Transfer-Induced Fission of Heavy Elements for Nuclear and Astrophysics Studies

The research programme at the 'Instituut voor Kern- en Stralingsfysica' concentrates on fundamental nuclear physics and its applications. The experimental research combines work at the local detector and laser laboratories at KU Leuven with campaigns at ISOLDE-CERN (Geneva, Switzerland), GANIL (Caen, France) and other major international facilities. Project The heaviest elements of Mendeleev's table form an intriguing research laboratory of interest for nuclear, atomic and astro-physics. Their atomic structure is influenced by strong relativistic effects making it challenging to predict their atomic and chemical properties. All heavy atoms are made in stars through nucleosynthesis processes. But some of these processes, like the r-process that is responsible for the production of about half of the elements heavier than iron in the universe, are poorly understood. Within the larger EOS project, the aim of this research is to perform precise fission experiments on heavy nuclei. States of interest in those nuclei will be populated in transfer reactions, and the decay will be detected in an 'active target', a modern version of the well-known particle-tracking detectors. Preliminary measurements will be performed at LNS (Catania, Italy), while the main campaigns will take place at ISOLDE, the radioactive ion beam facility of CERN (Switzerland). Data will be analysed and used within the EOS collaboration to improve the prediction of fission recycling in the r-process.