M. Heil

Results of the ASY-EOS experiment at GSI : the symmetry energy at suprasaturation density

Directed and elliptic flows of neutrons and light charged particles were measured for the reaction 197Au+197Au at 400 MeV/nucleon incident energy within the ASY-EOS experimental campaign at the GSI laboratory. The detection system consisted of the Large Area Neutron Detector LAND, combined with parts of the CHIMERA multidetector, of the ALADIN Time-of-flight Wall, and of the Washington-University Microball detector. The latter three arrays were used for the event characterization and reaction-plane reconstruction. In addition, an array of triple telescopes, KRATTA, was used for complementary measurements of the isotopic composition and flows of light charged particles. From the comparison of the elliptic flow ratio of neutrons with respect to charged particles with UrQMD predictions, a value gamma = 0.72 pm 0.19 is obtained for the power-law coefficient describing the density dependence of the potential part in the parametrization of the symmetry energy. It represents a new and more stringent constraint for the regime of supra-saturation density and confirms, with a considerably smaller uncertainty, the moderately soft to linear density dependence deduced from the earlier FOPI-LAND data. The densities probed are shown to reach beyond twice saturation.

Schottky mass measurements of heavy neutron-rich nuclides in the element range 70 <= Z <= 79 at the GSI Experimental Storage Ring

D. Shubina, 2, 3 R.B. Cakirli, 4 Yu.A. Litvinov, 3 K. Blaum, C. Brandau, 5 F. Bosch, J.J. Carroll, R.F. Casten, D.M. Cullen, I.J. Cullen, A.Y. Deo, B. Detwiler, C. Dimopoulou, F. Farinon, H. Geissel, 11 E. Haettner, M. Heil, R.S. Kempley, C. Kozhuharov, R. Knobel, J. Kurcewicz, N. Kuzminchuk, S.A. Litvinov, Z. Liu, R. Mao, C. Nociforo, F. Nolden, Z. Patyk, W.R. Plass, A. Prochazka, M.W. Reed, 15 M.S. Sanjari, 16 C. Scheidenberger, 11 M. Steck, Th. Stohlker, 17, 18 B. Sun, 19 T.P.D. Swan, G. Trees, P.M. Walker, 20 H. Weick, N. Winckler, 3 M. Winkler, P.J. Woods, T. Yamaguchi, and C. Zhou Max-Planck-Institut fur Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany Fakultat fur Physik und Astronomie, Universitat Heidelberg, Philosophenweg 12, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany GSI Helmholtzzentrum fur Schwerionenforschung, Planckstrase 1, 64291 Darmstadt, Germany Department of Physics, University of Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey ExtreMe Matter Institute EMMI, GSI Helmholtzzentrum fur Schwerionenforschung, 64291 Darmstadt, Germany US Army Research Laboratory, 2800 Powder Mill Road, Adelphi MD, USA Wright Nuclear Structure Laboratory, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA Schuster Laboratory, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom Department of Physics, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey GU2 7XH, United Kingdom Youngstown State University, One University Plaza, Youngstown, Ohio 44555, USA II Physikalisches Institut, Justus-Liebig-Universitat Giesen, 35392 Giesen, Germany School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JZ, United Kingdom Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, People’s Republic of China National Centre for Nuclear Research, PL-00681 Warsaw, Poland Department of Nuclear Physics, R.S.P.E., Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia Goethe-Universitat Frankfurt, 60438 Frankfurt, Germany Friedrich-Schiller-Universitat Jena, 07737 Jena, Germany Helmholtz-Institut Jena, 07743 Jena, Germany School of Physics and Nuclear Energy Engineering, Beihang University, 100191 Beijing, PRC CERN, CH-1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Saitama University, Saitama 338-8570, Japan Storage-ring mass spectrometry was applied to neutron-rich Au projectile fragments. Masses of Lu, Hf, Ta, W, and Re nuclei were measured for the first time. The uncertainty of previously known masses of W and Os nuclei was improved. Observed irregularities on the smooth two-neutron separation energies for Hf and W isotopes are linked to the collectivity phenomena in the corresponding nuclei.

Probing nuclear properties by resonant atomic collisions between electrons and ions

The utilization of the resonant atomic electron–ion collision process of dielectronic recombination (DR) as a tool to probe nuclear properties via isotope shifts and hyperfine effects is discussed. Based on DR, this resonance reaction spectroscopy at electron coolers of heavy-ion storage rings denotes a versatile approach to access nuclear parameters such as charge radius, spin, magnetic moment or lifetimes of long-lived excited nuclear states (isomers). The high sensitivity of DR allows for experiments with artificially synthesized rare isotopes and isomers. Recent experimental progress in the preparation of such exotic species at the ESR storage ring in Darmstadt is presented. The DR technique is exemplified for the case of 234Pa88+ (Z = 91).

