Production and decay of rp-process nuclei Cd, In and Sn
arXiv:0810.3597 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.252501
Abstract
The -decay properties of the N=Z nuclei Cd, In and Sn have been studied. These nuclei were produced at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) by fragmenting a 120 MeV/nucleon Sn primary beam on a Be target. The resulting radioactive beam was filtered in the A1900 and the newly commissioned Radio Frequency Fragment Separator (RFFS) to achieve a purity level suitable for decay studies. The observed production cross sections of these nuclei are lower than predicted by factors of 10 to 30. The Sn production cross section is 0.25(15) pb, in sharp contrast with the 120 pb lower limit established at 63 MeV/nucleon incident energy of the same primary beam. The deduced half-life of Sn is 0.55 s, in agreement with previous measurements. Two -decaying states in In were observed with measured half-lives of 47(13) ms and 0.66(40) s. The half-life of Cd, which was the last experimentally unknown waiting point half-life of the astrophysical rp-process, is 1.03 s. The implications of the experimental T value of Cd on the abundances predicted by rp-process calculations and the origin of A=96 isobars such as Ru are explored.