First (p,n) reaction measurement in inverse kinematics with SECAR

¹ Department of Physics, Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant, MI 48859, USA
² Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
³ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA
⁴ Department of Physics & Astronomy, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701, USA
⁵ Physics Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
⁶ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA
⁷ Department of Physics, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401, USA
⁸ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
⁹ The Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics - Center for the Evolution of the Elements, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
¹⁰ The Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics - Center for the Evolution of the Elements, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA

^* e-mail: tsint1p@cmich.edu

Published online: 3 February 2023

Abstract

Nucleosynthesis in the νp-process occurs in regions of slightly proton-rich nuclei in the neutrino-driven wind of core-collapse supernovae. The process proceeds via a sequence of (p,γ) and (n,p) reactions, and depending on the conditions, may produce elements between Ni and Sn. Recent studies show that a few key (n,p) reactions regulate the efficiency of the neutrino-p process (νp-process). We performed a study of one of such (n,p) reactions via the measurement of the reverse (p,n) in inverse kinematics with SECAR at NSCL/FRIB.Such proton-induced reaction measurements are particularly challenging, as the recoils and the unreacted projectiles have nearly identical masses. An appropriate separation level can be achieved with SECAR, and along with the incoincidence detection of neutrons these measurements become attainable. The preparation of the SECAR system for accommodating its first (p,n) reaction measurement, including the development of alternative ion beam optics, and the setup of the in-coincidence neutron detection, along with discussion on preliminary results from the p(⁵⁸Fe,n)⁵⁸Co reaction measurement are presented and discussed.