Commissioning and calibration data were taken during two three-month beam periods in 1999/2000 with pi+ stopping rates between 1.3*E3 pi+/s and 1.3*E6 pi+/s. We examine the timing, energy and angular detector resolution for photons, positrons and protons in the energy range of 5-150 MeV, as well as the response of the detector to cosmic muons. We illustrate the detector signatures for the assorted rare pion and muon decays and their associated backgrounds., 117 pages, 48 Postscript figures, 5 tables, Elsevier LaTeX, submitted to Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A

An excitation function of one- and two-neutron transfer channels for the ^{60}Ni+^{116}Sn system has been measured with the magnetic spectrometer PRISMA in a wide energy range, from the Coulomb barrier to far below it. The experimental transfer probabilities are well reproduced, for the first time with heavy ions, in absolute values and in slope by microscopic calculations which incorporate nucleon-nucleon pairing correlations.

The revival of transfer reaction studies benefited from the construction of the new generation large solid angle spectrometers based on the trajectory reconstruction that reached an unprecedented efficiency and selectivity. The coupling of these spectrometers with large gamma arrays allowed the identification of individual excited states, their population pattern and decay modes via particle- gamma coincidences. In the present paper aspects of fragment-gamma coincidence studies measured with the Prisma-Clara set up in 40Ca+96Zr and 40Ar+208Pb are discussed. In particular, we report about states of particle-phonon character, supporting the idea that the relevant degrees of freedom acting in the reaction dynamics define the final yield distributions.

Binary reactions at energies close to the Coulomb barrier received recently a significant boost thanks to the advent of the large solid angle magnetic spectrometer PRISMA coupled to the gamma array CLARA. In the present paper different aspects of the recent results of nuclear structure and reaction dynamics will be presented, focusing more closely on the reaction mechanism.

Current status of the search for T = 1 cluster states in 10Be, 10B and 10C is presented. The best known of the three, 10Be, has an established rotational band (6.18, 7.54 and 10.15 MeV) with unusually large moment of inertia. Search of their isobaric analogue in 10B is presented, with emphasis on 3He+11B reaction.

International audience; A measurement of the alpha(12C,alpha)12C reaction has been performed using resonant scattering with a gas target. Beam energies of 46, 51, 56 and 63 MeV were used to populate resonances in the excitation energy range of 11.6 to 22.9 MeV in 16O. The angular distributions of the elastic scattering were measured at zero degrees using an array of segmented silicon strip detectors with a minimum range of 0° to 30° in the centre of mass. The spins of 8 resonances between 14.1 and 18.5 MeV were obtained, confirming spin assignments made using elastic scattering in normal kinematics. An R-matrix analysis of the data was performed which indicates that the present understanding of 16O in this region is good, but not complete.

The 10.15 MeV resonance in 10Be has been probed via resonant 6He+4He elastic scattering. It is demonstrated that it is the Jpi=4+ member of a rotational band built on the 6.18 MeV 0+ state. A Gammaalpha of 0.10-0.13 MeV and Gammaalpha/Gamma=0.35-0.46 were deduced. The corresponding reduced alpha width, gamma2alpha, indicates one of the largest alpha-cluster spectroscopic factors known. The deformation of the band, including the 7.54 MeV, 2+ member, is large (h2/2I=200 keV). Such a deformation and the significant degree of clusterization signals a well-developed alpha:2n:alpha molecular structure.

Scintillation properties of pure CsI crystals used in the shower calorimeter being built for precise determination of the pi+ -> pi0 e+ nu decay rate are reported. Seventy-four individual crystals, polished and wrapped in Teflon foil, were examined in a multiwire drift chamber system specially designed for transmission cosmic muon tomography. Critical elements of the apparatus and reconstruction algorithms enabling measurement of spatial detector optical nonuniformities are described. Results are compared with a Monte Carlo simulation of the light response of an ideal detector. The deduced optical nonuniformity contributions to the FWHM energy resolution of the PIBETA CsI calorimeter for the pi+ -> e+ nu 69.8 MeV positrons and the monoenergetic 70.8 MeV photons were 2.7% and 3.7%, respectively. The upper limit of optical nonuniformity correction to the 69.8 MeV positron low-energy tail between 5 MeV and 55 MeV was +0.2%, as opposed to the +0.3% tail contribution for the photon of the equivalent total energy. Imposing the 5 MeV calorimeter veto cut to suppress the electromagnetic losses, GEANT-evaluated positron and photon lineshape tail fractions summed over all above-threshold ADCs were found to be 2.36+-0.05(stat)+-0.20(sys)% and 4.68+-0.07(stat)+-0.20(sys)%, respectively., Elsevier LaTeX, 63 pages in e-print format, 25 PostScript Figures and 4 Tables, also available via anonymous ftp at ftp://helena.phys.virginia.edu/pub/preprints/tomo1.ps