Statistical gamma decay studies at iThemba LABS, South Africa

by Dr Dinesh Negi (iThemba LABS, South Africa)

Tuesday 25 Feb 2014, 09:30 → 10:30 Europe/Rome

Rostagni meeting room (INFN-LNL)

The study of quasicontinuum states in atomic nuclei has relevance not only for understanding the structure of the nucleus but also finds application in field as diverse as astrophysics. For example, the radiative strength function (RSF) of statistical gamma-rays from these states are one of the important ingredients in the calculation of reaction rates relevant to astrophysical processes which are invoked to explain the origin of elements heavier than iron.
In spite of being a highly pursued topic of investigation for many decades there still remain open and interesting unresolved problems. For example, the validity of an old age hypothesis due to Brink at low gamma energies, reaction dependence of statistical spectra, to mention a few. In recent years an enhancement in the radiative strength has been observed in the low energy tail of the giant dipole resonance below 4 MeV.
This observation not only has stimulated an interest among the community about its physical origin but also has demanded further exploration of this phenomenon. In particular, the question emerges if this observed upbend of the RSF has a maxima.
To answers these questions collaborative experiments at different facilities at iThemba LABS, South Africa and University of Oslo, Norway, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, USA were carried out. In this talk I will discuss about the present status of this project.