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An investigation of the influence of the isospin (N/Z ratio) on the thermometric characteristics, in the reactions 78Kr+40Ca and 86Kr+48Ca at 10 AMeV is presented. The experiment was performed at the INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Sud in Catania by using the beams delivered by the Superconductive Cyclotron and the 4π multidetector CHIMERA. The isospin effects on the decay modes of the two produced composite systems and on the competition between statistical and dynamical break-up of the projectile have been studied. The thermal evaporation from both compound nucleus (CN) and Quasi-Projectile Like Fragment (PLF) has been investigated by extracting the temperature with two different thermometric methods, namely the slope thermometer, with the alpha particles as probe, and the double isotope yields ratio thermometer. The results of the analysis suggest the influence of the N/Z ratio on the system (CN or PLF) temperature, regardless of the nature of the method used for its determination.

In this contribution the connection between the Dipolar degree of freedom excited in Heavy Ion Collisions through pre-equilibrium dipolar modes and the Isospin-equilibration processes is discussed. The connection leads to the definition of a new observable the so called “dipolar signal”, able to describe the equilibration process in the momentum space related to the final fragmentation produced by the HIC. Preliminary results on this observable measured on the system 48Ca +27 Al at 40 MeV/nucleon and corresponding to different degrees of dissipation/centrality are presented. The beam was accelerated through the Superconductor Cyclotron at the Laboratori Nazionali del Sud di Catania (Italy) and fragments were detected and identified with the 4π multi-detector CHIMERA.

We describe the search of the Efimov state in 12C performed by analysing a large set of 3-α particles coincidence data measured at the LNS laboratories with the CHIMERA detector. The data are compatible with the presence of an Efimov state at the excitation energy of 7.485 MeV, with an excitation probability smaller than 0.3% of the population probability of the Hoyle state. The Efimov state gamma decay probability should be around 30%, much larger than the one of the Hoyle state. The population of this level is compatible with the Suda limit for the 3-α reaction rate in stars because its population should be possible only through direct 3-α reaction. More investigations improving the detector angular resolution are needed to confirm these preliminary observations.

The inverse-kinematic thick-target method has been used in order to investigate 212Po alpha-structure by the elastic scattering of 208Pb on 4He target. A 208Pb beam, accelerated by the Superconducting Cyclotron (CS) of Laboratori Nazionali del Sud - INFN, at the incident energy of 10.1 A MeV was impinging onto a specifically designed 4He gas cell, two meter long. The gas cell wasacting both as target and as beam degrader, stopping the beam before reaching the alpha-particle detection system placed at 0° with respect to the beam axis. In order to disentangle the elastic contribution from other reaction channels (e.g. inelastic scattering) a microchannel plate was used to measure the Time of Flight(ToF) of both the 208Pb beam particles and the ejectiles along the gas cell. The 208Pbstopping power in the 4He gas target was also measured, as a key ingredient in order to establish theinteraction point inside the gas cell, in turn determining the solid angle covered by the detector. In the following, the experimental technique will be described, and the results of a preliminary data analysis will be shown.

The study of nuclei properties and of collision dynamics is a very active research field whose result have implications in different domains as for example astrophysics. The present and future facilities delivering radioactive ion beams with high intensity allow to extend these studies in the region far from the stability valley. New insight has thus been found on the effects of neutron richness on reaction mechanisms as well as on nuclear structure and nuclear matter properties, as for instance, the role of symmetry energy term of the nuclear Equation of State. The presence of diverse reaction products demands for highly performing and very specialized devices, also able to disentangle among different mechanisms, from fast dynamical processes to statistical emission from equilibrated sources. Numerous studies of the effects of N/Z ratio on fusion and associated processes can be found at different energies, together with many examples of the influence of neutron richness on the reaction time scale and the competition between equilibrated and prompt processes. A survey of very recent findings obtained with the CHIMERA and FARCOS devices is presented.

Within the European Partitioning & Transmutation research programs, infrastructures specifically dedicated to the study of fundamental reactor physics of future fast neutron-based reactors are very important. In this respect, an Accelerator Driven System low-power prototype, based on a 70 MeV proton beam impinging on a thick Beryllium converter, was recently proposed and designed within the INFN-E project. The world data on neutron yield from Be target are scarce in this proton energy range. This lack of data calls for a dedicated measurement which was performed at INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, covering a wide angular range, from 0 to 150 degrees, and an almost complete neutron energy interval, from thermal up to the beam energy. In this contribution the results are discussed together with the description of the proposed ADS facility.