Characterization of a new plastic scintillation material and comparison with liquid BC-501A scintillator

In this work the capability of various scintillation materials to discriminate gamma rays and neutrons were studied. Also such basic properties of scintillators as light emission spectrum and light output were determined. The studied materials were BC-501A liquid scintillator and a plastic scintillator provided by CEA. An experimental setup consisting of detector shielding, analog and digital electronics and data acquisition system was built to study the neutron-gamma discrimination properties of the scintillation materials. Pulse shape discrimination (PSD) technique was utilized. A computer code with a PSD algorithm was written. This code integrates the scintillation pulse waveforms over suitable time ranges for discrimination. Radioactive sources of Na-22, Co-60 and Cs-137 were used to examine the light output from the scintillation material. The neutron-gamma discrimination properties were studied with Cf-252 source. Liquid scintillator shows better discrimination capability than the studied plastic detector

Q(EC) value of the superallowed beta emitter Sc-42

The QEC value of the superallowed β+ emitter 42Sc has been measured with the JYFLTRAP Penning-trap mass spectrometer at the University of Jyväskylä to be 6426.350(53) keV. This result is at least a factor of four more precise than all previous measurements, which were also inconsistent with one another. As a byproduct we determine the excitation energy of the 7+ isomeric state in 42Sc to be 616.762(46) keV, which deviates by 8σ from the previous measurement.status: publishe

Study of the Isospin Symmetry in 60Zn

© 2019 Jagellonian University. All Rights Reserved. The breaking of isospin symmetry caused by the Coulomb interaction can be measured by the study of E1 γ decay. The Isovector Giant Dipole Resonance (IVGDR) was measured in 60 Zn and 62 Zn at two different excitation energies E ∗ = 47 MeV and E ∗ = 58 MeV with the goal of deducing the isospin mixing term. A fusion–evaporation reaction, with a beam of 32 S and a target of 28 Si, was used to produce 60 Zn. We also produced the compound nucleus 62 Zn using the reaction 32 S + 30 Si. This last reaction is required because, for the produced nucleus, the statistical model analysis is much less sensitive to the isospin mixing, and this allows to extract the GDR parameters and use them for isospin mixing sensitive reaction populating neighboring nucleus with N = Z. The experimental setup was composed of GALILEO array (germanium detectors) coupled to the large-volume LaBr 3 :Ce detectors for the γ-rays measuring and by two ancillary arrays, EUCLIDES and the Neutron Wall for the detection of particles and neutrons, respectively. An overview on the ongoing analysis and on preliminary results is presented.status: publishe

GET: A generic electronics system for TPCs and nuclear physics instrumentation

General Electronics for TPCs (GET) is a generic, reconfigurable and comprehensive electronics and data-acquisition system for nuclear physics instrumentation of up to 33792 channels. The system consists of a custom-designed ASIC for signal processing, front-end cards that each house 4 ASIC chips and digitize the data in parallel through 12-bit ADCs, concentration boards to read and process the digital data from up to 16 ASICs, a 3-level trigger and master clock module to trigger the system and synchronize the data, as well as all of the associated firmware, communication and data-acquisition software. An overview of the system including its specifications and measured performances are presented.status: publishe