THEQS '7 TYIL IIEBRAR lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllHlllllllll| 2| 31293 01564 332 lIHll LIBRARY Michigan State Unlversity This is to certify that the dissertation entitled “Projectile Fragmentation of Kryptcn Isotopes at Intermediate Energies" presented by RPMAN PFAFF has been accepted towards fulfillment of the requirements for Ph-D- degree in Pllflicfi ,1, ’ ,1 W01 [Mt £23, my z, u:»"’ Major professor Date Navalber 22. 1996 MS U L! an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Institution 0- 12771 PLACE ll REI’UHN BOXto moved-uh chockwtnom your record. TO AVOID FINES Mum on or before date duo. DATE DUE DATE DUE DATE DUE l L__| V—T—T—l MSU I. An mum Action/Ema! Opportunity lnctltulon WW1 PROJECTILE FRAGMENTATION OF KRYPTON IS OTOPES AT INTERMEDIATE ENERGIES By Raman Pfaff A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Physics 1996 ABSTRACT PROJECTILE FRAGMENTATION OF KRYPTON ISOTOPES AT INTERMEDIATE EN ERGIES By Raman Pfaff To gain a better understanding of the production of projectile-like fragmentation products and exotic isotopes and to provide information on the stability of nuclei along the path of the rapid-proton capture process, isotopic cross sections from the reactions 78Kr + 58Ni at 70 MeV/nucleon and 86Kr 4- 27A1 at 75 MeV/nucleon were measured at 0° with the A1200 fragment separator at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory. The particle stability of 69Br, which is a critical isotope to the path of the rapid-proton capture process, was thoroughly probed during the fragmentation of 78Kr, and it appears to be particle unstable. The experimental production cross section data are compared to previous krypton isotope fragmentation data as well as to an intranuclear cascade code developed for higher energies (> 200 MeV/nucleon) and a semiempirical parametrization derived from high energy systematics. An effort was made to explore the dependence of the N/Z ratio of the projectile on the observed isotopic distributions and to place tighter limitations of the half-lives on several nuclei important to the rapid-proton capture process. To My Grandmother Clara Kruh iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I’ll start out by thanking my advisor Walt Benenson for giving me the opportunity to do research here at the NSCL and pursue my own research interests along the way. I would also like to thank Dave Morrissey for helping me along my ‘fragmented’ research path. Without these two individuals, I would not have made it this far. I’ve met many graduate students during my years here and I can’t even begin to name them all. However, there are several individuals I would like to mention. Mike Fauerbach is the only true football fan left here at the lab, and he also helped me with several aspects of my research. Carl Nelson helped to keep me motivated and I hope I’ve done the same for him. John Johnson helped me out at the start of my long and winding college career and hopefully our post college career won’t be quite that winding. Finally, I’d like to thank my parents who gave me a great start to my education by letting me read anything I could get my hands on, and Erin Shore who was kind enough to put up with me during a rough year of a medical adventure. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES vii LIST OF FIGURES viii Introduction 1 1.1 Projectile Fragmentation ....................................... 1 1.1.1 Energy regimes of projectile fragmentation .................. 4 1.2 Purpose of the present work .................................... 6 Previous Research/Theory 10 2.1 Applicable Systematics ....................................... 11 2.2 ISApace Model ............................................. 19 2.3 Recent Research ............................................ 27 2.3.1 Krypton Fragmentation at 44 MeV/nucleon ................. 28 2.3.2 Krypton Fragmentation at 200 MeV/nucleon ................ 32 2.3.3 High Energy Krypton Fragmentation ...................... 36 2.3.4 Rapid-Proton Capture Process ........................... 41 Experimental Apparatus and Analysis 48 3.1 The A1200 Fragment Separator ................................ 48 3.2 Detector Setup .............................................. 49 3.3 Electronic Setup ............................................ 51 3.4 Isotopic Identification ........................................ 51 3.5 Parallel Momentum Distributions ............................... 56 Results and Discussion 60 4.1 Fragmentation of 86Kr Projectiles ............................... 60 4.1.1 Momentum Widths .................................... 60 4.1.2 Momentum Transfer ................................... 64 4.1.3 Isotopic Cross Sections ................................. 68 4.2 Fragmentation of 78Kr Projectiles ............................... 70 4.2.1 Isotopic Cross Sections ................................. 71 4.2.2 Memory Effect ....................................... 74 4.2.3 Implications for the rp-process ........................... 78 Summary 82 Measured Cross Sections 84 ISApace Input Parameters 91 List of References 92 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1:Fitted slope parameters for individual elements from 86Kr fragmentation. . . . 66 Table A.1:Isotopic cross sections from 78Kr + 58Ni at 75 MeV/nucleon. ............ 85 Table A.2:Isotopic cross sections from 86Kr + 27A1 at 70 MeV/nucleon. ............ 89 vii FIGURE 1.1: FIGURE 2.1: FIGURE 2.2: FIGURE 2.3: FIGURE 2.4: FIGURE 2.5: FIGURE 2.6: FIGURE 2.7: FIGURE 2.8: FIGURE 2.9: FIGURE 2.10: FIGURE2.11: LIST OF FIGURES A simplistic picture of the projectile fragmentation process. ........ 2 Bar chart showing importance of in RNB experiments at the NSCL. ................................................. 10 A plot used to determine a parametrization for the momentum width from both target and projectile fragmentation residues. ...... 12 The plot used to determine the parametrization for the momentum shift that fragments undergo during both target and projectile fragmentation. ................................... 12 The experimental data originally used for the parametrization of the memory effect ......................................... 17 Parametrization of the “memory effect” from Eq. 2.14. The data used for this parametrization are shown in Figure 2.4. ............ 18 Nucleon-nucleon cross sections as a function of incident energy.. . . . 21 Nuclear density for 86Kr from the ISABEL code, a Yukawa distribution and a square well density distribution ................ 23 Simple view of the energy diagram used to determine created holes, captured particles, and free particles in the ISABEL code.. . . . 25 The momentum distribution for 72Ge31+ from the fragmentation of 84Kr + 27A1 at 44 MeV/nucleon ............................ 29 The two—peak structure observed for several momentum distributions from the reaction 86Kr + 27A1 at 44 MeV/nucleon. . . . . 29 Cross sections resulting from 84Kr + 27A1, 103Rh, 197Au at 44 MeV/nucleon ............................................ viii .30 FIGURE 2.12: FIGURE 2.13: FIGURE 2.14: FIGURE 2.15: FIGURE 2.16: FIGURE 2.17: FIGURE 2.18: FIGURE 2.19: FIGURE 2.20: FIGURE 2.21: FIGURE 2.22: FIGURE 2.23: FIGURE 2.24: FIGURE 2.25: FIGURE 3.1: FIGURE 3.2: Selected yields from 44 MeV/nucleon krypton fragmentation along with corresponding predictions from a high energy fragmentation model ....................................... 31 Cross sections from krypton fragmentation at 200 MeV/nucleon.. . . . 32 Velocity shift for the fragmentation products resulting from 84Kr + 197Au at 200 MeV/nucleon ............................ 34 Parallel momentum widths for the intermediate energy fragmentation products ..................................... 35 Typical momentum distribution observed during high energy fragmentation - in this case 86Kr + 9Be at 500 MeV/nucleon ........ 36 Parallel momentum widths observed during high energy krypton fragmentation of 86Kr + 9Be ................................. 37 Momentum shifts observed during the fragmentation of 86Kr + 9Be at 500 MeV/nucleon .............................. 38 The momentum shift for the fragments near the mass of the projectile during high energy krypton fragmentation .............. 39 Cross sections for the reaction products resulting from high energy fragmentation of 86Kr + 9Be at 500 MeV/nucleon .......... 40 The CNO and HCNO cycles ................................. 42 Proposed rp-paths for varied temperature and density conditions. . . . 43 Proposed path of the rp-process for the region applicable to the present research ........................................... 44 Isotopic yields resulting from 78Kr + ”M at 65 MeV/nucleon. ..... 45 Yield from the fragmentation of 78Kr + Ni at 73 MeV/nucleon ...... 46 A schematic diagram of the A1200 fragment separator ............ 50 A schematic diagram of the electronic setup that was used during the fragmentation experiments. .............................. 52 ix FIGURE 3.3: FIGURE 3.4: FIGURE 3.5: FIGURE 3.6: FIGURE 3.7: FIGURE 4.1: FIGURE 4.2: FIGURE 4.3: FIGURE 4.4: FIGURE 4.5: FIGURE 4.6: FIGURE 4.7: FIGURE 4.8: FIGURE 4.9: Turning radius vs. horizontal position for PPACO at Dispersive Image #2 that was observed during the 78Kr fragmentation experiment ............................................... 53 A plot of AB vs. TOF observed during the reaction 78Kr + 58Ni. The arrow indicates the “gap” where 69Br should be observed. ..... 54 Energy and time calibrations for the detectors during the 86Kr fragmentation experiment ................................... 55 The AZ, and Q resolution obtained in the 86Kr fragmentation experiment ............................................... 57 The momentum distribution of 80Br35+ with varied Gaussian fits. The arrow indicates the projectile momentum. .................. 58 Parallel momentum distribution widths for isotopes observed during the fragmentation of 86Kr. ............................ 61 Parallel momentum width from recent krypton fragmentation experiments .............................................. 62 Momentum transfer vs. mass loss for the projectile-like fragments observed during 86Kr fragmentation at 70 MeV/ nucleon. ................................................ 65 Isotopic cross sections determined from the fragmentation of 86Kr + 27A] at 70 MeV/nucleon. ............................. 69 Centroids of parallel momentum distributions for isotopes observed during projectile fragmentation of 78Kr + 58Ni at 75 MeV/nucleon ............................................. 7 1 Mass distributions for the Z=30 to 2:38 isotopes recorded while magnetic rigidity was optimized for observation of 69Br ........... 