Beta-decay Studies of r-process Nuclei Using the Advanced Implantation Detector Array (AIDA)

AIDA is one of the latest silicon implantation detector arrays and is used at fragmentation facilities to study decay processes of radioactive nuclei. The r-process is believed to be responsible in producing over half of the elements heavier than iron and as such is a key process in understanding the chemical evolution of the universe. To better understand the path that the r-process takes more experimental data is needed to be used in models. This experimental data includes beta-decay half-lives and beta-dilated neutron emission probabilities for nuclei far from stability. These are nuclei with short half-lives and as such requires the use of instrumentation with high precision and sensitivity such as AIDA.