Radiative proton–capture reactions with ^112,114Cd at astrophysically important energies

National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, Zografou Campus, GR–15784, Athens, Greece

^* e-mail: polvasil@phys.uoa.gr
^** Present address: IRFU, CEA, Universite Paris-Saclay, France

Published online: 24 February 2022

Abstract

The reaction network in the neutron-deficient part of the nuclear chart around A ≈ 100 contains several nuclei of importance to astrophysical processes, such as the p–process. This work reports on the results from recent experimental studies of the radiative proton–capture reactions ^112,114Cd(p, γ)^113,115 In. Experimental cross sections for the reactions have been measured for proton beam energies residing inside the respective Gamow windows for each reaction, using isotopically enriched ¹¹²Cd and ¹¹⁴Cd targets. Two different techniques, the in–beam γ–ray spectroscopy and the activation method have been implemented, where the latter is considered mandatory to account for the presence of low–lying isomers in ¹¹³In (E ≈ 392 keV, t_1/2 ≈ 100 min), and ¹¹⁵In (E ≈ 336 keV, t_1/2 ≈ 4.5 h). Following the measurement of the cross sections, the astrophysical S factors have been subsequently