72 Isotopic cross sections determined from 78Kr + 58Ni at 75 MeV/ nucleon. ................................................ 73 Parametrization of the memory effect which shows data from several krypton fragmentation experiments. .................... 76 Halflives calculated using the WKB approximation for 69Br and 73 Rb .................................................... 80 X Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Projectile Fragmentation In recent years the use of radioactive nuclear beams (RNB’s) has become a rapidly moving and promising specialty of nuclear science, and the development and implementation of RNB facilities has become a high priority at many research institutions. There are only 263 stable isotopes in nature but estimates predict there may be more than 8000 radioactive isotopes which could be created and observed. These radioactive isotopes are vital to the study of many aspects of nuclear physics including mass models, half-lives, cross sections, shell structure, isomeric production rates, and astrophysical processes. When planning such studies for the laboratory, target, projectile, and beam current requirements must be explored in an effort to understand the practicality of the experiment. For this aspect of the planning it is necessary to have reliable predictions for the most basic results of the fragmentation process — most notably the expected cross sections for the particles of interest. In 1947 Serber [ser47] proposed the idea that peripheral highly energetic heavy- ion reactions can be described as a two—step process in which each step occurs in clearly separated time intervals. The first step describes the initial collision between the constituents of the target and projectile nucleus and occurs rapidly, on the order of 10'23 1 2 seconds. This step can lead to highly excited objects (prefragments) which are usually very different from the final observed fragments. Before detection, the prefragments lose their excitation energy through the emission of particles (neutrons, protons, and small clusters) and 'y-rays. This second step (deexcitation) occurs slowly relative to the first step and typically occurs on the order of 10'16 to 10'18 seconds (depending on the excitation energy of the prefragment). A simple portrayal of this process is shown in Figure 1.1 in which the overlapping region of the target and projectile is sheared off, leaving an excited prefragment. The prefragment then deexcites through statistical emission and becomes the final observed fragment. Due to the differences in the physical nature of the two processes, one usually uses separate theoretical models to describe the two individual steps of the fragmentation. To simulate the rapid first step of the nuclear reaction an intranuclear cascade model (INC) is often used. The INC models treat the projectile—target interaction as simple nucleon- Projectile Prefragment Final Observed Fragment Target FIGURE 1.1: A simplistic picture of the projectile fragmentation process. 3 nucleon collisions in a microscopic manner (further details will be discussed in the subsequent chapter). After performing the INC calculation, one deals with excited prefragments that are characterized by their atomic mass, proton number, excitation energy, and their linear and angular momentum. These prefragments are usually far away from their ground state and have a very short lifetime. To describe the deexcitation process a statistical evaporation code is generally used. These codes were originally developed (and successfully used) to describe compound nucleus reactions near the Coulomb barrier. The basic properties of INC models and some details of the INC code used in the present research will be described in Chapter 2 along with a discussion of the statistical evaporation code. The results of the present research will be compared to the predictions from the ISApace model [fau92], which uses the INC code ISABEL [yar79] in conjunction with a statistical evaporation code PACE [gav80]. Use of the INC model together with the statistical evaporation code is a computer intensive method that has been used to gain further insight into the physical properties involved in the fragmentation process. Because it is often necessary to estimate cross sections quickly during the preparation of an experiment, a relatively simple parametrization is often a more practical method than a computer intensive solution. Stimmerer et al. [sum90] used the data available in 1988 to develop the widely used EPAX parametrization, which has proved reliable for a large portion of the high energy radioactive nuclear beam research performed over the past decade. The parametrization was developed from high energy data, and the only input parameters are the mass and proton number of the projectile and target. The energy of the projectile is not considered to be an essential input parameter due to the fact that EPAX was geared towards high energy 4 fragmentation in which the nucleon-nucleon cross section is relatively constant (limiting fragmentation). However, recent advances in technology have allowed experiments to be performed using intermediate mass projectiles at intermediate energies, in which energy dependent factors could cause the EPAX parametrization to fail. The EPAX parametrization and comparisons to the present experimental results will be discussed in subsequent chapters. 1.1.1 Energy regimes of projectile fragmentation The bombarding energies used for projectile fragmentation experiments have changed with technological advances. The processes which occur at the various energies differ tremendously. Low energy “fragmentation” was available for many years, and a large amount of data has been accumulated [fle74]. At low energies (E/A S 20 MeV/ nucleon), several different reaction mechanisms contribute to the process. Reactions in this energy regime are generally not considered “true” fragmentation and can not be described by Serber’s [ser47] simple two—step process. The time of interaction is long, due to the slow relative velocity between the target and the nucleus, and the Fermi momentum of the individual nucleon constituents of the target and the projectile is greater than the momentum of the nucleus itself. These factors can result in a combination of processes (dependent on the impact parameter of the collision) including Coulomb scattering, incomplete fusion, complete fusion, and compound nucleus interaction. Reactions occurring at much higher energies (E/A 2 200 MeV/nucleon) are considered to be “pure” fragmentation as was discussed by Serber. It should be noted that the energy limits are not exact since transitions between dominant processes occur gradually as a function of beam energy. In this situation the kinetic energy is on the order 5 of magnitude of the rest mass of the constituent nucleons, and the interaction time between the target and the projectile is very short. Central collisions will result in a “shattering” of the projectile into light particles and individual nucleons while distant interactions will undergo Coulomb scattering and excitation. Peripheral reactions will exhibit “pure” fragmentation in which the region of the projectile that overlaps the target during the interaction will be torn off, leaving an excited prefragment. As accelerators improved over the past few decades, many high energy experiments using heavy fragments were performed [b0186, gol7 8]. In recent years exploration of fragmentation in the intermediate energy regime (20 MeV/nucleon S E/A S 200 MeV/nucleon) has been carried out in an effort to understand the transition from the high energy fragmentation to the complex processes occurring in the low energy regime. This intermediate energy regime has proven to be very interesting and challenging, to both the experimental procedures and theoretical models. The collection of systematic data in which cross sections and momentum distributions were measured for a large collection of fragmentation products are still limited, but growing. At the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (N SCL) Souliotis et al. [sou9l, sou92] performed several experiments involving l4N beam on both 27Al and 181Ta targets at 75 MeV/nucleon and 18O + 27A] at 80 MeV/nucleon. Fauerbach et al. [fau96] studied the fragmentation of 40Ar +9Be at 90 MeV/nucleon. The data available for heavier elements are rather limited due to the complexity of the experiments, from both the technological and analytical side. Until recently, beams comprised of intermediate mass projectiles could not be easily produced at experimental facilities, and analysis was difficult since good energy resolution was needed to separate isotopic charge 6 states which are prevalent in the intermediate and low energy regimes. Bazin et al. [baz90] performed an experiment at GANIL near the low end of the intermediate energy regime that used 84Kr + 27A1, 103Rh, 197Au at 44 MeV/nucleon. In an effort to add to the database of information pertaining to intermediate energy fragmentation performed with intermediate mass projectiles, two experiments were carried out at the NSCL; one involved the fragmentation of neutron-rich 86Kr + 27A1 at 70 MeV/nucleon, and a second experiment with proton-rich 78Kr + 58Ni at 75 MeV/nucleon. 