ERC CoG Project MAIDEN

MAIDEN (MAsses, Isomers, and Decay studies for Elemental Nucleosynthesis) is a project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (ERC Consolidator Grant 2017) under grant agreement No. 771036. It aims to explore neutron-rich radioactive nuclei to better understand the production of heavy elements in the Cosmos.
People in the IGISOL lab

Table of contents

Project duration
-
Core fields of research
Basic natural phenomena and mathematical thinking
Research areas
Accelerator and Subatomic Physics
Nuclear and accelerator based physics
Department
Department of Physics
Faculty
Faculty of Mathematics and Science
Funding
European Research Council ERC

Project description

About half of the elements heavier than iron have been produced via the rapid neutron capture process, the r process. Its astrophysical site has been one of the biggest outstanding questions in physics. Neutrino-driven winds from proto-neutron stars created in core-collapse supernovae were long considered as the most favourable site for the r process. Recently, neutron-star mergers have become the most promising candidates, and new exciting observations from these compact objects, such as gravitational waves, are expected in the coming years. In order to constrain the astrophysical site for the r process, nuclear binding energies (i.e. masses) of exotic neutron-rich nuclei are needed because they determine the path for the process and therefore have a direct effect on the final elemental abundances. In this project, high precision mass measurements will be performed in three regions relevant for the r process, employing novel production and measurement techniques at the IGISOL facility in JYFL-ACCLAB. Long-living isomeric states, which also play a role in the r process, will be resolved from the ground states to obtain accurate mass values. Post-trap decay spectroscopy will be performed to confirm which state has been measured in order to avoid systematic uncertainties in the mass values. The new data will be compared with theoretical mass models and included in r-process calculations performed for various astrophysical sites. MAIDEN will advance our knowledge of nuclear structure far from stability and reduce nuclear data uncertainties in the r-process calculations, which can potentially constrain the astrophysical site for the r process and lead to a scientific breakthrough in our understanding of the origin of elements heavier than iron in the universe. More about nuclear astrophysics research of the group can be found here.

People
Principal Investigator, project leader: Professor Anu Kankainen

Maxime Mougeot, Postdoctoral researcher 
Marek Stryjczyk, Postdoctoral researcher 
Arthur Jaries, PhD student
Jouni Ruotsalainen, PhD student
Ville Virtanen, PhD student
Marjut Hukkanen, PhD student (cotutelle with the University of Bordeaux , -7/2023)
Lama Al Ayoubi, PhD student (cotutelle with the IJC Lab, Orsay, -6/2023)
Stylianos Nikas, Postdoctoral researcher (-5/2023)
Olga Beliuskina, Postdoctoral researcher (-6/2022)
Zhuang Ge, Postdoctoral researcher (10-11/2021)
Clément Delafosse, Postdoctoral researcher (9/2018-8/2020)
Dmitrii Nesterenko, Postdoctoral researcher (9/2019 -12/2021)
Alexandra Zadvornaya, Postdoctoral researcher (11/2018-12/2021)
Laetitia Canete, PhD student (-4/2019), Postdoctoral researcher (5/2019-8/2019)
Markus Vilén, PhD student (-9/2019)

The project received funding (1 999 575 EUR) from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (ERC Consolidator Grant 2017) under grant agreement No. 771036. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the project was extended by 6 months.

Research

The masses and decay properties of neutron-rich nuclei are essential for understanding the rapid neutron capture process producing around half of the heavy-element abudances beyond iron. In this project, we have measured more than 100 atomic masses for exotic, radioactive isotopes using the JYFLTRAP Penning trap masss spectrometer at the Ion Guide Isotope Separator On-Line (IGISOL) facility in the JYFL Accelerator Laboratory at the University of Jyväskylä. Around 30 of the measured masses belong to long-living excited states, isomers. In addition, the JYFLTRAP Penning trap has been utilised as a very high resolution mass separator in trap-assisted decay spectroscopy.  

Publications

Publication
2023

Nuclear Charge Radius of 26mAl and Its Implication for Vud in the Quark Mixing Matrix

Physical Review Letters.
Plattner, P.
Wood, E.
Al Ayoubi, L.
Beliuskina, O.
Bissell, M. L.
Blaum, K.
Campbell, P.
Cheal, B.
de Groote, R. P.
Devlin, C. S.
Eronen, T.
Filippin, L.
Garcia Ruiz, R. F.
Ge, Z.
Geldhof, S.
Gins, W.
Godefroid, M.
Heylen, H.
Hukkanen, M.
Imgram, P.
Jaries, A.
Jokinen, A.
Kanellakopoulos, A.
Kankainen, A.
Kaufmann, S.
König, K.
Koszorús, Á.
Kujanpää, S.
Lechner, S.
Malbrunot-Ettenauer, S.
Müller, P.
Mathieson, R.
Moore, I.
Nörtershäuser, W.
Nesterenko, D.
Neugart, R.
Neyens, G.
Ortiz-Cortes, A.
Penttilä, H.
Pohjalainen, I.
Raggio, A.
Reponen, M.
Rinta-Antila, S.
Rodríguez, L. V.
Romero, J.
Sánchez, R.
Sommer, F.
Stryjczyk, M.
Virtanen, V.
Xie, L.
Xu, Z. Y.
Yang, X. F.
Yordanov, D. T.
Publication
2023

