Measuring Beta Decays of Proton-Rich Nuclides to Study Explosive Nucleosynthesis

Our team has developed a system to detect radiation associated with the beta decays of proton-rich nuclides at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory. The experimental data acquired will be applied to the field of astrophysics, specifically to the rates of nuclear reactions driving explosions on the surfaces of accreting white dwarf and neutron stars in binary systems. The detection system consists of a custom designed gas-filled charged-particle detector surrounded by the existing Segmented Germanium Array for gamma-ray detection. To complement the detector, a data acquisition and display system is required. The capability to monitor the online data is essential so that researchers can make decisions based on preliminary analysis as data arrives. Using an in-house software called SpecTcl, we have utilized experiment specific traits to customize a system for acquisition and analysis. This detector was successfully commissioned at NSCL in May 2018, and is ready for science experiments. The SpecTcl system was used to sort and display the online data during commissioning.