Nuclear Masses Far from Stability: ToF-B$\rho$ Mass Measurements and Their Impact on Nuclear Astrophysics
ORAL · Invited
Abstract
Nuclear masses of neutron-rich isotopes are key to advancing our understanding of nuclear structure and nuclear astrophysics. The time-of-flight (ToF) magnetic-rigidity (B$ ho$) technique allows simultaneous mass measurements of multi-constituent cocktails of exotic isotopes with significant reach away from stability. We have applied this approach at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) to measure masses both in the light neutron-rich region near $N=28$, which are important for modeling nuclear processes in the crust of accreting neutron stars, and in the heavier Zr–Mo region around $N=70$, where such data are crucial inputs for weak r-process nucleosynthesis models. These measurements demonstrate the wide reach of the ToF-B$ ho$ method, which will expand further with the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) in the coming decades. I will present recent results, outline future directions for the next generation of rare isotope studies, and discuss their potential impact on astrophysics models.
*This work is supported by U.S. DOE grant DE-SC0020406, DE-FG02-88ER40387, DE-SC0019042, DE-NA0003180, DE-NA0000979, and DE-FG02-94ER40848 and by NSF grant PHY-1430152, PHY-1712832, PHY-1565546, PHY-23-10078, and PHY-1714153.