Offline commissioning of a new gas cell for the MARA Low-Energy Branch

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research. Section B : Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms.
Zadvornaya, A.
Romero, J.
Eronen, T.
Gins, W.
Kankainen, A.
Moore, I. D.
Papadakis, P.
Pohjalainen, I.
Reponen, M.
Rinta-Antila, S.
Sarén, J.
Simonovski, D.
Uusitalo, J.
Publication
2023

Progress on nuclear reaction rates affecting the stellar production of 26Al

Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics.
Laird, Alison Monica
Lugaro, Maria
Kankainen, Anu
Adsley, Philip
Bardayan, Dan
Brinkman, Hannah
Cote, Benoit
Deibel, Catherine
Diehl, Roland
Hammache, Fairouz
den Hartogh, Jacqueline
Jose, Jordi
Kurtilgil, Deniz
Lederer-Woods, Claudia
Lotay, Gavin
Meynet, George
Palmerini, Sara
Pignatari, Marco
Reifarth, Rene
de Séréville, Nicolas
Sieverding, Andre
Stancliffe, Richard James
Trueman, Thomas
Lawson, Thomas Vincent
Vink, Jorick
Massimi, Cristian
Mengoni, Alberto
Publication
2023

VADER : A novel decay station for actinide spectroscopy

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research. Section B : Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms.
Raggio, A.
Pohjalainen, I.
Rey-Herme, E.
Beliuskina, O.
Bequet, J.
Block, M.
Eronen, T.
Illana, A.
Jaries, A.
Kankainen, A.
Kumar, D.
Moore, I. D.
Mougeot, M.
Plaza, A. M.
Reponen, M.
Sarén, J.
Sulignano, B.
Stryjczyk, M.
Thisse, D.
Vandebrouck, M.
Warbinek, J.
Publication
2023

β− decay Q-value measurement of 136Cs and its implications for neutrino studies

Physical Review C.
Ge, Z.
Eronen, T.
de Roubin, A.
Ramalho, M.
Kostensalo, J.
Kotila, J.
Suhonen, J.
Nesterenko, D. A.
Kankainen, A.
Ascher, P.
Beliuskina, O.
Flayol, M.
Gerbaux, M.
Grévy, S.
Hukkanen, M.
Husson, A.
Jaries, A.
Jokinen, A.
Moore, I. D.
Pirinen, P.
Romero, J.
Stryjczyk, M.
Virtanen, V.
Zadvornaya, A.
Publication
2022

Coulomb excitation of 222Rn

Physical Review C.
Spagnoletti, P.
Butler, P. A.
Gaffney, L. P.
Abrahams, K.
Bowry, M.
Cederkäll, J.
Chupp, T.
de Angelis, G.
De Witte, H.
Garrett, P. E.
Goldkuhle, A.
Henrich, C.
Illana, A.
Johnston, K.
Joss, D. T.
Keatings, J. M.
Kelly, N. A.
Komorowska, M.
Konki, J.
Kröll, T.
Lozano, M.
Singh, B. S. Nara
O'Donnell, D.
Ojala, J.
Page, R. D.
Pedersen, L. G.
Raison, C.
Reiter, P.
Rodriguez, J. A.
Rosiak, D.
Rothe, S.
Scheck, M.
Seidlitz, M.
Shneidman, T. M.
Siebeck, B.
Sinclair, J.
Smith, J. F.
Stryjczyk, M.
Van Duppen, P.
Viñals, S.
Virtanen, V.
Wrzosek-Lipska, K.
Warr, N.
Zielińska, M.
Publication
2022

Direct determination of the atomic mass difference of the pairs 76As−76Se and 155Tb−155Gd rules out 76As and 155 Tb as possible candidates for electron (anti)neutrino mass measurements

Physical Review C.
Ge, Z.
Eronen, T.
de Roubin, A.
Kostensalo, J.
Suhonen, J.
Nesterenko, D. A.
Beliuskina, O.
de Groote, R.
Delafosse, C.
Geldhof, S.
Gins, W.
Hukkanen, M.
Jokinen, A.
Kankainen, A.
Kotila, J.
Koszorús, Á.
Moore, I. D.
Raggio, A.
Rinta-Antila, S.
Virtanen, V.
Weaver, A. P.
Zadvornaya, A.

Project team

Project leaders

Anu Kankainen
Anu Kankainen
Academy Professor

Research groups

The exotic nuclei and beams group
Research group

Exotic nuclei and beams (IGISOL)

The exotic nuclei and beams group studies properties of nuclei employing Penning-trap mass spectrometry as well as laser and decay spectroscopy at the IGISOL facility.