Storage rings for radioactive, highly charged ions Original Research Article

After a condensed survey on the basics of ion storage–cooler rings, Schottky mass spectrometry on unstable nuclei at the ion cooler-ring ESR is discussed, emphasizing efficiency, resolving power, and sensitivity of this method. Then the extension of in-ring mass spectrometry to short-lived nuclei by a newly developed time-of-flight technique will be outlined. Cooler rings are the only tools to address beta decay of highly charged ions which has an obvious connection to nucleosynthesis in hot stellar plasmas. That is elucidated for the cases of electron capture and bound-state beta decay, whose astrophysical impact will be finally discussed at the example of the galactic chronometer 187Re/187Os.