1.2 Purpose of the present work The primary goal of the present work was to gain a greater understanding of projectile-like fragmentation in the intermediate energy regime, however, each experiment had specific individual goals. For the fragmentation of the neutron-rich 86Kr +27A1 system, the cross sections and parallel momentum distributions were measured for many nuclei near the beam mass, and the momentum dependence of the fragmentation products was closely explored — most notably for nucleon pick-up products which occur rarely at high energies. A parametrization was developed to explain the momentum shift observed for fragmentation products that acquired as many as three additional protons in the process. The results of the pick-up process data will be compared to previous experiments which involved neutron pick-up [sou92]. The data from this experiment will also be compared to previous neutron-rich krypton fragmentation experiments which were performed at both higher and lower energies and with the predictions of the ISApace model and the EPAX parametrization. Fragmentation of the proton-rich 78Kr + 5 8N i system at 75 MeV/nucleon was performed in an effort to provide further information on the stability of nuclei along the 7 path of the rapid-proton capture process (rp-process). The rp-process was first proposed by Wallace and Woosley [wa181] who showed that heavy isotopes (up to A=100) could be produced in astrophysical processes in which high temperatures and densities exist, such as supernova shock waves, novae, and x-ray bursts [wor94, cha92]. The rp-process proceeds via a sequence of proton capture and [3+ decays near and sometimes along the proton drip line. Particle stability and half-lives are important in determining the rate and actual path of the rp-process since it occurs during explosive processes in short time periods (~ 10 - 100 5). When the rp-process path must pass through isotopes with long [3* half-lives, the rp—process will be slowed or terminated. Mass models [jan88] differ on predictions of the exact position of the proton drip line which prompted several experiments that looked for possible termination points of the rp-process [rob90, moh91]. In recent years the odd Z isotopes of 65As and 69Br have been investigated as the most likely termination points because the half-lives of 64Ge and 68Se, the proton capture targets, are thought to be longer than the time scale of the explosion that provides the proton flux. Evidence for the existence of 65As and 69Br (along with four other new isotopes) was first reported by Mohar et al. [moh91]. A subsequent experiment measured the half-life of several of the isotopes including 65As; however, 69Br was not observed [win93, he195]. A recent experiment at GANIL [bla95] reported five new isotopes (60Ga, 64As, 69’70Kr, and 74Sr) which extended the experimentally observed proton drip line, but no events were attributed to 69Br. The latter experiment had a flight path six times longer than the one performed by Mohar et al. [moh9l], indicating that 6S’Br was not stable or had a very short half life (< 100 us). To explore these possibilities the 78Kr fragmentation 8 experiment was performed such that it would be sensitive to nuclei with very short (~ 100 ns) half-lives. The present study of the proton-drip line nuclei also involved the measurement of production cross sections of many proton-rich isotopes. The data from both the 78Kr and 86Kr fragmentation data allowed a parallel investigation of the so-called “memory” effect [chu71] by comparison of the 78Kr to the 86Kr results. The memory effect deals with the fact that fragments close to the mass of the projectile can “remember” the N/Z ratio of the projectile. Prefragments with (very) high excitation energies are likely to produce final products along a ridge parallel to the valley of B stability (e.g. Stephan et al. [ste91]) due to evaporation of many nucleons. The final observed fragments that are far in mass from the projectile will have no “memory” of the N/Z ratio of the projectile. Prefragments that have low excitation energies will not lose many nucleons, will be much closer in mass to the original projectile, and have an N/Z ratio similar to the projectile. The memory effect parametrization is an attempt to describe the rate at which fragments will “forget” the N/Z of the projectile. Isotopic cross sections from fragmentation reactions involving members from both extremes of an isotopic chain can therefore provide crucial information on this influence of the projectile N/Z ratio on the fragment charge dispersion distribution (“memory effect”). Data from the experiment which utilized the very proton-rich 78Kr projectile (N/Z ~ 1.17) are compared to data from the fragmentation of the very neutron- rich krypton isotopes 86Kr (N/Z ~ 1.39) and an earlier experiment [ste9l] that involved fragmentation of 8"’Kr (N/Z ~ 1.33). 9 The subsequent chapters will present the results from the two intermediate energy fragmentation experiments which used proton- and neutron-rich krypton projectiles. The following subjects will be addressed in detail: isotopic cross sections for many projectile-like fragments influence of the use of a Gaussian fit on the isotopic momentum widths momentum shift parametrization developed for proton pick-up products possible termination points of the rapid proton capture process lifetime limitations placed on several proton drip-line nuclei memory effect parametrization for use in the intermediate energy/mass regime comparison of experimental data to the EPAX parametrization comparison of experimental data to calculations using the ISApace code. Chapter 2 Previous Research/Theory Projectile fragmentation has become a widely used technique for production of radioactive nuclear beams (RNB’s) at many facilities [mue93]. In the past decade, new fragment separators have been constructed at Gesellschaft fiir Schwerionenforschung mbH (GSI), The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN), Grand Accélérateur National d’Ions Lourds (GANIL), and here at the NSCL [arm87, n0189, she91] in an effort to take advantage of the technique of projectile fragmentation. 100 _I I I I I I I I , o '1 E 80 i RNB Experiments 5'"; ' i: _ :8: — 3 ’ fit", ‘ > ---’ '80 J 9 60 — €25 — a . § . < m u— ' 1 o t . ‘a’ 40 -- - 8 I 3 C i . n. . '1 . 2o — E" — .. E. . . m . 0 "I .— l I I I I I l “ 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 N SCL PAC Meeting FIGURE 2.1: Bar chart showing importance of in RNB experiments at the NSCL. 10 11 Figure 2.1 shows the rapid increase in the percentage of beam time used at the NSCL for RNB research over the past several years and therefore the need for a good understanding of the isotopic production cross sections from various beam and target combinations which will be employed to produce the fragments of interest. Two techniques are primarily used to predict the cross sections for intermediate and high energy reactions, the EPAX parametrization and an intranuclear cascade (INC) calculation (ISApace is currently a widely used INC code combined with an evaporation code). This chapter will introduce much of the background material which led to the development of the techniques and some recent research which inspired the present work to be performed. The basics of the EPAX parametrization will be discussed in Section 2.1, and Section 2.2 will do the same for the ISApace model. In Section 2.3 a recap will be given for some of the previous research which was performed using krypton projectiles at a variety of energies in an effort to study both projectile fragmentation and limits of isotopic stability important to the rp—process. 2.1 Applicable Systematics After more than two decades of target fragmentation experiments and a rising use of projectile fragmentation to produce exotic isotopes, parametrizations were needed which could describe three basic observables (the momentum width, longitudinal momentum, and the yield of the fragments) for any target/projectile reaction so that predictions could be made for future experimentation. In 1989 the “Morrissey systematics” [mor89] included a parametrization of the momentum width and momentum transfer of fragmentation products. It was shown that the formalism was applicable to both target and projectile fragmentation which it should be — since the reactions are equivalent 2000 I I I I j Y r I T l T fl ‘I . . l : ° ° 0 o : ’8 l—- o 0 30 S 1500 o o 0 o o ”0% _. E " .. ‘ v F' o 0 .. E 1000 I— 3, #33, 00 -- l- 8 ° 0 -I m l- 0 0° - . 8° . D o d 500 - o —I . °° o .. I- 0 It .. J o l l I l l 1 l j_ l .l .1 0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 x/ZK FIGURE 2.2: A plot used to determine a parametrization for the momentum width from both target and projectile fragmentation residues. . I . . f I 4 o 400 — . .- fo‘ . g :c .0 i \ o t. . ! '.l o ooo o E . Ila. I ‘A ‘o o o o 0 Q; 200 _ 9 .. . . 0‘ ' I ’ o .o o $ .' d o O t . . 1 l l I I 1 l 1 0 25 50 AA FIGURE 2.3: The plot used to determine the parametrization for the momentum shift that fragments undergo during both target and projectile fragmentation. 13 in different rest frames. Morrissey considered three different mechanisms for the production of both target and projectile residue and showed (using conservation of momentum) that the momentum width could be written as o" = (50-4/ij (21} where AA = Ainitial - Aobserved’ 0'0 is a constant, and the parallel momentum width is given by a". Figure 2.2 shows a fit using a variation of Eq. 2.1 (where Prms = J3 - a") to a collection of high energy data (both projectile and target fragmentation) available at that time and it yields a value of 0'0 ~ 90 MeV/c which reproduces the data relatively well. The longitudinal momentum transfer (for target fragmentation) was presented by Morrissey as
= mmg (MeV/c)
Mass Number
FIGURE 2.19: The momentum shift for the fragments near the mass of the projectile
during high energy krypton fragmentation.
Mass Number (A)
FIGURE 2.20: Cross sections for the reaction products resulting from high energy
fragmentation of 86Kr + 9Be at 500 MeV/nucleon.
41
2.3.4 Rapid-Proton Capture Process
The rapid proton capture process (rp-process) was first proposed by Wallace and
Woosley [wa181] as an extension to the well studied carbon-nitrogen-oxygen (CNO) and
the hot carbon-nitrogen-oxygen (HCNO) processes [cha92, wor94]. These processes are
shown diagrammatically in Figure 2.21. During the myriad of astrophysical events (novae,
supernovae, x-ray bursts, Thome-Zytkow objects, etc.) which can occur, a wide variety of
temperatures and densities can be present. A large amount of research has been performed
(both experimentally and theoretically) to explore the binding energies, half-lives, and
reaction cross sections for the isotopes involved in the CNO and HCNO processes.
Detailed calculations of the reaction networks for these relatively low temperature and low
density processes have been carried out. When the temperature and density increases, the
HCNO cycle can break free from its cyclical behavior and begin to increase to higher
masses through the key reaction 15O(oz,'y)19Ne(p,'y)20Na. The path that the rp-process
follows (rp-path) from this point onward shows tremendous differences depending on the
temperature and density present at the time and the overall burning time of the
astrophysical process. Several predicted paths for various burning conditions are shown in
Figure 2.22 for which the calculations were carried out for Z S 36 [wor94].
During conditions of high density and high temperature, a large amount of
uncertainty is introduced to the rp-path due to stability and half-life issues pertaining to
nuclei on or near the proton drip-line. In this temperature/density regime, the rp—process
consists of a sequence of proton captures that occur until the point at which the proton drip
line is reached and the nucleus will then B-decay, and the sequence will continue. The rp-
process near possible termination points as was proposed by Wallace and Woosley is
42
F K W \
G 9
9-]
ll
.0
N
I
I
I
I
I
I E
I
I
I
I
K CNO cycle J ;.
