We briefly reviewed and summarized the experimental study on β-delayed proton decays published by our group over the last 8 years, namely the experimental observation of β-delayed proton decays of nine new nuclides in the rare-earth region near the proton drip line and five nuclides in the mass 90 region with N ∼ Z by utilizing the p-γ coincidence technique in combination with a He-jet tape transport system. In addition, important technical details of the experiments were provided. The experimental results were compared to the theoretical predictions of some nuclear models, resulting in the following conclusions. (1) The experimental half-lives for 85 Mo, 92 Rh, as well as the predicted "waiting point" nuclei 89 Ru and 93 Pd were 5-10 times longer than the macroscopic-microscopic model predictions of Möller et al. [At. Data Nucl. Data Tables 66, 131 (1997)]. These data considerably influenced the predictions of the mass abundances of the nuclides produced in the rp process.(2) The experimental assignments of spin and parity for the drip-line nuclei 142 Ho and 128 Pm could not be well predicted by any of the nuclear models. Nevertheless, the configuration-constrained nuclear potential-energy surfaces calculated by means of a Woods-Saxon-Strutinsky method could reproduce the assignments. (3) The ALICE code overestimated by one or two orders of magnitude the production-reaction cross sections of the nine studied rare-earth nuclei, while the HIVAP code overestimated them by approximately one order of magnitude.

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A pellet target produces micro-spheres of different materials, which are used as an internal target for nuclear and particle physics studies. We will describe the pellet hydrogen behavior by means of fluid dynamics and thermodynamics. In particular one aim is to theoretically understand the cooling effect in order to find an effective method to optimize the working conditions of a pellet target. During the droplet formation the evaporative cooling is best described by a multi-droplet diffusioncontrolled model, while in vacuum, the evaporation follows the (revised) HertzKnudsen formula. Experimental observations compared with calculations clearly indicated the presence of supercooling, the effect of which is discussed as well.