Precision Mass Measurements of 129, 131Cd and Their Impact on Stellar Nucleosynthesis via the Rapid Neutron Capture Process

High-precision masses of the neutron-rich cadmium isotopes ¹²⁹Cd and ¹³¹Cd, used to constrain how the rapid neutron-capture (r) process builds nuclei in stellar explosions.

The ions were produced at ISOLDE and measured with ISOLTRAP’s MR-ToF separator and Penning-trap mass spectrometry. The new masses enter nucleosynthesis networks around the N=82 waiting-point region.

r-process abundances are exponentially sensitive to masses near closed shells. These cadmium masses were among the first ISOLTRAP results to put a hard experimental number on that part of the path.