\ HCNO cycle /
FIGURE 2.2]: The CNO and HCNO cycles.
shown in Figure 2.23. This process is “terminated” when the B-decay half-life of a nucleus
along the path is significantly longer than the burning time of the astrophysical event or
proton capture leads to an unstable species. In recent years the search for the possible
termination points has concentrated on 65As, 6SiBr, and 73Rb. The isotope of 73Rb is
generally considered to be proton unstable (S1) = - 590 i 270 keV), but the stability of 65As
(Sp = - 70 :I: 250 keV) and 69Br (S1) = - 180 :1: 300 keV) is questionable as can be seen from
the proton separation energies (using data from the most recent nuclear mass tables
[aud93]). A large amount of research was conducted to search for proton dominant decay
of 65As and 6931‘, but no evidence for this was observed [rob90, win93].
43
T9= 0.3
p = lOag/cma
24 26 28
22
2 Ho
H
O 2
N———)
'r,- L5
p - Io‘sgxcm3
24 2. 2.
FIGURE 2.22: Proposed rp-paths for varied temperature and density conditions.
‘ .cs.) ~.,'..’. .- .
I“ \. p, “‘4
| in... 6.5:", .( v. 9697;?!) ,I' V .- 223.3
:1. 5:": .5. 1: $143.» l..\ .2 \‘v/
I :0. . 4v. >.< > we or .6 .z-z;
{.z .-: :39, ”inf: .Q'er»: 5% r .A‘
' .1 x :9". 49.».
{we
N 68 69 71°}
565 66 69
64 68
1.9....- 1‘15. cur."
‘ , ,_ ¢._,;§:§;;.§:;t .;.‘.y2,.5$:-’:""
. 2::- ~ 2?" ' 66 67
6‘ ’ 6 I , 2- . «:4: r, .
. '. ~ . .ux- -
' .A .. . .
_ 64 Ga
Zn
: 56
55
54 55 [5g 57 .Ni
FIGURE 2.23: Proposed path of the rp-process for the region applicable to the present
research.
45
In one of the first experiments performed with the A1200 [she9l], Mohar et al.
[moh9l] saw the first evidence for many new nuclei along the proton-drip line which were
important for information related to the rp-process. The experiment provided clear
evidence for the existence of 65As, along with several possible events which could be
attributed to 69Br (see Figure 2.24 where first observed nuclei are indicated by arrows). No
evidence for 73Rb was seen, and it was concluded that 72Kr was the termination point for
the rp-process. In a subsequent experiment [win93] an attempt was made to measure the
half-lives for many of the nuclei first observed nuclei by Mohar et al. [moh91] and the
measurements allowed determination of the half-lives of 61Ga, 63Ge, and 65As which
provided vital information for the theoretical network calculations used in determining
105 105
B 104 104 Ge
C: 103 103
g 103 102
U 101 1o1 \7
“510° w°|flm1|1|
59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67
E 105
r-Q 104
E 104 As 3 Br
:3 103 10
102
Z 102
101 <7 101 {7
1°° In] I l l J 1°° l l L Ll
63 64 65 66 67 68 69 7o 67 66 69 7o 71 72 73 74
Mass Number
FIGURE 2.24: Isotopic yields resulting from 78Kr + 58Ni at 65 MeV/nucleon.
46
outcomes of the astrophysical processes. However, no evidence for 69Br was obtained
during this experiment. An experiment recently performed at GANIL [bla95] further
extended the known limits of the proton-drip line in an attempt to study the nuclei along
the rp-path. Fragmentation of 78Kr + Ni at 73 MeV/nucleon was employed in an effort to
maximize the possible rate of 69Br. The yield for various isotopes is shown in Figure 2.25,
and it is apparent that no evidence for the existence of 69Br was observed. A limitation was
placed on the possible half-life for 69Br in this experiment which had a flight path over six
times the length of the one performed by Mohar et al. and it was pointed out that this
could be an indication of a very short half-life of 69Br. Since the stability of 69Br is critical
to the understanding of the rp-process, the present work was carried out with a relatively
short flight path and also mapped the momentum distributions and measured the cross
sections of the isotopes produced in the reaction 78Kr + 58Ni in which evidence of 69Br
was first observed.
10l :- l
Counts
Proton Number (Z)
FIGURE 2.25: Yield from the fragmentation of 78Kr + Ni at 73 MeV/nucleon.
47
In an effort to gain a greater understanding of the processes occurring during
intermediate energy projectile fragmentation, to explore possible termination points of the
rp-process, and to determine the applicability of high energy calculations to the
intermediate energy regime two experiments were performed which involved the
fragmentation of both neutron- and proton-rich krypton nuclei. The experimental
procedure and set-up are described in the next chapter and are followed in subsequent
chapters by the results that were obtained.
Chapter 3
Experimental Apparatus and Analysis
3.1 The A1200 Fragment Separator
The measurements were performed at the National Superconducting Cyclotron
Laboratory using a ~ 0.1 pnA 86Kr beam at 70 MeV/nucleon delivered by the K1200
cyclotron for the neutron-rich fragmentation and a ~ 45 ppA 78Kr beam at 75 MeV/
nucleon for the proton-rich fragmentation. The beam was incident on a 4 mg/cm2 27Al
target placed at the medium acceptance target position of the A1200 mass separator
[she9l] in the former experiment and a 102 mg/cm2 58Ni target in the latter. The angular
acceptance for fragments was A6 = 34 mrad and MI = 30 mrad centered around 0° in the
86Kr fragmentation experiment and the acceptance for fragments was A6 = 20 mrad and
A4) = 40 mrad centered around 0° for the 78Kr fragmentation. The momentum acceptance
for both experiments was Ap/p = 3%. The thickness of the target in the 86Kr fragmentation
experiment was chosen to limit the broadening of the fragment momentum distributions
induced by energy and angular straggling in the target, rather than to optimize the
production rate of specific fragments. This enabled a detailed study of the isotopic parallel
momentum distributions. The target for the 78Kr fragmentation was chosen to optimize the
production rate for the bromine isotopes in an effort to explore the mass region relevant to
possible termination points of the rp-process thoroughly. In both experiments, the
48
49
magnetic rigidity of the separator was varied in overlapping steps of 2% covering a range
that would allow identification of a wide variety of isotopes in the regions of interest (Bp =
2.40 to 2.85 Tm for 86Kr fragmentation and Bo = 2.27 to 2.49 Tm for the 78Kr
fragmentation). Four beam monitor detectors mounted around the target position in a
Cloverleaf pattern enabled normalization of the beam current for data taken at different
rigidity settings.
3.2 Detector Setup
The two fragmentation experiments used similar detector setups as is shown in
Figure 3.1. In order to measure possible short halflives during the 78Kr fragmentation
experiment, a second silicon telescope was placed 7.5 m downstream of the Final
Achromatic Image position (not shown in figure). For isotopes with a half life on the order
of 100 us, a reduced isotopic count rate would be observed in the second silicon telescope
relative to the first due to the decay that would occur over the final 7.5 m of additional
flight path.
For the 8‘SKr fragmentation experiment, the velocity of each particle was
determined from the time-of-flight (TOF) measured between two 8 mg/cm2 plastic
scintillators separated by a 14 m flight path. The timing scintillators were located at the
Dispersive Image #1 and the focal plane of the A1200. During the 78Kr fragmentation
experiment the TOF of the reaction products was measured between an 8 mg/cm2 plastic
scintillator (located at Dispersive Image #1) and the front—most detector of either silicon
telescope (flight path of 14 m or 21.5 m) through the use of a time pick-off signal. The
position and angle of reaction products were measured at both the second dispersive image
and at the focal plane with two pairs of X-Y position sensitive parallel plate avalanche
50
Dispersive Image #1 Final
Achromatic
Target Position Dispersive Image #2 Image
/‘3 .....
o”
\ Detecwr '
krypton beam Stop Time 2 PPACs " 2 PPACs
from K1200 X,,Yl,0,¢ TOF Detector
Cyclotron Si Telescope
X..Y2,AE.B...
Start Time
FIGURE 3.1: A schematic diagram of the A1200 fragment separator.
counters (PPAC's) [swa94] separated by approximately 40 cm. For each particle, the
position information at the second dispersive image PPAC was used together with NMR
measurements of the A1200 dipole fields to determine its magnetic rigidity Bp, which is
linearly related to the particle momentum via the equation
B :2, 3.1
P q ()
where q is the particle charge. Reaction products reaching the focal plane were implanted
into a four-element silicon detector telescope, consisting of two 300 um AE detectors
followed by two 1000 pm thick E detectors in the 86Kr experiment (the 78Kr experiment
was composed of detectors with thicknesses of 100 um, 75 pm, 500 um, and 1000 um).
All silicon telescope detectors had an active area of 300 m2.
51
3.3 Electronic Setup
Both fragmentation experiments were performed with a standardized A1200
electronics configuration. A schematic diagram of the electronic modules is shown in
Figure 3.2. The TOF was measured with a TAC between the timing scintillator at Image
#1 and the timing detector located in the focal plane (either a second timing scintillator or
the first silicon detector time pick-off). The four signals (left, right, up, and down) from
each PPAC were read by ADC’s. The energy signals from the silicon detectors were sent to
ADC’s and the time signal from the front most silicon detector was read by a TDC. The
master gate was constructed using valid signals from the two AE detectors and a NOT
BUSY CPU signal. Additional software gating insured that each energy signal had a valid
PPAC signal by checking the validity of BIT 2 and BIT 3. A total of 30 detector events
were recorded for every valid master gate. The data acquisition system (both hardware and
software) that was used to read the ADC’s, TDC’s, QDC’s, and write the data to tape was
the standard NSCL data acquisition system [fox89].
