Commissioning of HECTOR at CASPAR: $^{27}$Al$(p,\gamma)^{28}$Si resonance strength measurements 4,850 feet underground
ORAL
Abstract
The High Efficiency Total Absorption Spectrometer (HECTOR), is a $4\pi$ $\gamma$-summing detector which specializes in measuring radiative-capture cross sections --- e.g. $(p, \gamma)$, $(\alpha, \gamma)$ --- for reactions related to astrophysical processes. Recently, HECTOR was been moved to the Compact Accelerator System for Performing Astrophysical Research (CASPAR) laboratory, which is located at the Sanford Underground Research Facility, 4850-feet underground. The underground environment provides an optimal background shielding needed to study several radiativate-capture processes at low energies related to the s-process. The commissioning of HECTOR at CASPAR, along with several measurements of resonance strengths below 1 MeV for the $^{27}$Al$(p,\gamma)^{28}$Si reaction will be presented.
*This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under grant numbers PHY- 1713857, PHY-1614442, and PHY-1430152 (JINA Center for the Evolution of the Elements), and the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) under Award Number DE-SC0020216.
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