Production and β Decay of rp-Process Nuclei ⁹⁶Cd, ⁹⁸In, and ¹⁰⁰Sn

The β-decay properties of the N=Z nuclei ⁹⁶Cd, ⁹⁸In, and ¹⁰⁰Sn have been studied. These nuclei were produced at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory by fragmenting a 120  MeV/nucleon ¹¹²Sn primary beam on a Be target. The resulting radioactive beam was filtered in the A1900 and the newly commissioned Radio Frequency Fragment Separator to achieve a purity level suitable for decay studies. The observed production cross sections of these nuclei are lower than predicted by factors of 10–30. The half-life of ⁹⁶Cd, which was the last experimentally unknown waiting point half-life of the astrophysical rp process, is 1.03_-0.21^+0.24  s. The implications of the experimental T_1/2 value of ⁹⁶Cd on the abundances predicted by rp process calculations and the origin of A=96 isobars such as ⁹⁶Ru are explored.