BRIKEN Project in Nuclear Physics News

The BRIKEN project, one of the research lines developed at INTE, has been featured on the Facilities and Methods section of the latest issue of Nuclear Physics News (NPN): The "Beta-Delayed Neutrons at RIKEN" Project (BRIKEN): Conquering the Most Exotic Beta-Delated Neutron-Emitters.

NPN is a quarterly, informative and scientific-technical publication, carried out by the Nuclear Physics European Collaboration Committee (NuPECC). This journal aims to highlight the latest advances of researchers, as well as the laboratories and facilities where frontier research is carried out in the field of nuclear physics.

The BRIKEN project is a scientific initiative promoted by researchers from the INTE, together with groups from Europe, United States and Japan. This project is focused on the development of the largest-of-its-kind detector in the world for measurement of beta-delayed neutron emission probabilities in the Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory of the RIKEN-Nishina center, in Japan (RIBF-RIKEN). The development and implementation of this detector is led by INTE researchers, together with colleagues from the IFIC in Valencia.

Beta-delayed neutrons are produced after beta decay in radioactive and neutron-rich nuclei; these nuclei are generally known as exotic nuclei. At present, it has been possible to experimentally measure about 50% of the emission probabilities of more than 600 nuclei identified as beta-delayed neutron emitters.

BRIKEN, in its stage of scientific exploitation, will provide between 150-200 new measurements of neutron emitters, as well as improve the accuracy of previous measurements. The measurements made in BRIKEN are of astrophysical interest since they will allow, in the long-term, to improve our understanding of the processes associated with the synthesis of those elements in the universe heavier than iron. In addition, this type of measurement will make it possible to expand our knowledge of the nuclear structure and of certain nuclei of interest in energy technology.

Read the full article:
The "Beta-Delayed Neutrons at RIKEN" Project (BRIKEN): Conquering the Most Exotic Beta-Delayed Neutron-Emitters
Iris Dillmann & Ariel Tarifeño-Saldivia
Nuclear Physics News, 28:1 (2018), 28-31