Conveners
Evening 1 - Feb. 15, 2024
- Stephan Malbrunot-Ettenauer (CERN)
The vast majority of the elements heavier than helium are formed in stellar environments through sequences of nuclear reactions and decays. Relevant stellar environments for nucleosynthesis include both quiescent burning as well as explosive environments such as novae, supernovae, X-ray bursts, and neutron star mergers. As part of the global effort to understand the origin of the elements, the...
The slow (s) and rapid (r) neutron capture processes have long been considered to produce nearly the entirety of elements above Fe, but when comparing their yields with spectroscopic data, inconsistencies in abundance arise in the Z=40 region. These differences are expected to be attributable to the intermediate (i) neutron capture process.
Working in weak i-process neutron densities on...
Motivated by fundamental symmetry tests, a measure of large electric dipole moment (EDM) would represent a clear signal of the violation of the CP symmetries. This observation highlights the imbalance in the matter and antimatter observed in our Universe. The Standard Model (SM) predicts an EDM lower than the experimental reach, prompting the need to explore beyond the SM. The $^{199}Hg$...
In the universe, most matter is mainly composed of light elements like hydrogen and helium, which were synthesised shortly after the Big Bang. Elements beyond iron are produced through neutron capture via the r-process or the s-process. However, these processes can’t explain the existence of several neutron-deficient elements, called p-nuclei, especially $^{92,94}$Mo and $^{96,98}$Ru. The $...
Understanding the formation of the heaviest elements has long been a pivotal inquiry and recent progress spurred by LIGO's detection of gravitational waves now lead us to examine kilonovae as crucial markers in unraveling the processes behind the synthesis of those elements. Notably, the emission spectra of MeV gamma rays could lead to strong insight in the identification of individual...
Nuclei away from the line of stability have been found to demonstrate behavior that is inconsistent with the traditional magic numbers of the spherical shell model. This has led to the concept of the evolution of nuclear shell structure in exotic nuclei, and the neutron-rich calcium isotopes are a key testing ground of these theories; there have been conflicting results from various...
Among the most stringent tests of the Standard Model are performed through precision experiments of beta decay. In these tests, a crucial input is the Q-value or the mass difference of the mother and daughter nuclides. This extraordinary precision can only be achieved with a Penning trap mass spectrometer. The spectrometer at TITAN-TRIUMF has been a pioneer in the use of highly charged ions to...