3.4 Isotopic Identification
By transporting charge states of the primary beam through the A1200 at different
rigidity settings the relationship between the magnetic rigidity and the horizontal position
at the second dispersive image was calibrated. An example of this can be seen in
Figure 3.3. The momentum for each of the primary beam charge states is then determined
through the use of Eq. 3.1. Using the momentum of the charge states, an energy
calibration for each silicon detector is initially determined by comparing the ADC channel
for the silicon detector to the amount of energy that should have been deposited in the
detector (through the use of the formalism found in Hubert et al. [hub89]). The total
52
a: :22: V. sew
‘ F FAN +—— TAC srop
D OUT — TPC
BIT]
PPAC SA ADC
DOWN "A g SCALER
D we
PPAC SA ADC
UP WA g SCALER
D we
PPAC SA —"""— ADC
RIGHT TFA r— C SC ALER
F
D TDC
BIT 2 (Dispersive Image)
PPAC sA , ADC g >— BIT 3 (Focal Plane)
LEFT WA g SCALER
D TDC
A51 AMP c SCALER
FAST TDC
F
W D TAC START
SCALER SCALER
FAN
m ma SA _ ADC g cm F B" 4 [mo START (COMMON)
—I C _
AMP Fm _ F __ sew N m, STOP (COMMON)
AMP D _ 'I'DC CPU D om ADC STROBE
TAC sum 31%; @— ooc moss
m: SA ADC MASTER —@— BIT STROBE
[E'— AMP fl 'I‘FA ——'c‘ GATE
5 — SCALER
P_
52 PRE SA —"”— ADC
AMP WA C
F SCALER
D
\ C SCALER
CY CLgAI'RON I TDC
D TAC
FIGURE 3.2: A schematic diagram of the electronic setup that was used during the
fragmentation experiments.
53
p vs x for PPACO 73Kr fragmentation
3.16 I I I r1 II II I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I r11 1 I
C o q
f 4
3.14 - o 1
A 3.12 - O _
é . O .
Q . I
3.10 - _
n o ..
3.08 — O _
3.06 _I I I I I [J I_LIJ I I I [I I LII I I 1_Ll I I I 1.
1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000
PPACO x channel
FIGURE 3.3: Turning radius vs. horizontal position for PPACO at Dispersive Image
#2 that was observed during the7 8Kr fragmentation experiment.
kinetic energy is then determined by summing the energy loss in all four silicon detectors.
Using the obtained values of AE, total kinetic energy, TOF, and magnetic rigidity, it is
possible to determine unambiguously the mass (A), proton number (Z), and charge state
(Q) of individual isotopes using standard relationships:
z = a+b./AE(7— 1) (3.2)
_3__.105 (T In). TKE Bp (3 3)
=931.5 MeV Bp(y—l) '
_ Q39 1
A 3.10587 T m (3'4)
where a and b are constants determined for each detector, TKE is the total kinetic energy
with dimensions of MeV, and Bo is the magnetic rigidity with dimensions of Tesla-meter,
and B and 7 are the standard relativistic parameters ([3 = v/c and y = l/A/l -—BZ)
54
11‘.
N
l |
D)
O\
SI
.. 3g. ‘fi:§:.%fi;..u;}*A 3,3. ..,__ 1w '
energy loss (arb. units)
‘7
fl.
\I
time of flight (arb. units)
FIGURE 3.4: A plot of AE vs. TOF observed during the reaction 78Kr + 58Ni. The
arrow indicates the “gap” where 69Br should be observed.
55
8m : Y 1' I V I Y Y I I I W I I I V V I V V Y I T 1 V I V V I 1 -fi' Y I I I V I Y—r I V Y 1 I d
700 3 AEl Calibration i 8002 A132 Calibration :
600 :— -: - «
.- q )- d
A : : 1 a
z, 500 :— ‘5 E 600 e ‘1
E 400: Y=I+bx+cx2 _L‘ a : Y=a+brt+crt2 j
m E a 9.5623 3 m - a -11.922 -
300 :~ -: 40° : 1
: b 0.51048 : _ b 0.50777
200 I— c 655716—06-2 200 -_ c -5.368e-06 _.
100 ; 11’ 0.99993 5 : 111 0.99997 1
0 : I 1 l I l L l I l l l l l l I l l l l l l l l l l A I l l l : 0 I. l l I l J. l l l l L L 1 1 l J J l I l d
0 400 800 1200 1600 0 500 1000 1500 2000
ADC Channel ADC Channel
m III I I I W T T—I I T—r T I Y T Y—FT‘T T W T r7 I V I 1: 1m p Y I I I I I I I I V V I I V I I I V d
.. 1- -4
3500 :— E1 Calibration E 12001 E2 Calibration j
Z I ~ 4
3000 E 5 1000 g 1
2500 I- ‘3 5‘ C 3
g E Y=11+bit+cx2 E g 800 T Y=I+bx+cx2 "I
2000 T '1 v C - I
: a 319.62 : m 600 __ a 13212 _
m 1500 r b 1.109 1 b 0.32653 3
1000 3 c 458266-06 5 400 E“ c 290486-06 1
5_ R2 0.99776 j _ RI 0.99872 _‘
500 : 200 _ 1
0 : l l I I l I l l l I l l I J l I I l l l l l I l l l l l l l I l l L: {J L l l l l l_l_l l l l l l l l L l l l I l l -
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
ADC Channel ADC Channel
,,,,
134 — TOF Calibration -
. Y=a+bx+cx2 .
132 L a 173.54 _‘
”g I b 0.029772 2
g 130:. c 4.58% .:
r— E 111 0.99492 I
4
128 - 4
126*- ‘-
FL I l l l l l 1 l l l l 1 l I I l l l l l I l I] 1 1 1-
1000 1050 1100 1150 1200 1250 1300
TDCChannel
FIGURE 3.5: Energy and time calibrations for the detectors during the 8‘SKr
fragmentation experiment.
56
determined from the TOF of the fragment. The two AE measurements provided redundant
proton number (Z) determinations. The Z calibration was done using the 2-dimensional
AE vs. TOF data for a given magnetic rigidity. A sample AE vs. TOF plot in which the
magnetic field was optimized to observe 69Br is shown in Figure 3.4. The figure indicates
the N=Z line and the krypton isotopic line. By selectively gating on a wide variety of
isotopes in the AE vs. TOF plot, it is possible to obtain good energy and time calibrations
which span the range of the observed data. Energy and time calibrations for the 86Kr
experiment are shown in Figure 3.5.
The charge of each particle is then determined with Eq. 3.3. The good charge
resolution enabled an integer value of Q to be used when determining the mass number
(A) with Eq. 3.4. Using these equations, the present measurements had resolutions
(FWHM) of AA ~ 0.004, AZ ~ 0.01, and AQ ~ 0.01 (shown in Figure 3.6), which allowed
clear separation of all the fragments. With the AZ, and Q of each event determined, it
became possible to explore the momentum distributions and cross sections of the
fragmentation products.
3.5 Parallel Momentum Distributions
Given the number of events for each individual isotope at a given magnetic rigidity
(which corresponds to a particular momentum through the use of Eq. 3.1), a figure
consisting of the number of events (or events/sec) plotted against the momentum of the
individual particle is constructed. The number of events at the individual rigidity settings
were normalized relative to each other with the information provided by the beam monitor
Yield (a.u.) Yield (a.u.)
Yield (a.u.)
FIGURE 3.6:
L
d
-
_
—
d
_—
c4
—1
-
—
—
‘
c-I
-1
-
150
100
Illllllllllll
50
llllllllllllllllll
Lilli
.1 . . .Ulllil
5O 60 70
Atomic Mass (A)
on
O
llllllTTllllllllllll
1 00
5O
1 |1111l1111l
20 25 30 35
Atomic Number (Z)
500
rTllIlllllllllTlllll
llllw
20 5 30
Atomic Charge (Q)
100
50
l Illlllll lllllllll IIIL
llllljlll lllllllll l 11F
The AZ, and Q resolution obtained in the 86Kr fragmentation
experiment.
58
5 I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I T I I I I
0- I l 1 l 1 .
" 86K _ .4
_ r + A1, E—70 MeV/nucleon . _
r ,i‘K 7
40 F- ‘ 1 '—
. . . - ' -l
“U _ Gaussran fits usmg ‘ _
c: ~ . 4
8 _ various cut—off .. . J
30— -. . _
3’, _ percentages '1. -
\ _ 1. .
(I) _ O z ............ , - .
:1 20— 50 z .- ; —
o » : - -
U 1- 80 7O ————— '. -.
_ 9 -
_ 100 7a ‘ """" .- .
10— _
L .
— I . .1
1- / .I -
0 "1"11'1’ 1 l 1 J 1 1 l 1
320 330 340 350 360 370 380
p/ A (MeV/C)
FIGURE 3.7: The momentum distribution of 80Br35+ with varied Gaussian fits. The
arrow indicates the projectile momentum.
detectors. Since the particle momentum is parallel to the momentum of the projectile this
type of figure provides the parallel momentum distribution for each individual isotope (as
an example, parallel momentum distribution for 80Br35+ is shown in Figure 3.7).
