TY - JOUR
T1 - Advances in radiative capture studies at LUNA with a segmented BGO detector
AU - LUNA Collaboration
AU - Aliotta, M.
AU - Bruno, C. G.
AU - Davinson, T.
AU - Sidhu, R.S.
N1 - Funding Information:
D Ciccotti and the technical staff of the LNGS and INFN-Division of Padova and Naples mechanical workshops are gratefully acknowledged for their help. Financial support by INFN, the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) through the ‘Dipartimenti di eccellenza’ project ‘Physics of the Universe’, the European Union (ERC-CoG STARKEY, No. 615 604; ERC-StG SHADES, No. 852 016; and ChETEC-INFRA, No. 101 008 324), Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, BE 4100-4/1), the Helmholtz Association (ERC-RA-0016), the Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFIH K134197 and PD129060), the European Collaboration for Science and Technology (COST Action ChETEC, CA16117) is gratefully acknowledged. MA , CGB, TD and RSS acknowledge funding by STFC UK (Grant No. ST/L005824/1). TS acknowledges support from the János Bolyai research fellowship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and from the New National Excellence Programs of the Ministry of Human Capacities of Hungary under No. UNKP-22-5-DE-428.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd
PY - 2023/3/16
Y1 - 2023/3/16
N2 - Studies of charged-particle reactions for low-energy nuclear astrophysics require high sensitivity, which can be achieved by means of detection setups with high efficiency and low backgrounds, to obtain precise measurements in the energy region of interest for stellar scenarios. High-efficiency total absorption spectroscopy is an established and powerful tool for studying radiative capture reactions, particularly if combined with the cosmic background reduction by several orders of magnitude obtained at the Laboratory for Underground Nuclear Astrophysics (LUNA). We present recent improvements in the detection setup with the Bismuth Germanium Oxide (BGO) detector at LUNA, aiming to reduce high-energy backgrounds and to increase the summing detection efficiency. The new design results in enhanced sensitivity of the BGO setup, as we demonstrate and discuss in the context of the first direct measurement of the 65 keV resonance (Ex = 5672 keV) of the 17O(p,gamma)18F reaction. Moreover, we show two applications of the BGO detector, which exploit its segmentation. In case of complex gamma-ray cascades, e.g. the de-excitation of Ex = 5672 keV in 18F, the BGO segmentation allows to identify and suppress the beam-induced background signals that mimic the sum peak of interest. We demonstrate another new application for such a detector in form of in-site activation measurements of a reaction with beta+ unstable product nuclei, e.g., the 14N(p,gamma)15O reaction.
AB - Studies of charged-particle reactions for low-energy nuclear astrophysics require high sensitivity, which can be achieved by means of detection setups with high efficiency and low backgrounds, to obtain precise measurements in the energy region of interest for stellar scenarios. High-efficiency total absorption spectroscopy is an established and powerful tool for studying radiative capture reactions, particularly if combined with the cosmic background reduction by several orders of magnitude obtained at the Laboratory for Underground Nuclear Astrophysics (LUNA). We present recent improvements in the detection setup with the Bismuth Germanium Oxide (BGO) detector at LUNA, aiming to reduce high-energy backgrounds and to increase the summing detection efficiency. The new design results in enhanced sensitivity of the BGO setup, as we demonstrate and discuss in the context of the first direct measurement of the 65 keV resonance (Ex = 5672 keV) of the 17O(p,gamma)18F reaction. Moreover, we show two applications of the BGO detector, which exploit its segmentation. In case of complex gamma-ray cascades, e.g. the de-excitation of Ex = 5672 keV in 18F, the BGO segmentation allows to identify and suppress the beam-induced background signals that mimic the sum peak of interest. We demonstrate another new application for such a detector in form of in-site activation measurements of a reaction with beta+ unstable product nuclei, e.g., the 14N(p,gamma)15O reaction.
KW - activation measurement
KW - gamma-ray total absorption spectroscopy
KW - nuclear astrophysics experiment
KW - radiation shielding and background reduction
KW - segmented bismuth germanium oxide (BGO) detector
U2 - 10.1088/1361-6471/acb961
DO - 10.1088/1361-6471/acb961
M3 - Article
SN - 0954-3899
VL - 50
SP - 1
EP - 20
JO - Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics
JF - Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics
IS - 4
M1 - 045201
ER -