New krypton-88 data narrow a key gap in stellar strontium models
The study, published June 8 in Communications Physics, reports that the team used indirect experimental techniques to extract previously inaccessible information about how an isotope of a separate element—krypton—absorbs, or captures, neutrons.
The study, published June 8 in Communications Physics, reports that the team used indirect experimental techniques to extract previously inaccessible information about how an isotope of a separate element—krypton—absorbs, or captures, neutrons.
The short version
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- "It turns out that explaining the abundances of elements in the universe is slightly more complicated than previously thought," said Artemis Spyrou, professor of physics at FRIB and in Michigan State University's Department of Physics and Astronomy.
- "Our models had flagged neutron capture on krypton-88 as the key unknown behind the strontium shortfall," said Falk Herwig, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Victoria and a co-author of the study.
What happened
"The measurement guides our next simulation and theory steps." The team installed FRIB's Summing NaI (SuN) detector at the Argonne Tandem Linac Accelerator System (ATLAS), a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility located at the DOE's Argonne National Laboratory, producing krypton-89 (krypton-88 plus one neutron) and measuring its gamma-ray emissions to infer the krypton-88 neutron-capture rate.
Why it matters
Strontium is an alkaline earth metal widely used in glow-in-the-dark paint, fireworks and archaeological analysis.
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