ABSTRACT
An improved design of a longitudinally sensitive resonant Schottky cavity pickup for the heavy ion storage rings of the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research in Europe (FAIR) project is reported. The new detector has a higher measured Q value of â¼3000 and a higher simulated shunt impedance of 473.3 kΩ. It is possible to vary the sensitivity of the cavity with a motorized mechanism by inserting a dissipative blade during the operation based on experimental needs. Apart from a lower price tag, the new design features a more robust and production-friendly mechanical structure suitable for a series production in the future FAIR project. The manufactured cavity was built temporarily into the experimental storage ring and had delivered its first results using stored heavy ion beams. The structure, simulation results, and performance of this cavity are presented in this work.
ABSTRACT
We report the first measurement of low-energy proton-capture cross sections of ^{124}Xe in a heavy-ion storage ring. ^{124}Xe^{54+} ions of five different beam energies between 5.5 and 8 AMeV were stored to collide with a windowless hydrogen target. The ^{125}Cs reaction products were directly detected. The interaction energies are located on the high energy tail of the Gamow window for hot, explosive scenarios such as supernovae and x-ray binaries. The results serve as an important test of predicted astrophysical reaction rates in this mass range. Good agreement in the prediction of the astrophysically important proton width at low energy is found, with only a 30% difference between measurement and theory. Larger deviations are found above the neutron emission threshold, where also neutron and γ widths significantly impact the cross sections. The newly established experimental method is a very powerful tool to investigate nuclear reactions on rare ion beams at low center-of-mass energies.
