Brian H Moazen

The magic nature of 132 Sn explored through the single-particle states of 133 Sn

Atomic nuclei have a shell structure in which nuclei with ‘magic numbers’ of neutrons and protons are analogous to the noble gases in atomic physics. Only ten nuclei with the standard magic numbers of both neutrons and protons have so far been observed. The nuclear shell model is founded on the precept that neutrons and protons can move as independent particles in orbitals with discrete quantum numbers, subject to a mean field generated by all the other nucleons. Knowledge of the properties of single-particle states outside nuclear shell closures in exotic nuclei is important for a fundamental understanding of nuclear structure and nucleosynthesis (for example the r-process, which is responsible for the production of about half of the heavy elements). However, as a result of their short lifetimes, there is a paucity of knowledge about the nature of single-particle states outside exotic doubly magic nuclei. Here we measure the single-particle character of the levels in 133Sn that lie outside the double shell closure present at the short-lived nucleus 132Sn. We use an inverse kinematics technique that involves the transfer of a single nucleon to the nucleus. The purity of the measured single-particle states clearly illustrates the magic nature of 132Sn.

Halo Nucleus Be11: A Spectroscopic Study via Neutron Transfer

The best examples of halo nuclei, exotic systems with a diffuse nuclear cloud surrounding a tightly bound core, are found in the light, neutron-rich region, where the halo neutrons experience only weak binding and a weak, or no, potential barrier. Modern direct-reaction measurement techniques provide powerful probes of the structure of exotic nuclei. Despite more than four decades of these studies on the benchmark one-neutron halo nucleus 11Be, the spectroscopic factors for the two bound states remain poorly constrained. In the present work, the 10Be d;p reaction has been used in inverse kinematics at four beam energies to study the structure of 11Be. The spectroscopic factors extracted using the adiabatic model were found to be consistent across the four measurements and were largely insensitive to the optical potential used. The extracted spectroscopic factor for a neutron in an n j 2s1=2 state coupled to the ground state of 10Be is 0.71(5). For the first excited state at 0.32 MeV, a spectroscopic factor of 0.62(4) is found for the halo neutron in a 1p1=2 state.

Direct reaction measurements with a 132Sn radioactive ion beam

The (d,p) neutron transfer and (d,d) elastic scattering reactions were measured in inverse kinematics using a radioactive ion beam of {sup 132}Sn at 630 MeV. The elastic scattering data were taken in a region where Rutherford scattering dominated the reaction, and nuclear effects account for less than 8% of the elastic scattering cross section. The magnitude of the nuclear effects, in the angular range studied, was found to be independent of the optical potential used, allowing the transfer data to be normalized in a reliable manner. The neutron-transfer reaction populated a previously unmeasured state at 1363 keV, which is most likely the single-particle 3p{sub 1/2} state expected above the N=82 shell closure. The data were analyzed using finite-range adiabatic-wave calculations and the results compared with the previous analysis using the distorted-wave Born approximation. Angular distributions for the ground and first-excited states are consistent with the previous tentative spin and parity assignments. Spectroscopic factors extracted from the differential cross sections are similar to those found for the one-neutron states beyond the benchmark doubly magic nucleus {sup 208}Pb.

Reactions of a 10 Be beam on proton and deuteron targets

The extraction of detailed nuclear structure information from transfer reactions requires reliable, well-normalized data, as well as optical potentials and a theoretical framework demonstrated to work well in the relevant mass and beam energy ranges. It is rare that the theoretical ingredients can be tested well for exotic nuclei owing to the paucity of data. The halo nucleus

Studies of Nuclei Close to 132Sn Using Single-Neutron Transfer Reactions

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Development of ORRUBA: A Silicon Array for the Measurement of Transfer Reactions in Inverse Kinematics

Be has been examined through the

Elemental Discrimination of Low-energy Ions Using Risetime Analysis of Silicon-strip Detector Signals

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Neutron Transfer Reactions: Surrogates for Neutron Capture for Basic and Applied Nuclear Science

Be(

Inelastic {sup 17}F(p,p){sup 17}F scattering at E{sub c.m.}=3 MeV and the {sup 14}O(alpha,p){sup 17}F reaction rate

d,p

The {sup 28}Si(p,t){sup 26}Si{sup *}(p) reaction and implications for the astrophysical {sup 25}Al(p,{gamma}){sup 26}Si reaction rate

) reaction in inverse kinematics at equivalent deuteron energies of