Research
Experimental Projects and Publications
The Compact Accelerator System for Performing Astrophysical Research (CASPAR) allows scientists to explore nuclear reactions deep underground, shielded from cosmic radiation. Through this collaboration between multiple universities, including Notre Dame, researchers aim to mimic stellar environments and gain insights into the formation of elements in the universe. Supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), this work exemplifies the NSF’s mission to advance scientific knowledge through experimental research, with an emphasis on sharing findings through publications and outreach, ensuring broad dissemination of groundbreaking discoveries.
Ph.D. Projects Publications Presentations & Talks Given
Background Suppression
In the low energy regime associated with nuclear reactions in stars, the tendency is for the reaction probability (cross-sections) to drop off exponentially, making the detection of such events an extremely rare occurrence. The ever present abundance of cosmic-ray induced background inhibits such measurements by traditional means, swamping out the rarer events of interest sometimes by orders of magnitude. The goal is to measure reactions of interest in the stellar burning regime utilizing the 4300 meters of water equivalent (m.w.e) shielding provided by the deep underground environment.
Research Focus
Initial reactions of interest are focused on, but are not restricted to, the production of seed neutrons for the s-process, specifically 13C(α,n) and 22Ne(α,n) The combination of the low-background environment and a high-efficiency neutron counting system (3He tube array) enables low-energy measurements with low count rates.