The aim of this project is to study resonances in ¹³N(α,α) and ¹³N(α,p) reactions induced by a rare beam of ¹³N at the facilities of the Cyclotron Institute of Texas A&M University.  Our specific interest in these studies is stimulated by the surprising results of a study of ¹³C(α,n) reaction performed at the Astana cyclotron. Supporting measurements on  ¹³C(α,α)¹³C and ¹³C(α,α)¹³C* resonant interaction will be performed at Astana cyclotron.

The project is aimed to obtain new data on resonance structure in ¹¹C, ^18,19F, ¹⁹Ne, ^21,22Ne nuclei. Experimental data will be obtained using resonant scattering of heavy ions beams of the DC-60 cyclotron (Astana, Kazakhstan) on protons and alpha particles using Thick Target Inverse Kinematics method.

We plan to develop measurements of the ¹⁷O +⁴He and ²²Ne+⁴He at the energy region of 1.0-5.0 MeV in the center of mass system using the Thick Target Inverse Kinematics method at Astana cyclotron. It is interesting to note that, regarding its evident importance for the understanding of nuclei structure and astrophysics, the measurement of ¹⁷O+⁴He resonance elastic scattering has never been made before. Similar to this, in the case of ²²Ne+⁴He interaction, there were measurements only above 3.5 MeV cm energy. The reason is the experimental difficulties of these studies in the classical approach.

We plan to test the identification for ¹⁷O+p-> ¹⁸F(T=1)->α+ ¹⁴N(T=1) reaction by time of flight method in TTIK in Astana and then to use it at higher energy of the beam at HIL, Warsaw. Also the ¹⁵N+α measurements will be complemented by ¹⁵O+α studies to populate the mirror cluster levels in ¹⁹Ne with isobaric shift depending upon the details of the single particle structure contributing to the cluster states.

This proposal is aimed to obtain experimental data of the excitation functions of the ¹³C (α, α)¹⁷O elastic scattering at the initial beam energy ¹³C from 1.7Mev/A till energies close to zero by using the Thick Target Inverse Kinematics method at Astana cyclotron.  The experimental data will be analyzed using R-matrix method to determine excitation energies, quantum characteristics and widths of the ¹⁷O levels near the threshold of the decay into ¹³C and α-particle.