Current & Future Astrophysics Experiments at TRIUMF-ISAC (ARIEL)

Explosive stellar phenomena—such as X-ray bursts, novae, and supernovae—play a central role in the synthesis of chemical elements in the galaxy and on Earth. Understanding the nuclear reactions that drive these events is a key goal of nuclear astrophysics. In particular, radiative capture reactions involving hydrogen and helium are crucial for modeling nucleosynthesis pathways in stellar environments. However, many of these reactions involve short-lived radioactive isotopes and occur at energies where direct cross-section measurements are extremely challenging due to their low probabilities.

At TRIUMF’s Isotope Separator and Accelerator (ISAC) facility in Vancouver, Canada, a suite of dedicated instruments—including the Detector of Recoils And Gammas Of Nuclear reactions (DRAGON) recoil separator, the TRIUMF UK Detector Array (TUDA) for charged-particle detection, and the ElectroMagnetic Mass Analyser (EMMA) recoil mass spectrometer—has been developed to address these challenges using inverse kinematics techniques. These tools enable precise measurements of nuclear reaction rates critical to advance astrophysical models. The ramping up of the Advanced Rare IsotopE Laboratory (ARIEL) at TRIUMF will further expand access to rare isotope beams, opening new avenues for experimental nuclear astrophysics.

This contribution will highlight the methods and recent achievements of TRIUMF’s nuclear astrophysics program and provide an outlook on future experiments foreseen in the ARIEL era.