The PANDORA project: A setup for in-plasma β-decay studies in nuclei of astrophysical interest

Abstract

Theoretical predictions as well as experiments performed at Storage Rings have shown that a high degree of ionization can affect the half-life of β-radionuclides. The PANDORA project aims at investigating,for the first time, beta decay rates in a plasma, simulating specific stellarlike conditions. A description of the physics motivations and the experimental setup developed to accomplish this task is given. The physics cases selected for the first experimental campaign are also presented.