PhD project: Production of proton-rich heavy elements in supernovae

Project description

Around 1% of heavy elements cannot be produced by neutron-capture reactions, these are so-called p-nuclei and reside on the proton-rich side of β-stability. Most of these isotopes are thought to be produced in the supernovae environment following a series of photo-neutron disintegration reactions. However, certain isotopes are found with anomalously high abundances (~ 2 orders of magnitude) and an alternate process involving a neutrino driven wind, following core collapse, have been suggested. Experiments to study key hydrogen and helium burning reactions with unstable proton-rich isotopes, are being conducted at the new HIE-ISOLDE radioactive beams facility, CERN, and on the new CRYRING heavy ion storage ring at the GSI laboratory, Germany to address these issues using detection system developed by the Edinburgh NP group.

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