H. Sakurai

Evidence for particle stability of 31 F and particle instability of 25 N and 28 O

Abstract The neutron drip line up to fluorine has been investigated by the projectile fragmentation of a 94.1A MeV 40 Ar beam at the fragment separator RIPS at RIKEN. A new neutron-rich isotope, 31 F, has been observed for the first time while clear evidence for the particle instability of 24,25 N, 27,28 O and 30 F has been obtained. The sudden change in stability from oxygen to fluorine may demonstrate the onset of deformation for the neutron-rich fluorine isotopes.

Evidence for a new nuclear /`magic number/' from the level structure of 54Ca

Atomic nuclei are finite quantum systems composed of two distinct types of fermion—protons and neutrons. In a manner similar to that of electrons orbiting in an atom, protons and neutrons in a nucleus form shell structures. In the case of stable, naturally occurring nuclei, large energy gaps exist between shells that fill completely when the proton or neutron number is equal to 2, 8, 20, 28, 50, 82 or 126 (ref. 1). Away from stability, however, these so-called ‘magic numbers’ are known to evolve in systems with a large imbalance of protons and neutrons. Although some of the standard shell closures can disappear, new ones are known to appear. Studies aiming to identify and understand such behaviour are of major importance in the field of experimental and theoretical nuclear physics. Here we report a spectroscopic study of the neutron-rich nucleus 54Ca (a bound system composed of 20 protons and 34 neutrons) using proton knockout reactions involving fast radioactive projectiles. The results highlight the doubly magic nature of 54Ca and provide direct experimental evidence for the onset of a sizable subshell closure at neutron number 34 in isotopes far from stability.

Identification of New Isotopes 125 Pd and 126 Pd produced by In-flight Fission of 345 MeV/nucleon 238 U: First Results from the RIKEN RI Beam Factory

A search for new isotopes using in-flight fission of a 345 MeV/nucleon 238 U beam has been carried out in the commissioning experiment of the next-generation in-flight radioactive isotope beam separator BigRIPS at the RI Beam Factory at the RIKEN Nishina Center. Two neutron-rich palladium isotopes 125 Pd and 126 Pd were observed for the first time, which demonstrates the great potential of the RIKEN RI beam factory.

Isomeric 0+ state in 12Be

An isomeric 0+ state at E x = 2.24 MeV in 12Be was found in the projectile fragmentation of 18O at 100 A MeV on a Be target. The excitation energy and the spin assignment were deduced by the measurements of the energies and the angular correlation function of the coincident two γ-rays corresponding to the 0+ → 2+ → 0+ decay, respectively.

Projectile fragmentation reactions and production of nuclei near the neutron drip line

The production mechanism of projectile-like fragments at intermediate energies has been investigated to understand the mechanism itself and to make precise prediction of the secondary beam intensity for designing experiments. We focus the target dependence of momentum distributions and production cross sections of fragments. Measurement of longitudinal momentum distributions of projectile-like fragments ranging 3

Search for new neutron-rich nuclei with a 70A MeV 48Ca beam

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Extension of the N = 40 Island of Inversion towards N =50: Spectroscopy of 66Cr,70,72Fe

Z

Shape coexistence and the N = 28 shell closure far from stability

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Coulomb dissociation of halo nuclei

18 in the neutron-rich side has been performed with a 90-94A MeV

System, centrality, and transverse mass dependence of two-pion correlation radii in heavy ion collisions at 11.6A and 14.6A GeV/c

^{40} Ar