Dustin P. Scriven | Searcharxiv

arXiv2026

Future directions in nuclear $\beta$ decay at FRIB and beyond

Motivated by the opportunities presented for studies relevant to nuclear structure, astrophysics, and fundamental symmetries with nuclear $\beta$ decay, the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) Theory Alliance topical program ``Future Directions in Nuclear $\beta$ Decays at FRIB'' was held in September of 2025. This white paper summarizes the main points of discussion over the two-week program, and it aims to provide a snapshot of the current status of the field while also highlighting important questions and opportunities for future work. We provide an overview of the experimental tools and techniques that enable modern $\beta$ decay studies, discuss the current state of nuclear many-body approaches used to study $\beta$ decays, and highlight the important science questions that can be addressed by weak decays.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2023

BlueSTEAl: A pair of silicon arrays and a zero-degree phoswich detector for studies of scattering and reactions in inverse kinematics

BlueSTEAl, the Blue (aluminum chamber of) Silicon TElescope Arrays for light nuclei,has been developed to study direct reactions in inverse kinematics, as well as scattering and breakup reactions using radioactive ion beams. It is a detector system consisting of a pair of annular silicon detector arrays and a zero-degree phoswich plastic scintillator. For typical binary reaction studies in inverse kinematics, light ions are detected by the Si array in coincidence with heavy recoils detected by the phoswich placed at the focal-plane of a zero-degree magnetic spectrometer. The Si array can also be used to detect light nuclei such as berylium and carbon with clear isotope separation, while the phoswich can also be placed at zero degrees without a spectrometer and used as a high-efficiency beam counting monitor with particle identification capability at the rate of up to 5*10^4 particles per second. This paper reports on the capabilities of BlueSTEAl as determined by recent experiments performed at the Texas A&M Cyclotron Institute. The device is also anticipated to be used in future experiments at other radioactive ion beam facilities.

physics.ins-det↗