New facilities to study synthesis of the elements in stars

One of the great successes of stellar evolution theory was the explanation of the origin of all elements. Fusion in the early universe produced hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium and boron, the first 5 elements in the periodic table. Other elements, from carbon to iron, were formed by fusion reactions in the cores of stars. The fusion process produces energy, which keeps the temperature of a stellar core high to keep the reaction rates high. Fusion of elements with mass numbers greater than 60 uses up more energy than is produced by the reaction. Thus, elements heavier than iron cannot be produced in stars, and there must be another mechanism for their production. The construction of elements heavier than iron involves neutron capture. Each neutron capture produces an isotope, some are stable, and some are unstable. Neutron captures can happen by two methods, the s and r-processes, where s and r stand for slow and rapid. In these processes, unstable nuclei played a very important role. It can be said that if there were only stable nuclei and unstable nuclei do not exist, most elements would have not been synthesized due to the lack of reaction routes. In this paper, we will show how Radioactive Ion Beam factory will reproduce these synthesis reaction paths in the laboratory and give a Comparison of fusion-evaporation production cross-sections for stable and unstable beams.