The parallel momentum distribution of each isotope was fitted with a Gaussian
function from which the parallel momentum width and the mean momentum transfer were
obtained. The isotopic yield was extracted by integrating the Gaussian fit over momentum
space, however, the projectile-like fragment momentum distributions at this energy are
generally asymmetric, with a tail on the low-momentum side of the momentum
distribution. The effect of this asymmetry on the present data was explored through the use
of “cut-off percentages” on the low-momentum side of the distributions. For the 86Kr
experiment the Gaussian functions were fitted to the data with a least-squares technique
59
from varying percentages of the peak height on the low momentum side to the end of the
high momentum side of the distribution. A typical momentum distribution from the 86Kr
data is shown in Figure 3.7 along with Gaussian fits done with varying cut-off percentages
on the low momentum side of the distribution. The figure indicates that the width of the
distribution becomes narrower as the cut-off increases toward the top of the peak. Previous
papers have used a variety of cut-off percentages during the data analysis and there is no
standardized percentage that is typically used. The 50% cut was selected as the best
representation of the 86Kr data for subsequent discussion, and the errors introduced by the
varied cut-off percentages will be discussed along with the results. The 78Kr experiment
was performed with a relatively thick target and the momentum distributions were far
more Gaussian in shape than was the case for the 86Kr data. The choice of cut-off
percentage for the 78Kr data did not have a noticeable effect on the fits, and no cut-off was
applied to the low momentum side of the 78Kr data.
After determining a Gaussian fit for each isotope, the momentum shift was
obtained by comparing the centroid of the Gaussian fit in momentum space to the
momentum of the primary beam (indicated by the arrow in Figure 3.7).
The cross section for each isotope was determined by integrating the Gaussian fit
over momentum space to obtain the total yield for each individual isotope. The beam
current measurement (from the four beam monitor detectors and a measurement made
periodically with a Faraday cup inserted at the entrance of the A1200) provided
information about the total number of projectile particles incident upon the target. After
correcting the isotopic yield of each element for the acceptance of the A1200 fragment
separator, the cross section was then determined from standard formulae.
Chapter 4
Results and Discussion
4.1 Fragmentation of 86Kr Projectiles
4.1.1 Momentum Widths
In the Goldhaber model [gol74], the removal of independent nucleons from the
projectile results in a Gaussian momentum distribution. The width of this distribution is
given by the expression
(4.1)
where AF is the fragment mass, Ap is the projectile mass, and 0'0 is a reduced width related
2
Fermi
to the Fermi momenta of the individual nucleons (0'02 = p /5 ). This model
reproduces the parallel momentum distribution widths of the PLF’s relatively well for high
energy fragmentation, and for light ion fragmentation at intermediate energies [gol74].
However, the experimental value of 60 is typically found to be smaller than the values
predicted using known Fermi momenta. Several arguments have been presented to explain
the observed narrowing of the width. One possibility is that Pauli exclusion effects could
lead to a decreased width [ber81], while another argument [web94] points out the fact that
the width predicted by the Goldhaber model is relevant to the prefragments - not the final
60
61
P TT""I""I""|"‘
600:- “Kr + A], 13:70 MeV/nucleon .—
3 _
> 400
o
E
9‘:
b -
200 _
q
I
O
70 75 80 85
Mass Number (A)
FIGURE 4.1: Parallel momentum distribution widths for isotopes observed during
the fragmentation of 86Kr.
observed fragments. The prefragments will undergo a particle evaporation step leading to
mass loss but little increase in momentum width (given isotropic evaporation), thereby
yielding momentum widths smaller than expected. The present measured values of the
parallel momentum widths in the projectile rest frame are shown in Figure 4.1 (error bars
represent the statistical error added in quadrature with the uncertainty due to cuts on the
tail of the momentum distributions). The best fit to our data using the Goldhaber model
with 00 = 124 MeV/c is indicated by the solid line. By interpolating results obtained in a
quasi—elastic electron scattering measurement [mon71], we obtain a value of pFemi = 260
MeV/c for 86Kr which translates into a 0'0 ~ 116 MeV/c. Also shown in Figure 4.1 are the
results from calculations with the ISApace code [fau92] fit with the Goldhaber model
(dotted line). This approach yields a reduced width of 0'0 ~ 100 MeV/c which is also
62
:I :.I IleTTlIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII:
140— -—
’8 r— -1
\ :EJ :
>
a.) 120— _
2 Z Z
V
O : l :
b 100_—‘ o _
I 0 :
BO-IIIIIIIIJJIIIIIILJIIII lllllll-
o 100 200 300 400 500 600
Projectile energy (MeV/nucleon)
FIGURE 4.2: Parallel momentum width from recent krypton fragmentation
experiments.
smaller than the value obtained with our data. The dot-dash line in Figure 4.1 shows a
calculation based on the systematics of Morrissey [mor89] that were obtained from
parametrization of high energy fragmentation data. The parallel momentum width in this
parametrization is given by
G" = const ’ «1AA (4.2)
where AA = AP - AF and the constant is generally between 85 - 100 MeV/c. The best fit to
our data requires a constant of 120 MeV/c, which is again larger than the typical value
determined from high energy fragmentation. Values of the reduced width obtained from
other experiments involving krypton fragmentation at various energies [web94, ste9l,
baz90] are summarized in Figure 4.2. The values of the reduced width for both the 200
MeV/nucleon and 500 MeV/nucleon data were obtained by applying a best fit with the
Goldhaber model while limiting the fit to the fragment range covered in the present work.
The experiments performed at higher energies (84K: at 200 MeV/A [ste91] and 86Kr at
500 MeV/A [web94]) have best fit values of 00 ~ 100 MeV/c and 0'0 ~ 90 MeV/c,
63
72Ge31+ momentum distribution shown in
respectively. After applying a 50% cut to the
Figure 4 of Bazin et al. [baz90] a value of 00 ~ 130 MeV/c is estimated for the 44 MeV/
nucleon 86Kr + 27A] data. Applying an 80% cut to the low energy side of the momentum
distribution yields a value of 0'0 ~ 105 MeV/c. Figure 4.2 shows that the reduced width
observed during heavy-ion fragmentation exhibits a definite broadening as the projectile
energy is lowered into the intermediate energy regime. This is in contrast to fragmentation
involving light and intermediate mass projectiles where the general trend shows a
relatively constant reduced width until the intermediate energy range is reached, where the
reduced width begins to decrease smoothly [mur83].
The large parallel momentum distribution widths observed in the present data are
probably due to the coexistence of competing reaction mechanisms in the intermediate
energy regime. Apart from the ‘pure’ fragmentation component (that completely
dominates at higher energies), both the low-energy tail typical of more dissipative
processes [got91] and the broadening associated with nucleon pick-up reactions during the
formation of the prefragment [sou92] will increase the distribution width. The value of 00
~ 124 MeV/c was obtained with a cut-off at 50% of the peak height on the low momentum
side of the momentum distribution. It should be noted that as the momentum distributions
begin showing tails on the low momentum side for experiments performed in the
intermediate and low energy regimes, various assumptions have to be made about the
effect of the low energy tail. Qualitative decisions have been made on how much of the tail
to include and this, of course, can lead to different interpretations of data. In the present
data, Gaussian fits including the entire tail yield a value of 60 ~ 130 MeV/c while placing
the cut-off at 80% of the peak height yields a value of 60 ~ 115 MeV/c. Performing a fit
64
exclusively with the high energy side of the momentum distribution (i.e. a 100% cut-off)
yields a value of 0'0 ~ 105 MeV/c, although the fit is rather qualitative (see Figure 3.7).
4.1.2 Momentum Transfer
Morrissey [mor89] has defined average parallel momentum transfer (PI’I) as the
product of the projectile mass, the average measured velocity of the fragment B" , and a
kinematic factor of Bay/(7+1), and has shown that a linear relationship exists between
(PII) and the product of the total number of nucleons removed from the projectile AA,
with a slope parameter of 8 MeV/c (see Section 2.1). This dependence was derived from
high energy fragmentation data. The average parallel momentum transfer (Pfi) for the
individual elements is shown in Figure 4.3 together with the results of a calculation with
the ISApace code [fau92] (denoted by asterisks) which shows good agreement with the
present data. The statistical error is smaller than the plotted points. Changing the Gaussian
fit cut-off percentage on the momentum tail has a relatively small effect on the
determination of the parallel momentum transfer, introducing an uncertainty of ~ 2% (the
shift of the Gaussian centroid can be seen in Figure 3.7) which was added in quadrature to
the statistical uncertainty. The solid lines in Figure 4.3 are the result of a linear fit to all the
fragment data with Z S 36. The resulting slope parameter of 8.8 MeV/c (represented by
solid lines) is in good agreement with the overall trend of the fragmentation products (Z S
36), while the pick-up products differ significantly from this trend. Recent measurements
[ste9l] at an energy of 200 MeV/nucleon have a similar slope for the overall fit to the
fragmentation products while the slopes of the individual elements exhibit deviations from
this trend. As is evident from Figure 4.3, the slopes of the individual fragmentation
elements (2 S 36) are slightly steeper than the 8.8 MeV/c average slope, where linear best-
65
.coo_o::\>02 on
“a :ouSBEwfim £8 mats“. 33030 ficoEmab ammo—noonoa 05 com $2 $2: .m> 8.35: 835802 and. EDGE
Aralafi mmoq mmoz
ma OH 0 O ma Ow m. C
I q . _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ a _ 1 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 14 fl . 1 _ 1 O
I II I
Ul IHI O '1. on
H “H as 1|.
