Experimental Studies of Light-Ion Nuclear Reactions Using Low-Energy RI Beams

Abstract

CRIB (CNS Radio-Isotope Beam separator) is a low-energy RI beam separator of Center for Nuclear Study (CNS), the University of Tokyo. Studies on nuclear astrophysics, nuclear structure, and other interests have been performed using the RI beams at CRIB, forming international collaborations. A striking method to study astrophyiscal reactions involving radioactive nuclei is the thick-target method in inverse kinematics. Several astrophysical alpha-induced reactions have been be studied with that method at CRIB. A recent example is on the α resonant scattering with a radioactive 7 Be beam. This study is related to the astrophysical 7 Be(α,γ) reactions, important at hot p-p chain and νp-process in supernovae. There have been measurements based on several indirect methods, such as the asymptotic normalization coefficient (ANC) and Trojan horse method (THM). The first THM measurement using an RI beam has been performed at CRIB, to study the 18 F(p, α) 15 O reaction at astrophysical energies via the three body reaction 2 H( 18 F, α 15 O)n. The 18 F(p, α) 15 O reaction rate is crucial to understand the 511-keV γ-ray production in nova explosion phenomena, and we successfully evaluated the reaction cross section at novae temperature and below experimentally for the first time.