Silicon Detector Characterization: Constraining Nitrogen Isotopes in Supernovae

The violent death of massive stars, known as core collapse supernovae, produces many elements heavier than iron in our solar system. In order to fully understand the production of these elements and their origin, it is crucial to have accurate stellar models. In particular, models of nitrogen production are of interest as nitrogen isotopes play an important role in determining the origin of presolar grains. The purpose of this project was to characterize a silicon detector in order to evaluate the efficiency and energy resolution before performing measurements at the TUNL ENGE split-pole spectrograph. An Am-241 source was used to collect initial data on the performance of the silicon detector. The results and conclusions from these measurements will be presented.