H H” s. H
.“I V.“ . IMWI s7 21 I“ OOH
n O | nu I n
.I . mmIN IT .. KIN I59
I II KN \ I
I z _ _ _ -r 3 fl _ _ -
I _ A, _ _ _ p _ _ _ _ L _ _ _ _ 1I _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ bL _ 1 O
I _ . _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ . _ a _ _ _ . 1I _ _ a _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ a a _ a _ _ 1 _
I II I
”I n .I.I1.MI v.0 I.Ul on >
H a... HH 3 u d
ml I [HI a.” 3 IN OOH .
I “a 11 mm 1 H
.l a mme LP. .m mmuN 1m on: <
u H 1 1:
H r P _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ p _ _ _ .1.“ F _ _ _ _ p _ _ f p _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ n O
H _ _ _ _ a _ _ _ _ _ _ a . _ 4 _ . nu _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ I _ _ _ fl 1 u N
u s , nu u on 9
I «Z s... I {s \.I
I I .\ * II II I
m smIN «1. R... m mmIN may m M
ul b \ 10 Ill \ \0 fi 03 O
I \ \ II \ \ I
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HI IIIHI O 111 Om;
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I _ _ p c _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 1I _ _ _ _ _ r _ e _ _ . _ F _ _ 1 O
I _ a _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 1 _ _ _ JJ 4 1
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66
fit slope parameters for the individual elements change monotonically as shown in
Table 4.1. This effect indicates that a larger excitation energy is required to produce the
proton-rich isotopes which then causes a greater downshift in momentum relative to the
neutron-rich isotopes. Recent data from krypton fragmentation at 500 MeV/nucleon
[web94] showed a very similar effect, with the slope parameters of the PLF’s being larger
than 8.8 MeV/c. However, the slope parameters in the high energy krypton fragmentation
[web94] increase strongly as the proton number decreased from Z = 36 (14 MeV/c) to Z =
30 (58 MeV/c). An increased slope parameter for individual elements was also observed in
xenon fragmentation at 790 MeV/nucleon [fri93] in which case the data yielded a slope of
~ 16 MeV/c for the near-projectile elements.
Table 4.1: Fitted slope parameters for individual elements from 86Kr fragmentation.
Proton number (Z) Slope Parameter
33 11.6 :1: 0.4
34 12.2 :1: 0.3
35 12.1 i 0.2
36 12.5 :t 0.2
37 10.7 :t 0.2
38 11.9 :I: 0.4
39 5.5 :1: 0.8
More interesting are the parallel momentum transfers of the charge pick-up
products which deviate significantly from those of the fragmentation products. The
formation of the pick-up products (in this case with Z > 36) is assumed to take place
during the initial prefragment formation when individual protons are acquired from the
target nucleus. The final observed fragment is then formed through neutron evaporation.
Another possible production mechanism is the excitation of a A—resonance that can
67
change the isospin of a projectile nucleon. However, the ISApace calculations indicate that
for 86Kr fragmentation at 70 MeV/nucleon this effect can account for no more than 0.5%
of the total charge pick-up products. Using momentum conservation arguments similar to
those used by Souliotis et al. [sou92], we can determine the momentum shift arising
purely from picking up protons. Initially the projectile has a momentum pp with a mass
number Ap and the proton in the target has a momentum of pt. After the collision the
prefragment has a momentum of ppp and a mass number of Ap + AAt where AAt is the
number of nucleons removed from the target. Assuming the evaporation is isotropic, the
average final fragment velocity (VF) will be identical to the average velocity of the
prefragment, and it can then be shown that the velocity shift due to picking up the target
nucleons is given by
AB = 1 . AA‘ [p ._(&)] (4.3)
" moc Ap-I-AAt Fem“ AP
which corresponds to a shift in the parallel momentum transfer of
’ AP bl Pp
P offset - AP + A A” + 1AA‘[(A—P)_ pt] (44)
where B and 'y are the relativistic parameters from the initial projectile velocity and
moc = 931.5 MeV/c. This offset is then added to the parallel momentum transfer yielding
a parametrization of the form
MeV
c
where the best-fit slope parameter of 8.8 MeV/c (the slope of the fragmentation products)
was held fixed. Fitting the present charge pick-up data to this parametrization and
adjusting the momentum of the picked-up proton(s), we obtain a value of pt ~ 220 MeV/c.
68
The results are shown with dashed lines in Figure 4.3. The value obtained for the proton
momentum indicates that the protons acquired during the pick-up process are moving
parallel to the projectile with approximately their maximum Fermi momentum. This effect
has previously been observed in reactions involving neutron pick-up [sou92].
4.1.3 Isotopic Cross Sections
The absolute cross sections for the Z = 33 (arsenic) through Z = 39 (yttrium)
isotopes were obtained by integrating the Gaussian fits of the parallel momentum
distributions over momentum space and are shown in Figure 4.4. The error bars indicate
the statistical uncertainty added in quadrature to the uncertainty due to altering the fitting
limits on the tail of the momentum distribution. Inclusion of the tail of the momentum
distribution increases the cross sections by ~ 8%. The absolute beam current was
~ 0.1 pnA, however, the overall normalization is only accurate within a factor of two. The
relative cross sections are much more precise than this. The absolute normalization
uncertainty is not included in the error bars. The solid histograms represent the calculated
cross sections from the ISApace model [fau92], which is considered to be valid between a
few hundred MeV/nucleon and a few GeV/nucleon. ISApace uses the Yariv-Fraenkel
ISABEL intranuclear cascade code [yar79] to model the prefragment formation step
followed by a modified PACE evaporation code [gav80] to calculate the deexcitation step.
The magnitudes and shapes of the predicted isotopic cross section distributions are in
remarkable agreement with the experimental data for the fragmentation products (Z S 36).
In contrast, the measured cross sections of the charge pick-up products are greater than
predicted by ISApace, and this difference grows as the number of acquired protons
increases (although the shapes of the distributions are reproduced rather well).
69
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Figure 4.4 also shows cross sections predicted from the semi-empirical
parametrization (EPAX) established by Siimmerer et al. [sum90] (dotted histograms).
Cross sections predicted by the EPAX code are generally higher than the observed cross
sections for the neutron-rich isotopes while the proton-rich isotopes are underpredicted.
This indicates that the evaporative step of the whole process contributes significantly to
the proton-rich side of the isotopic chains, as expected for high excitation energies in the
prefragments. Both ISApace and EPAX underpredict the cross sections of the charge pick-
up products indicating that, as expected, the high-energy models are not able to reproduce
the experimental data for the charge pick-up products.
The ISApace model has previously been used to predict the cross sections for 500
MeV/nucleon 86Kr fragmentation as discussed by Weber et al. [web94]. In this case, the
ISApace calculation predicted the cross sections fairly well, while the EPAX calculation
showed a similar underprediction for proton-rich nuclei and overprediction of the neutron-
rich nuclei that is observed for the current data at 70 MeV/nucleon. It was suggested that
the Gaussian shape of the charge dispersion used in the EPAX formula needs to be
modified in order to reproduce the data (see Eq. 2.4).
4.2 Fragmentation of 78Kr Projectiles
The parallel momentum distributions of a number of reaction products were
monitored on-line and fitted with a Gaussian function. The centroid values were then used
to identify the most appropriate magnetic rigidity setting for the observation of 69Br. The
centroids (in terms of magnetic rigidity) for the isotopes covering Z = 24 to 38 are shown
in Figure 4.5 where the horizontal dashed lines show the range of magnetic rigidity
covered during this experiment. The general trends exhibited by the reaction products and
71
2-55 P I I V Y I 1 1 r r I r r r ‘r T .
2.50 L _‘
I.
2.45
2.40
Bp (Tesla—meter)
2.35
2.30
2.25 h I I I I I I I I I I I I I I 1
Atomic Mass
FIGURE 4.5: Centroids of parallel momentum distributions for isotopes observed
during projectile fragmentation of 78Kr + 58Ni at 75 MeV/nucleon.
in particular that of the bromine isotopes, show that this rigidity range would have
permitted the observation of 6S’Br if it were stable.
4.2.1 Isotopic Cross Sections
Figure 4.6 shows the mass spectra for isotopes with atomic numbers 30 5 Z S 38
obtained at a fixed magnetic rigidity setting optimized for observation of 69Br. The
absence of 69Br is clearly observed in the bromine mass spectrum, whereas other T2 = -1/2
nuclei are present. The asterisk symbols in Figure 4.6 indicate several events that can be
attributed to 606a and 70Kr, confirming the recent identification of these isotopes by Blank
et al. [bla95]. The measured isotopic cross sections, determined by integrating the
Gaussian functions over momentum space after correcting for the acceptance of the
A1200, are shown in Figure 4.7. Also shown in Figure 4.7 are the cross sections calculated
from both the EPAX parametrization [sum90] and the ISApace model [fau92]. Both codes
were originally developed for high energy (or ‘pure’) fragmentation (FJA > 200 MeV/
72
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nucleon), but recent experiments have shown their applicability for reactions involving
intermediate-mass projectiles at intermediate energies [pfa95, fau96]. A comparison of the
(absolute) experimental cross sections with the EPAX parametrization and the ISApace
code shows several overall features. The EPAX code noticeably underpredicts the
formation of proton pick-up products (Z > 36), a not unexpected feature considering this
parametrization was developed from high-energy fragmentation in which pick-up
reactions seldom occur. The ISApace code is able to reproduce relatively well the single-
proton pick-up, but the predicted cross sections for reaction products that have acquired
more than one proton (Z > 37) start to fall off dramatically. The magnitude of the predicted
cross sections from both EPAX and ISApace agree relatively well for the reaction products
below krypton (Z < 36), although the predicted distributions are more neutron-rich than
the experimental cross section distributions (Z 2 30).
