Experimental Prospects With the New Enge Split-Pole Spectrograph Setup at Florida State University
Erin Good, Louisiana State University
Accurate knowledge of various nuclear structure properties is needed to understand nucleosynthesis and the sites where stellar processes occur. Some of the heavier proton-rich elements are created in stellar explosions like classical novae and Type I X-ray bursts; however, the rates of many of the reactions that synthesize nuclei in these events have large uncertainties. Some reactions crucial to the understanding of these processes cannot be measured directly, so it is necessary to develop experimental setups that can measure the nuclear structure properties used to calculate these reaction rates.
The Enge Split-Pole Spectrograph (SPS), recently moved from Yale University to Florida State University, will be used to measure excitation energies, spins and branching ratios of resonances important in proton-capture reactions that cannot currently be directly measured. Here I discuss the design, testing and construction of two auxiliary detector systems to be used with the SPS: a charged particle detector array called the Silicon Array for Branching Ratio Experiments (SABRE) and the focal plane detector. Both systems, in conjunction with the SPS, are crucial for the measurement of nuclear properties in order to accurately determine reaction rates and understand nucleosynthesis in these explosive events.
Abstract Author(s): E. Good, C.M. Deibel, P. Barber, J.C. Blackmon, P.D. Cottle, A.A.D. Hood, J.C. Lighthall, I. Wiedenhover, R.C. Young