Beyond the acceptance limit of DRAGON: the case of the $\mathrm{^6Li(\alpha,\gamma)^{10}B}$ reaction

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that the DRAGON recoil separator can measure the resonance strength of the astrophysically relevant Li()^{10}B reaction despite the recoil angular spread exceeding its acceptance, expanding its applicability.

Contribution

The study shows that DRAGON can successfully measure radiative capture reactions with recoil angular spreads beyond its acceptance limits.

Findings

Good agreement with literature values for resonance strength

DRAGON can measure reactions with recoil angular spread exceeding acceptance

First attempt to study Li()^{10}B with DRAGON

Abstract

Radiative capture reactions play a pivotal role for our understanding of the origin of the elements in the cosmos. Recoil separators provide an effective way to study these reactions, in inverse kinematics, and take advantage of the use of radioactive ion beams. However, a limiting factor in the study of radiative capture reactions in inverse kinematics is the momentum spread of the product nuclei, which can result in an angular spread larger than the geometric acceptance of the separator. The DRAGON facility at TRIUMF is a versatile recoil separator, designed to study radiative capture reactions relevant to astrophysics in the $\mathrm{A \sim 10-30}$ region. In this work we present the first attempt to study with DRAGON a reaction, $\mathrm{^6Li(\alpha,\gamma)^{10}B}$ , for which the recoil angular spread exceeds DRAGON's acceptance. Our result is in good agreement with the literature value, showing that DRAGON can measure resonance strengths of astrophysically important reactions even when not all the recoils enter the separator.