The TITAN Penning trap; an upgrade for high precision mass measurements of low-lying isomers

A detailed study of the r-process path requires knowledge of nuclear isomers and their excitation energy. Mass measurements have proven to be an excellent way of discovering new isomers and determining their excitation energy. However, small excitation energies can be challenging due to the mass spectrometer's resolution and due to low statistics.

At TITAN, we specialize in long-lived isomers, which e.g. in-flight gamma-ray spectroscopy is insensitive to. TITAN's cryogenic Penning trap is a new generation Penning trap that uniquely combines the capability of measuring Highly Charged Ions (HCI) along with using the Phase-Imaging Ion-Cyclotron-Resonance (PI-ICR) technique. HCI allow for higher mass resolution that cannot be achieved by using the typically Singly Charged Ions and the use of the PI-ICR technique reduces the experimental requirements and further improves the precision.

In this talk, I will present the cryogenic upgrade of the TITAN's Penning trap and its research outlook, including astrophysically relevant cases approaching the neutron dripline.