Resonance scattering of 12C nuclei on protons in the Maya active target

This work is related to the realm of exotic nuclei. These are nuclei that exist far from the valley of stability. Study of these nuclei introduced many interesting phenomena and changed our understanding about the nuclear structure. As exotic nuclei are very short lived, their study has to be at the time of their production using radioactive beams of the exotic nuclei. The goal of the experiment was to study the $^{13}$Be low-lying energy levels. The experiment was performed at ISOLDE at CERN as $^{12}$Be beams are produced at this facility with suitable intensity and energy. The method used to study $^{13}$Be was elastic resonance reactions. This is a powerful tool to study unbound states. This thesis concentrates on the $^{12}$C nuclei that are present in the beam as isobaric contamination. $^{12}$C in the beam is scattered on the protons which is the target. The protons are introduced in the form of isobutene gas. The aim of this work is to prove the principle of the technique of elastic resonance scattering in inverse kinematics performed in an active target detector. This is first of a kind experiment that uses the reconstruction of kinematics to measure events outside the 0$^{0}$ degree. The active target used in this experiment is called MAYA. This is a gaseous detector based on working principle of the time projection chamber TPC. The analysis of the measurements starts with calibration of various components of MAYA detector. The next step is to identify different particles that are produced in the reaction. The reconstruction of the kinematics is later performed using the information obtained from MAYA to show the lab and center of mass spectra of the $^{13}$N compound nucleus which is produced by the scattering of $^{12}$C nuclei on protons. The thesis concludes with a discussion about the outcome of the measurement and the advantages of using active targets for reconstruction of kinematics. The possible improvement of the setup is also given and the future possibilities of using MAYA in more experiments