Proton capture on stored radioactive ¹¹⁸Te ions

¹ Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany
² GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung Darmstadt, Germany
³ School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
⁴ CAS Key Laboratory of High Precision Nuclear Spectroscopy, Lanzhou, China
⁵ Justus-Liebig-University Gießen, Germany
⁶ TRIUMF, Canada
⁷ Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg, Germany
⁸ Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Heidelberg, Germany
⁹ Helmholtz-Institut Jena, Germany
¹⁰ LP2I Bordeaux, CNRS/IN2P3-Université de Bordeaux, Gradignan, France
¹¹ Aachen University of Applied Sciences, Aachen, Germany
¹² TU Darmstadt, Germany
¹³ Physikalisch Technische Bundesanstalt Braunschweig, Germany
¹⁴ Braunschweig University of Technology, Germany
¹⁵ Saitama University, Saitama, Japan

^* e-mail: dellmann@iap.uni-frankfurt.de

Published online: 22 March 2023

Abstract

Experimental determination of the cross sections of proton capture on radioactive nuclei is extremely difficult. Therefore, it is of substantial interest for the understanding of the production of the p-nuclei. For the first time, a direct measurement of proton-capture cross sections on stored, radioactive ions became possible in an energy range of interest for nuclear astrophysics. The experiment was performed at the Experimental Storage Ring (ESR) at GSI by making use of a sensitive method to measure (p,γ) and (p,n) reactions in inverse kinematics. These reaction channels are of high relevance for the nucleosyn-thesis processes in supernovae, which are among the most violent explosions in the universe and are not yet well understood. The cross section of the ¹¹⁸Te(p,γ) reaction has been measured at energies of 6 MeV/u and 7 MeV/u. The heavy ions interacted with a hydrogen gas jet target. The radiative recombination process of the fully stripped ¹¹⁸Te ions and electrons from the hydrogen target was used as a luminosity monitor. An overview of the experimental method and preliminary results from the ongoing analysis will be presented.