A tale of two targets: Making possible the direct measurements for X-ray bursts
Dr. Jaspreet Randhawa
Postdoctoral Research Associate
University of Notre Dame
Type-I X-ray Bursts (XRBs) are among the most frequent thermonuclear explosions in the Universe. The model-observation comparison provides an opportunity to constrain the properties of the binary system and underlying neutron star. The light curves these models predict are sensitive to many nuclear reactions involved in the thermonuclear runaway. Direct measurement of many of these key reactions requires radioactive beams, which is very challenging due to low beam intensities. State-of-art targets play a key role in making these measurements possible. In this presentation, I will highlight the role of state-of-art targets with an example of two recent measurements. A recent direct measurement of 22Mg(a,p)25Al reaction cross-section with active-target at NSCL and implications of the results for XRB will be presented. Preliminary results from the direct measurement of 59Cu(p, a) with cryogenic solid hydrogen target at TRIUMF will be discussed. In the end, a plan to do XRB related measurements with the newly commissioned ND-Cube active target will be discussed briefly.
Hosted by Prof. Ahn
All interested persons are invited to attend remotely—email physics@nd.edu for information.