DEMAND - Direct Experimental Measurements of Astrophysical reactions using Neutron Detectors

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Understanding where and how the chemical elements were formed represents one of the most important questions in human history. These elements are responsible for the existence of life, as well as the rich variety of our Universe, and it is now known that almost all the chemical elements were forged in the hearts of dying stars. Remarkable advancements in astronomy and meteoritics have produced a slew of astounding new observational data on such cataclysmic astronomical events, giving us unprecedented insight into their properties. However, despite the wealth of observational data obtained, many key stages of stellar nucleosynthesis are still not fully understood. In fact, it seems as though the more observations we obtain, the more questions we have. Recently, observations of elements heavier than iron in some of the oldest stars in our Galaxy has resulted in a paradigm shift in the origin of elements between strontium and silver. In particular, it is now thought that these elements were created in core collapse supernovae via a series of alpha capture reactions. Unfortunately, very little experimental data exists on how fast these reactions occur, mainly due to extreme difficulty in measuring such processes in a laboratory.In this project, we aim to develop a new experimental technique for the direct measurement of reactions that occur in core-collapse supernovae and resolve the outstanding issue of whether or not these energetic stellar explosions are responsible for the synthesis of "light" heavy elements between strontium and silver.