Where and how were the heaviest nuclei produced?
Maxime Brodeur
Notre Dame University

Nearly half of all elements beyond iron were produced via processes involving extremely exotic nuclei in an unclear astrophysical site. Indeed, the synthesis of these heavy nuclei is known to be the fruit of a succession of a rapid capture of neutrons and beta-decays describing a path along an uncharted region of the nuclear chart. Therefore, abundance calculations of nuclei produced by this process rely on nuclear models, which in turn rely on experimental data of exotic nuclei closer to the ‘valley of stability’. Among various experimental inputs, atomic masses appear as being the quantity to which the abundance pattern is the most sensitive. A world-wide effort is ongoing to map out this ‘erra-incognita’ of unknown atomic masses through high precision mass measurements. Current state-of-the-art mass spectrometry techniques for exotic nuclei will be introduced and some current and future developments will be discussed.

Date:	Mardi, 24 mai 2016
Time:	15:30
Where:	McGill University
	Ernest Rutherford Physics Building, R.E. Bell Conference Room (room 103)
Contact:	Robert Rutledge