Approaching the precursor nuclei of the third r-process peak with RIBs

• Published in: Journal of physics. Conference series Vol. 665; no. 1; pp. 12045 - 12052
• Main Authors: Domingo-Pardo, C, Caballero-Folch, R, Agramunt, J, Algora, A, Arcones, A, Ameil, F, Ayyad, Y, Benlliure, J, Bowry, M, Calviño, F, Cano-Ott, D, Cortés, G, Davinson, T, Dillmann, I, Estrade, A, Evdokimov, A, Faestermann, T, Farinon, F, Galaviz, D, García-Rios, A, Geissel, H, Gelletly, W, Gernhäuser, R, Gómez-Hornillos, M B, Guerrero, C, Heil, M, Hinke, C, Knöbel, R, Kojouharov, I, Kurcewicz, J, Kurz, N, Litvinov, Y, Maier, L, Marganiec, J, Marta, M, Martínez, T, Martínez-Pinedo, G, Meyer, B S, Montes, F, Mukha, I, Napoli, D R, Nociforo, Ch, Paradela, C, Pietri, S, Podolyák, Z, Prochazka, A, Rice, S, Riego, A, Rubio, B, Schaffner, H, Scheidenberger, Ch, Smith, K, Sokol, E, Steiger, K, Sun, B, Taín, J L, Takechi, M, Testov, D, Weick, H, Wilson, E, Winfield, J S, Wood, R, Woods, P, Yeremin, A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bristol IOP Publishing 05.01.2016
• Subjects: Beta decay; Data analysis; Decay rate; Half-life; Neutron emission; Neutrons; Nuclear fusion; Nuclear structure; Nuclei; Physics
• DOI: 10.1088/1742-6596/665/1/012045
• ISSN: 1742-6588; 1742-6596

The rapid neutron nucleosynthesis process involves an enormous amount of very exotic neutron-rich nuclei, which represent a theoretical and experimental challenge. Two of the main decay properties that affect the final abundance distribution the most are half-lives and neutron branching ratios. Using fragmentation of a primary 238U beam at GSI we were able to measure such properties for several neutron-rich nuclei from 208Hg to 218Pb. This contribution provides a short update on the status of the data analysis of this experiment, together with a compilation of the latest results published in this mass region, both experimental and theoretical. The impact of the uncertainties connected with the beta-decay rates and with beta-delayed neutron emission is illustrated on the basis of r-process network calculations. In order to obtain a reasonable reproduction of the third r-process peak, it is expected that both half-lives and neutron branching ratios are substantially smaller, than those based on FRDM+QRPA, commonly used in r-process model calculations. Further measurements around N ∼ 126 are required for a reliable modelling of the underlying nuclear structure, and for performing more realistic r-process abundance calculations.