Progress at the N=126 factory and its application to identify and characterize long-lived isomers

The N=126 factory, currently under construction at the ATLAS facility at ANL, will provide access to heavy neutron-rich isotopes of interest to astrophysics and nuclear structure studies. This will allow measurements on isotopes and long-lived isomers in the so-far unexplored region around the N=126 line. The CPT Penning trap mass spectrometer, currently being used at CARIBU to measure masses and identify long-lived isomers, will be moved to the N=126 factory to extend these measurements to heavier nuclei. The N=126 factory and the technique developed to characterize isomers with the CPT spectrometer will be described. Recent results at CARIBU will be presented together with the expected reach of the system when installed at the N=126 factory, with particular focus on potential “astromers”, isomers that influence the astrophysical nucleosynthesis processes.