Post by Nico on Jun 25, 2015 14:52:48 GMT -7
I would like a little clarification on why sensitivity studies are important, please excuse my ignorance 
I suppose my question boils down to, why do labs (such as TRIUMF) want to determine rates for isotopes that are more sensitive than others? I assume it is because they have limited beam time and want to find rates for isotopes that will have the greatest impact on the r-process. But who benefits from these rates? Is it astrophysicists who are studying r-process sites? If so the labs would need to study the isotopes that are most sensitive to the site being studied . So in their proposals, do they say something like "we want to find the rates for isotope X because the r-process is very sensitive in neutron star mergers", or "We want to see if neutron star mergers is a possible site for r-process, so we want to find all the rates to isotopes for which the r-process is most sensitive in this environment. Once we have the correct rates, we can conclude whether neutron star mergers is a viable site for r-process". Sorry for my ramblings
I suppose my question boils down to, why do labs (such as TRIUMF) want to determine rates for isotopes that are more sensitive than others? I assume it is because they have limited beam time and want to find rates for isotopes that will have the greatest impact on the r-process. But who benefits from these rates? Is it astrophysicists who are studying r-process sites? If so the labs would need to study the isotopes that are most sensitive to the site being studied . So in their proposals, do they say something like "we want to find the rates for isotope X because the r-process is very sensitive in neutron star mergers", or "We want to see if neutron star mergers is a possible site for r-process, so we want to find all the rates to isotopes for which the r-process is most sensitive in this environment. Once we have the correct rates, we can conclude whether neutron star mergers is a viable site for r-process". Sorry for my ramblings