X-Ray Burst Nucleosynthesis and measurement of the nuclear structure of Zn-58

This experiment aims at the precise measurement of the level structure of 58Zn below and above the proton threshold. Excited states in 58Zn will be populated after one-neutron knockout reactions on a secondary 59Zn beam impinging onto a Beryllium target. Nothing is presently known about the excited levels in 58Zn. Such experimental information is required for realistic estimates of the important 57Cu(p,gamma)58Zn rate in type I X-ray bursts, which in turn, would increase the accuracy of simulations of these astrophysical phenomena. In addition to the primary astrophysical motivation for this experiment, we will also make, for the rst time, a detailed isospin symmetry examination of the T = 1 A = 58 triplet through the measurement of the lifetime of the 1st 2+ level in 58Zn. This proposal will take full advantage of the large efficiency of the AGATA array since the population of the desired 58Zn states occurs with rather low cross-section. As well, the fine angular resolution of AGATA will be invaluable for the lifetime measurement.

• XRayBurst58Zn_GSIProposal.pdf: Experiment proposal submitted to GSI-PAC on 2011

-- CesarDomingo - 09 Feb 2012