Active target studies of the αp-process at CRIB

The αp-process is a sequence of (α, p)(p, γ) reactions important to the nuclear trajectory to higher masses in type I X-ray bursts. Specifically, the αp-process is schematically pure helium-burning, and thus unlike pure hydrogen-burning processes, does not require slow β+ decays. Explosive helium burning is responsible for the observed short rise-times of X-ray bursts but ultimately gives way to the rp-processas the Coulomb barrierincreases. Because the stellar reaction rates of these (α, p) reactions are poorly known over the relevant astrophysical energies, we performed systematic studies of the 18Ne(α,p), 22Mg(α,p) and 30S(α,p) reactions at the Center for Nuclear Study (CNS) low-energy radioactive ion beam separator, called CRIB. We produce the radioactive beams in-flight and scan the center-of-mass energy down into the Gamow Window using a thick target in inverse kinematics. The helium target gas also serves as part of the detector system, an active target, which was newly designed for these measure...