Efficiency of the High Efficiency Total Absorption Spectrometer (HECTOR)

The p-process is a nucleosynthesis process that occurs in explosive environments such as type II and Ia supernovae and is responsible for production of heavy proton rich nuclei. Gamma rays emitted during these explosions induce several photo-disintegration reactions: ($\gamma$,n), ($\gamma$,p), and ($\gamma,\alpha$). To study these interactions, the inverse of these reactions are measured experimentally. The High Efficiency TOtal absorption spectrometeR (HECTOR) at the University of Notre Dame was built for measuring these reactions. Standard gamma sources $^{60}$Co and $^{137}$Cs and known resonances in $^{27}$Al(p,$\gamma$)$^{28}$Si reaction were used to experimentally determine HECTOR’s summing efficiency. Here, the preliminary analysis will be presented and the results will be compared to the Geant4 simulation of the array. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under the grant number PHYS-1614442.