Radiative proton–capture reactions with 112,114 Cd at astrophysically important energies

The reaction network in the neutron-deficient part of the nuclear chart around A ≈ 100 contains several nuclei of importance to astrophysical processes, such as the p–process. This work reports on the results from recent experimental studies of the radiative proton–capture reactions 112,114 Cd( p , γ ) 113,115 In. Experimental cross sections for the reactions have been measured for proton beam energies residing inside the respective Gamow windows for each reaction, using isotopically enriched 112 Cd and 114 Cd targets. Two different techniques, the in–beam γ –ray spectroscopy and the activation method have been implemented, where the latter is considered mandatory to account for the presence of low–lying isomers in 113 In ( E ≈ 392 keV, t 1/2 ≈ 100 min), and 115 In ( E ≈ 336 keV, t 1/2 ≈ 4.5 h). Following the measurement of the cross sections, the astrophysical S factors have been subsequently