A Micromegas-based gaseous detector for neutron-induced charged-particle reaction studies in nuclear astrophysics

TL;DR

This paper presents the design and simulation of a Micromegas-based gaseous detector aimed at studying neutron-induced charged-particle reactions relevant to nuclear astrophysics, using a neutron source from the $^{7}$Li($p$, $n$)$^{7}$Be reaction.

Contribution

It introduces a novel segmented Micromegas detector setup for measuring neutron-induced reactions on unstable nuclei at stellar temperatures.

Findings

Design and simulation results of the detector setup

Feasibility analysis for measuring specific neutron-induced reactions

Preparation for experimental implementation at PTB, Germany

Abstract

The quasistellar neutron spectrum produced via $^{7}$Li($p$, $n$)$^{7}$Be reaction at a proton energy of 1.912 MeV has been extensively studied and employed reaction for neutron-induced reaction studies. We are working towards using this reaction at various proton energies from 1.9 MeV to 3.6 MeV to produce a neutron field at a temperature range of $\sim$1.5-3.5 GK to conduct measurements of neutron-induced charge particle reaction cross sections on various unstable nuclei at explosive stellar temperatures. In this paper, we are reporting our design and simulation study with regards to experimental set-up and a gaseous detector with a segmented Micromegas detector for conducting neutron-induced charge particle reactions studies for nuclei of astrophysics importance, for example, $^{26}$Al($n$, $p$)$^{26}$Mg, $^{26}$Al($n$, $\alpha$)$^{23}$Na and $^{40}$K($n$, $p$)$^{40}$Ar, $^{40}$K($n$, $\alpha$)$^{37}$Cl reactions. We plan to perform our experiments with a 10-$\mu$A proton beam at the Physikalisch Technische Bundesanstalt facility (PTB, Germany), with a Micromegas-based gaseous detector under construction as discussed in the paper.