4.2.2 Memory Effect
Together with the results of previous experiments which involve fragmentation of
neutron-rich krypton projectiles (86Kl' and 84Kr [pfa95, ste9l]), the data from the 78Kr
fragmentation experiment can provide additional insight into the influence of the projectile
NfZ ratio on the fragment charge dispersion distribution for reactions in the intermediate
energy/intermediate mass regime. In order to include this effect properly in their semi-
empirical fragmentation product cross section code, Siimmerer et al. [sum90] developed a
parametrization that took into account previous observations from (target) fragmentation
experiments; (i) the maxirna of fragment charge distributions always lie on the neutron-
deficient side of the valley of B stability, (ii) for targets/projectiles close to B-stability, the
most probable charge of a fragment isobaric chain is only dependent on fragment mass,
75
and (iii) the size of the memory effect is different for neutron- and proton-rich projectiles.
Chu et al. [chu71] had described this effect as
ZP(A) = Z5(A) +A (4.6)
where ZP(A) is the most probable charge and the B-stable charge ZB(A) can be
approximated by the smooth function (thus avoiding shell effects) [mar71]
A
z (A) = .
B 1.98 +0.0155 - A”3
(4.7)
The A term, which describes the difference between experimentally obtained values of Zp
and 213’ was parameterized by Siimmerer et al. [sum90] using the form
A _ { 2.041x10‘4 - A2 ifA < 66
2 (4.8)
2.703X10— - A — 0.895 if A 2 66.
To describe the additional shift in the charge distribution maxima (2,) that is caused by the
N/Z ratio of the target/projectile (depending on whether target- or projectile-like residues
are studied) an extra “memory effect” term Am was added:
Zp(A) = ZB(A) + A + A1m . (4.9)
A fit to the (scarce) experimental data available at the time (see Section 2.1) led to a
parametrization for Am in the form
Am(A) = [algal + c2(l-‘§)4]AB(A,) (4.10)
where A, is the target mass and AB (A,) = Z, - ZB(A,), in which Z, is the target proton
number and A, is the target mass. Different values for the coefficients c1 and c2 were
determined for neutron- and proton-rich fragmentation as the memory effect appeared to
be smaller for fragmentation of proton-rich targets/projectiles compared to neutron-rich
systems. Figure 4.8 illustrates the dependence of the memory effect Am on the ratio of A/
76
AI) (where A is the fragment mass and Ap is the projectile mass) for the most abundantly
produced final fragment of each isobaric chain (the so-called “ridge line”) from the
present experiment. The ridge lines are shown also from two other experiments with more
neutron-rich krypton isotopes: 86Kr fragmentation at 70 MeV/nucleon [pfa95] and 84Kr
fragmentation at 200 MeV/nucleon [ste91]. The hollow symbols are indicative of proton
pick-up products. Also indicated in Figure 4.8 (by the dashed line) is the curve
representing the parametrization of Eq. 4.10 for the 78Kr fragmentation (the
parametrization for the reactions involving 84Kr and 86Kr are not shown on the plot, but
exhibit similar agreement to the data as that for the 78Kr fragmentation data). It is
apparent that the memory effect for intermediate energy/intermediate mass fragmentation
behaves differently than expected from the high energy data. Both the data from the
I 78Kr + 58Ni, '75 MeV/nucleon
. 84Kr + 1971111, 200 MeV/nucleon
0 86Kr + 27111, '70 MeV/nucleon
— — ”Kr EPAX parameterization
current parameterization for:
(solid lines)
I T I I I
; A) 78Kr
_2 1 1 1 1 I 1 1 1 1 I 4 1 1 1 1
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
A/Ap
FIGURE 4.8: Parametrization of the memory effect which shows data from several
krypton fragmentation experiments.
77
current proton-rich fragmentation of 78Kr as well as the data from the neutron-rich
fragmentation of 8“Kr and 86Kr show a much steeper dependence on the mass ratio than
the parametrization. Recent measurements with 129Xe and 136Xe beams at 790 MeV/
nucleon showed a similar trend for the proton-rich projectile and the reaction products
from the neutron-rich projectile (136Xe) as they deviated from the standard
parametrization [fri93]. Using a formalism similar to Siimmerer et al. [sum90], the
memory effect from the three intermediate-energy krypton fragmentation experiments can
be described by
Am(A) = [e,(£t)4+e2(£;)]AB(A,) (4.11)
with values of c, = 1.55 and 02 = -0.425. The modified parametrization was determined by
performing a least square fit (with two n-th order polynomial terms) to the experimental
data. The c2 coefficient becomes negative to account for the fact that the proton-rich
fragmentation data dips below the Am = 0 line (this effect was also observed in the limited
data (see Figure 2.4) used by Siimmerer et al. [sum90]). The parametrization shows that
fragments far from the projectile approach the valley of B stability (Am/AB(A,) ~ 0) and
those near the projectile mass are close to the N/Z ratio of the projectile (Am/AB(A,) ~ 1).
This modified parametrization does a good job reproducing the experimental data and is
indicated by solid curves in Figure 4.8. (Because the 86Kr fragmentation experiment
[pfa95] was concentrated on fragments near the Z of the beam, this data is limited to Z 2
33.) It should also be noted that, in contrast to the two other data sets which were
measured around 0°, the 84Kr [ste91] data was obtained at angles of 06° and 15°. The fact
that the 84Kr ridge line in Figure 4.8 begins to curve downward for Z < 20 indicates that
parts of the parametrization used in this analysis are not applicable near and below argon
78
(Z = 18), as was discussed by Siimmerer et al. [sum90]. Charge pick-up products (Z > 36
in this case), which are rarely produced from high energy fragmentation, are commonly
observed at intermediate energies. The memory effects for the pick-up products observed
in previous krypton fragmentation experiments [ste91, pfa95], as indicated in Figure 4.8
by unfilled symbols, seem to follow closely the general trend of the fragmentation
products (Z S. 36). This fact, together with the observation that the overall curvature of the
memory effect is steeper than the standard parametrization, is a strong indication that the
prefragments are produced by processes other than the “pure” fragmentation that occur in
high energy reactions. This assumption is also supported by the relatively large pick-up
product cross sections that were observed in the current experiment and the 86Kr
fragmentation [pfa95].
4.2.3 Implications for the rp-process
From the isotopic cross sections shown in Figure 4.7, it is possible to estimate the
number of 69Br events that should have been observed. Assuming an exponential decrease
in cross section near the proton drip line (as is predicted by the EPAX parametrization
[sum90]), ~ 300 counts of 69Br should have been observed as determined from the
number of 7OBr events that were identified. This estimated number of events that should
have been observed can, together with the short flight path (~14 m from production target
to the focal plane silicon telescope), be used to place an upper limit on the half-life of
69Br of 24 ns. Most mass models predict 69Br to be only slightly proton unbound. In the
1993 Atomic Mass Tables [aud93] the value of Sp: -180 i 300 keV is found from the
listed binding energies of 69Br and 688e. Assuming that the proton is emitted from a pm
state (as is the case in the mirror nucleus 69Se), the proton penetrability WKB
79
approximation indicates a half-life of ~ 103 seconds which implies that the main decay
mode is BVEC with an estimated half-life on the order of 100 ms [tak73]. For the WKB
approximation a normalized Wood-Saxon nuclear potential was used in conjunction with
the centrifugal, spin-orbit, and Coulomb terms as was described by Winger et al. [win93].
The recent GANIL experiment [bla95] limited the 693r half-life to 100 ns or less which
corresponds to being proton unbound by at least 450 keV. The current tighter limit on the
69Br half-life of 24 ns or less indicates that this nucleus is proton unbound by at least 500
keV. The present experiment also gives some information on 73Rb. Because of its non-
observation in a wide variety of measurements over a number of years [moh9l, bla95,
aur77, hen94], this isotope should be considered to be particle unbound.
The systematics in Figure 4.5 show that the magnetic rigidity range covered in the
present experiment would also have included 73Rb. Using the EPAX parametrization and
the observed number of 74Rb events, approximately 75 73’Rb events should have been
observed, yielding an effective upper limit of 30 ns for the half-life of 73Rb. In the case of
73Rb, the majority of mass models predict this isotope to be proton unbound. The value of
8p = -590 :1: 270 keV determined from binding energies in the 1993 Atomic Mass Tables
[aud93] yields a proton emission half-life of ~ 700 ns (using the WKB approximation).
The present data limits the half-life of 73Rb to less than 30 ns and assuming the emitted
proton comes from the f5,2 state (since the mirror nucleus is 73Kr) indicates that 73Rb is
unbound by at least 680 keV. Under the previous assumption that 69Br was particle stable
[cha92], the rp-process was generally thought to proceed via
688e(p,r)69Br(13*)70Kr(13+)7°Br