Welcome

• Konrad Schmidt (HZDR)

Room: virtual

European Summer School on Experimental Nuclear Astrophysics

• Rosario Gianluca Pizzone (Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Italy)

Room: virtual

Indirect methods in nuclear astrophysics

• Carlos Bertulani (Texas A&M University, USA)

Room: virtual

Moderated Questions

• Rosario Gianluca Pizzone (INFN LNS)

Room: virtual

Trojan Horse method applications

• Maria Letizia Sergi (University of Catania & Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Italy)

Room: virtual

Moderated questions

• Aurora Tomino (Kore University of Enna, Italy)

Room: virtual

Coulomb dissociation applications

• René Reifarth (Goethe University Frankfurt & GSI, Germany)

Room: virtual

Moderated questions

• Sara Palmerini (University of Perugia, Italy)

Room: virtual

Breakout session Room: virtual Small groups of up to 5 participants are assigned to breakout rooms to (1) very briefly introduce yourself, (2) talk about the lectures, (3) clarify lecture items, and (4) phrase questions for the round table discussion. Afterwards, questions can be written in the chat of the main Zoom room. Please tag questions related to lecture 1 with L1, questions related to lecture 2 with L2 and lecture 3 with L3. Moderators can only choose a limited number of questions to be discussed at the round table discussion. This session also povides the opportunity to establish contacts that can be continued using the private chat. Networking is an important tool not only in science.

Study of the neutron induced reaction 17O(n,α)14C at astrophysical energies via the Trojan Horse method

• Alessandro Alberto Oliva (Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Italy)

Room: virtual Neutron induced reactions play a fundamental role in the nucleosynthesis of elements in the universe. Indeed, to correctly study the reactions involved in the well-known s-process in stars, which produce about half of the elements beyond the iron peak, it is mandatory to know the neutron abundance available in those stars. However, the study of such reactions is, still today, problematic. Either creating or detecting a neutron beam is a challenging task which requires experimental and technological efforts. A more viable alternative is using the Trojan Horse Method (THM) that does not require the production or the detection of neutrons. The 17O(n, α)14C reaction is one of the so-called “neutron poisons” for the s-process and it could play an important role in the balance of the neutron abundance. The reaction is therefore investigated in the energy range of astrophysical interest by applying the THM to the three body reaction 2H(17O, α 14C)H.

Moderated questions

• Marco Salvatore La Cognata (Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Italy)

Room: virtual

Asymptotic normalization coefficients method with mirror nuclei in the context of the 26Al problem: the 26Si(p,γ)27P case

• Giuseppe D'Agata (Nuclear Physics Institute of the Czech Academy of Science, Czech Republic)

Room: virtual The presence of 26Al (T1/2 = 1.04 Myr) in the interstellar medium of the Milky Way is widely visible via the well-known γ-ray line (Eγ = 1.809 MeV) coming from the first excited state of 26Mg,in which 26Al decays. This has been appointed as a tracer for recent nucleosynthesis in our galaxy: the isotope has been found spread along the Galactic plane, and observations support the idea of its formation in massive stars and core-collapse supernovae. Also Wolf-Rayet objects, AGB Stars, Novae and X-ray bursts have been proposed as possible sites of production for 26Al. The26Al isotope can be produced via the 24Mg(p, γ)25Al(β+)25Mg(p, γ)26Al reaction chain, but its production is hampered by the presence of the isomeric state 26Alm (T1/2 = 6.34 sec), which can be directly fed by the 25Al(p, γ)26Si(β+)26Alm chain. This will reduce the quantity of 26Al that can be produced. Also, the 26Si resulting from this last reaction chain can be depleted by the 26Si(p, γ)27P reaction, which will then interfere with the creation of the isomeric state. The study of this reaction can therefore be useful to understand the ratio between 26Al and 26Alm. Experiments involving 26Si are challenging due to its short half-life (T1/2 = 2.24 sec). For this reason an indirect measurement of the 26Si(p, γ)27P has been performed using the so-called Asymptotic Normalization Coefficient (ANC) method in its application for mirror nuclei: the 19 MeV deuteron beam available at the U120-M Cyclotron of the Nuclear Physics Institute of the Czech Academy of Science (NPI-CAS) has been used to trigger the 26Mg(d, p)27Mg reaction, and then to gain information on the 26Si(p, γ)27P reaction. After a brief introduction of both the topic and the theoretical framework regarding the ANC, the experimental results will be shown, along with its implication on the reaction rate.

Moderated questions

• Marco Salvatore La Cognata (Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Italy)

Room: virtual

Studying β-decay rates in stellar interiors - the PANDORA project

• Bharat Mishra (Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Italy)

Room: virtual β-decays are an integral part of numerous nuclear astrophysics models -the interplay between the r and s processes and β decay affects the branching ratio in the nucleosynthesis of heavy elements, the lifetime of light elements like 7Be indirectly governs the solar neutrino emission rates, and cosmochronometric pairs like 232Th/238U and 187Re/187Os derive their utility from a precise knowledge of the decay lifetime. Available data, however, is limited to measurements from neutral or lowly-ionized atoms alone. The situation is vastly different in stellar interiors, where the hot plasma greatly affects the nuclear lifetime by changing de-cay modes and enhancing the phase space for lepton emission. Modification of decay rate over several orders of magnitude due to the atomic environment has been theoretically predicted and experiments with fully-stripped ions in storage rings have partially verified the claims but these haven’t come close to describing the stellar interior which contains an ion charge state distribution (CSD). The PANDORA (Plasmas for Astrophysics, Nuclear Decay Observations and Radiation for Archaeometry) collaboration is a novel and unique step in this exact direction, using a new state-of-the-art plasma trap to confine energetic plasma containing unstable isotopes to mimic some astrophysical conditions. Through simultaneous measurement of secondary γ from decay events distinguished from the plasma photon self-emission, a study of the in-plasma decay rate as a function of the plasma parameters and CSD can be performed. As an undertaking of grand proportions aiming to bridge plasma and nuclear physics, PANDORA employs an innovative multi-diagnostics setup capable of all-round and precise plasma characterization [13], but this talk will focus more on the general theoretical aspects of the project, with emphasis on certain models under development connecting ECR plasma dynamics with decay half-life prediction. This novel method can query nuclear inputs about β-decay rates using controlled and reproducible ionized in-laboratory plasmas, experimentally addressing theoretical uncertainties in the behavior of certain isotopes like 176Lu, 134Cs and 94Nb.

Moderated questions

• Marco Salvatore La Cognata (Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Italy)

Room: virtual

Round table discussion Room: virtual Questions that were compiled in the chat after the breakout session will be answered and discussed