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The stability and spontaneous decay of naturally occurring atomic nuclei have been much studied ever since Becquerel discovered natural radioactivity in 1896. In 1960, proton-rich nuclei with an odd or an even atomic number Z were predicted to decay through one- and two-proton radioactivity, respectively. The experimental observation of one-proton radioactivity was first reported in 1982, and two-proton radioactivity has now also been detected by experimentally studying the decay properties of 45Fe (refs 3, 4) and 54Zn (ref. 5). Here we report proton-proton correlations observed during the radioactive decay of a spinning long-lived state of the lightest known isotope of silver, 94Ag, which is known to undergo one-proton decay. We infer from these correlations that the long-lived state must also decay through simultaneous two-proton emission, making 94Ag the first nucleus to exhibit one- as well as two-proton radioactivity. We attribute the two-proton emission behaviour and the unexpectedly large probability for this decay mechanism to a very large deformation of the parent nucleus into a prolate (cigar-like) shape, which facilitates emission of protons either from the same or from opposite ends of the 'cigar'.

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Recent observations of (6)Li in metal poor stars suggest a large production of this isotope during big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN). In standard BBN calculations, the (2)H(α,γ)(6)Li reaction dominates (6)Li production. This reaction has never been measured inside the BBN energy region because its cross section drops exponentially at low energy and because the electric dipole transition is strongly suppressed for the isoscalar particles (2)H and α at energies below the Coulomb barrier. Indirect measurements using the Coulomb dissociation of (6)Li only give upper limits owing to the dominance of nuclear breakup processes. Here, we report on the results of the first measurement of the (2)H(α,γ)(6)Li cross section at big bang energies. The experiment was performed deep underground at the LUNA 400 kV accelerator in Gran Sasso, Italy. The primordial (6)Li/(7)Li isotopic abundance ratio has been determined to be (1.5 ± 0.3) × 10(-5), from our experimental data and standard BBN theory. The much higher (6)Li/(7)Li values reported for halo stars will likely require a nonstandard physics explanation, as discussed in the literature.

In the present work we report on a new measurement of resonance strengths ωγ in the reaction 25 Mg(p, γ ) 26 Al at E cm = 92 and 189 keV. This study was performed at the LUNA facility in the Gran Sasso underground laboratory using a 4π BGO summing crystal. For the first time the 92 keV resonance was directly observed and a resonance strength ωγ = (2.9 ± 0.6) × 10 −10 eV was determined. Additionally, the γ -ray branchings and strength of the 189 keV resonance were studied with a high resolution HPGe detector yielding an ωγ value in agreement with the BGO measurement, but 20% larger compared to previous works.

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Ultra-sensitive in-beam γ-ray spectroscopy studies for nuclear astrophysics are performed at the LUNA (Laboratory for Underground Nuclear Astrophysics) 400 kV accelerator, deep underground in Italy's Gran Sasso laboratory. By virtue of a specially constructed passive shield, the laboratory γ-ray background for Eγ < 3 MeV at LUNA has been reduced to levels comparable to those experienced in dedicated offline underground γ-counting setups. The γ-ray background induced by an incident α-beam has been studied. The data are used to evaluate the feasibility of sensitive in-beam experiments at LUNA and, by extension, at similar proposed facilities.PACS. 25.40.Lw Radiative capture -25.55.-e 3 H-, 3 He-, and 4 He-induced reactions -29.20.Ba Electrostatic accelerators -29.30.Kv X-and gamma-ray spectroscopy

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