Accuracy of the Pulse Height Weighting Technique for Capture Cross Section Measurements

The accuracy of the pulse height weighting technique for the measurement of neutron capture (n,γ) cross sections is investigated. Detailed Monte Carlo simulations of capture measurements are compared to experimental data. Several causes of systematic deviation are investigated and their effect is quantified.

First Measurement of Several β-Delayed Neutron Emitting Isotopes Beyond N=126

The β-delayed neutron emission probabilities of neutron rich Hg and Tl nuclei have been measured together with β-decay half-lives for 20 isotopes of Au, Hg, Tl, Pb, and Bi in the mass region N≳126. These are the heaviest species where neutron emission has been observed so far. These measurements provide key information to evaluate the performance of nuclear microscopic and phenomenological models in reproducing the high-energy part of the β-decay strength distribution. This provides important constraints on global theoretical models currently used in r-process nucleosynthesis.

Neutron-skin thickness from the study of the anti-analog giant dipole resonance

The γ-decay of the anti-analog of the giant dipole resonance (AGDR) to the isobaric analog state has been measured following the p( 124Sn,n) reaction at a beam energy of 600 MeV/nucleon. The energy of the transition was also calculated with state-of-the-art self-consistent relativistic random-phase approximation (RPA) and turned out to be very sensitive to the neutronskin thickness (ΔRpn). By comparing the theoretical results with the measured one, the ΔRpn value for 124Sn was deduced to be 0.21 ± 0.07 fm, which agrees well with the previous results. The present method offers new possibilities for measuring the neutron-skin thicknesses of very exotic isotopes.

Approaching the precursor nuclei of the third r-process peak with RIBs

The rapid neutron nucleosynthesis process involves an enormous amount of very exotic neutron-rich nuclei, which represent a theoretical and experimental challenge. Two of the nmain decay properties that affect the final abundance distribution the most are half-lives and neutron branching ratios. Using fragmentation of a primary 238U beam at GSI we were able to measure such properties for several neutron-rich nuclei from 208Hg to 218Pb. This contribution provides a short update on the status of the data analysis of this experiment, together with a compilation of the latest results published in this mass region, both experimental and theoretical. nThe impact of the uncertainties connected with the eta-decay rates and with beta-delayed neutron emission is illustrated on the basis of r-process network calculations. In order to nobtain a reasonable reproduction of the third r-process peak, it is expected that both half-lives and neutron branching ratios are substantially smaller, than those based on FRDM+QRPA, ncommonly used in r-process model calculations. Further measurements around N 126 are required for a reliable modelling of the underlying nuclear structure, and for performing more realistic r-process abundance calculations.

Coulomb excitation of exotic nuclei at the R3B-LAND setup

Exotic Ni isotopes have been measured at the R3B-LAND setup at GSI in Darmstadt, using Coulomb excitation in inverse kinematics at beam energies around 500 MeV/u. As the experimental setup allows kinematically complete measurements, the excitation energy was reconstructed using the invariant mass method. The GDR and additional low-lying strength have been observed in 68Ni, the latter exhausting 4.1(1.9)% of the E1 energy-weighted sum rule. Also, the branching ratio for the non-statistical decay of the excited 68Ni nuclei was measured and amounts to 24(4)%.

Coulomb dissociation reactions on Mo isotopes for astrophysics applications

Photo-dissociation reactions play an important role in p-process nucleosynthesis, which takes place in supernova explosions. Theoretical calculations of isotopic abundances of the p-nuclei require a vast reaction network linking thousands of isotopes, where most of the reaction rates must be derived from the Hauser-Feshbach statistical model. However, as many rates as possible need to be determined experimentally, in order to provide a reliable reference for the calculations. Measuring reaction rates on Mo isotopes is important to explain the problem of the significant underproduction of Mo and Ru in all existing models of p-process nucleosynthesis. Another aspect of the project is to verify the accuracy of the Coulomb dissociation method by comparing our data with experiments performed with real photons at S-DALINAC (TU Darmstadt) and ELBE (FZD) [1].

Stellar (n,γ ) cross sections of 23Na

The cross section of the ²³Na(n,γ)²⁴Na reaction has been measured via the activation method at the Karlsruhe 3.7 MV Van de Graaff accelerator. NaCl samples were exposed to quasistellar neutron spectra at kT = 5.1 and 25 keV produced via the ¹⁸O(p,n)¹⁸F and ⁷Li(p,n)⁷Be reactions, respectively. The derived capture cross sections (σ)kT=5keV = 9.1 ± 0.3mb and (σ)kT=25keV = 2.03 ± 0.05 mb are significantly lower than reported in literature. These results were used to substantially revise the radiative width of the first ²³Na resonance and to establish an improved set of Maxwellian average cross sections. The implications of the lower capture cross section for current models of s-process nucleosynthesis are discussed.