Abstract

Radioactive nuclei play an important role in many astrophysical scenarios,from the Big-Bang Nucleo-synthesis to the standard solar model, from quiescent burning to the most explosive events that can occur in our universe. A huge effort has been made for more than thirty years to construct facilities able to deliver beams of radioactive nuclei with increasing intensity and better quality. This contribution revises the different mechanisms and the separation techniques employed for the production of Radioactive Ion Beams.

Highlights

  • If we a take even a quick look to the nuclide chart, we can immediately realize the reason why nowadays Nuclear Physics and Nuclear Astrophysics are deeply interested in studying the properties and the reactions induced by radioactive nuclei

  • From the point of view of Nuclear Astrophysics, radioactive nuclei are involved in many process of astrophysical interest, such as, for instance, the Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis, novae and supernovae explosions, x-ray bursts and so on

  • Even in our Sun, the radioactive nuclei 7Be, 8Be and 8B are populated in the so-called ppII and ppIII branches of the standard solar model

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Summary

Introduction

If we a take even a quick look to the nuclide chart, we can immediately realize the reason why nowadays Nuclear Physics and Nuclear Astrophysics are deeply interested in studying the properties and the reactions induced by radioactive nuclei. 3302 nuclides have been discovered (December 2018 [1]) and more than 6000 nuclei are postulated to exist. While studying exotic nuclei far from the valley of β-stability, we might discover new decay modes, observe the evolution of the shell closures and probe the limits of existence of nuclei. About 0.8% of the energy generated in the Sun comes from the CNO cycle, which includes a few radioactive nuclei. While studying exotic nuclei far from the valley of stability we have somewhat to fight against the weak interaction, which slides radioactive nuclei along isobaric chains towards the bottom of the valley. The half-lives for the β decay become shorter and shorter while moving towards the neutron and proton drip-lines, making the investigation of very exotic more and more challenging. This issue is achieved by optimizing the production reaction after a careful choice of projectile-target combination, bombarding energy, primary beam intensity, power deposition into the primary target, ... be efficient, especially because of the, in most cases, very low production yields; be selective, since, very frequently, contaminants might be several orders of magnitude more abundant than the radioisotopes we are interested in

RIB Production Mechanisms
Projectile Fragmentation
Projectile Fission
Nuclear Fusion
Two-Body Reactions in Inverse Kinematics
In-Flight
Findings
Outlook
Full Text
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