The Prototype Active-Target Time-Projection Chamber used with TwinSol radioactive-ion beams

The study of low-energy reactions with radioactive-ion beams has been greatly enhanced by the recent use of active-target detectors, which have high efficiency and low thresholds to detect low-energy charged-particle decays. Both of these features have been used in experiments with the Prototype Active-Target Time-Projection Chamber to study α-cluster structure in unstable nuclei and 3-body charged-particle decays after implantation. Predicted α -cluster structures in ¹⁴C were probed using resonant α scattering and the nature of the 3-α breakup of the 02+ Hoyle state in ¹²C after the beta decay of ¹²N and ¹²B was studied. These experiments used in-flight radioactive-ion beams that were produced using the dual superconducting solenoid magnets TwinSol at the University of Notre Dame. Preliminary results from these experiments as well as the development of future radioactive beams to be used in conjunction with the PAT-TPC are presented.