Overview of Numerical Simulations for Calculating In-Plasma β-Decay Rates in the Framework of PANDORA Project

¹ Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia - Università degli studi di Catania, Italy
² Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare - Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Catania, Italy

^* e-mail: mishra@lns.infn.it

Published online: 3 February 2023

Abstract

β-decay rates are essential inputs in stellar nucleosynthesis models to explain observed nuclear abundances. While current models continue to use terrestrial values, experiments in storage rings indicate strong divergence between decay rates of neutral and ionised atoms [1], necessitating renewed investigations into stellar decay rates. The PANDORA project aims at measuring lifetimes of specific radio-isotopes trapped in an ECR plasma (which mimics astrophysical environments to some extent) and compare them with theoretical predictions [2], consequently verifying the models and allowing decay rate estimation for any isotope in the stellar interior. We present here a simulation scheme to characterise the space-resolved charge state and level population distribution of buffer and radio-isotope ions in ECR ion sources in order to calculate in-plasma decay rates. The algorithm is based on a Particle-in-Cell Monte Carlo (PIC-MC) routine that simultaneously models charge transport with collision-radiative processes. Preliminary results from the simulation are also shown, along with important takeaways for code-optimisation.