https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202022701013
The PANDORA project: an experimental setup for measuring in-plasma β-decays of astrophysical interest
1 INFN-Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Catania, Italy
2 INFN, Sezione di Perugia, Perugia, Italy
3 ENEA, Bologna, Italy
4 INFN, Sezione di Bologna, Italy
5 Universita degli Studi di Catania, Catania, Italy
6 INFN-Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro, Legnaro (PD), Italy
Published online: 14 January 2020
Experiments performed on Storage Rings have shown that lifetimes of beta-radionuclides can change dramatically as a function of theionization state. PANDORA (Plasmas for Astrophysics, Nuclear Decay Observation and Radiation for Archaeometry) aims at measuring, for the first time, nuclear β-decay rates in stellar-like conditions, especially for radionuclides involved in nuclear-astrophysics processes (BBN, s- processing, CosmoChronometers, Early Solar System formation). Compact magnetic plasma traps, where plasmas reach density ne~10n-1014 cm-3, and temperature Te~0.1-30 keV, are suitable for such studies. The decay rates can be measured as a function of the charge state distribution of the inplasma ions. The collaboration is now designing the plasma trap able to reach the needed plasma densities, temperatures and charge states distributions. A first list of radioisotopes, including tens of physics cases of potential interest is now available. Possible physics cases include, among the others, 2°4Tl, 63Ni, 6°Co, 171Tm, 147Pm, 85Kr, 176Lu and the pairs 187Re-187Os and 87Sr-87Rb, which play a crucial role as cosmo-clock. Physics cases are now under evaluation in terms of lifetime measurements feasibility in a plasma trap.
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2020
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
