Speaker
Description
The study of radioactive isotopes is key to understanding the fundamental building blocks of matter. These investigations require state-of-the-art experimental stations, which exist only in select facilities around the world. The Gamma Ray Infrastructure For Fundamental Investigations of Nuclei (GRIFFIN), at the ISAC facility of TRIUMF is a powerful decay spectrometer that can be used to study $\beta$ decaying species. The tin isotopes are an important part of the nuclide chart due to their magic proton number, $Z=50$, a stable configuration analogous to the noble gases. They span a total of forty isotopes, two neutron shell closures, at $N=50$ ($^{100}$Sn) and $N=82$ ($^{132}$Sn), and extend up to $N=89$ ($^{139}$Sn), making them an important testing ground for nuclear structure theory. Furthermore they are important in the rapid neutron capture process (r-process), responsible for the production of the heaviest elements in our universe. An isotope of tin with 79 neutrons, $^{129}$Sn, was studied via the $\beta$ decay of its indium parent, $^{129}$In, at the GRIFFIN station. So far the analysis of the decay spectroscopy data has uncovered twenty new transitions and seven new excited states, never before seen in this nucleus. The $^{133}$Sn nucleus was also studied at the GRIFFIN spectrometer, though the data was dominated by the $\beta$n decay of the $^{133}$In parent into $^{132}$Sn. Newly outfitted with BGO shields for Compton suppression, the GRIFFIN spectrometer has entered into a new phase; a reduction in the Compton continuum will allow for the observation of very weak transitions, offering a more detailed look into the tin isotopes. Results from the study of $^{129}$Sn and $^{133}$Sn, detection mechanisms and potential implications will be discussed.
