N. Fukuda

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.

Anomalously hindered E2 strength B(E2;2+(1)-->0+) in 16C.

The electric quadrupole transition from the first 2(+) state to the ground 0(+) state in 16C is studied through measurement of the lifetime by a recoil shadow method applied to inelastically scattered radioactive 16C nuclei. The measured mean lifetime is 77+/-14(stat)+/-19(syst) ps. The central value of mean lifetime corresponds to a B(E2;2+(1)-->0(+)) value of 0.63e(2) fm(4), or 0.26 Weisskopf units. The transition strength is found to be anomalously small compared to the empirically predicted value.

Unbound excited states in 19,17C

The neutron-rich carbon isotopes 19,17C have been investigated via proton inelastic scattering on a liquid hydrogen target at 70 MeV/nucleon. The invariant mass method in inverse kinematics was employed to reconstruct the energy spectrum, in which fast neutrons and charged fragments were detected in coincidence using a neutron hodoscope and a dipole magnet system. A peak has been observed with an excitation energy of 1.46(10) MeV in C, while three peaks with energies of 2.20(3), 3.05(3), and 6.13(9) MeV have been observed in C. Deduced cross sections are compared with microscopic DWBA calculations based on p-sd shell model wave functions and modern nucleon-nucleus optical potentials. Jπ assignments are made for the four observed states as well as the ground states of both nuclei.

Determination of the astrophysical S factor of the 8B(p,γ)9C capture reaction from the d(8B,9C)n reaction

The asymptotic normalization coefficients for the virtual decay 9 C → 8 B + p have been determined by measuring the crosssection of the 8 B(d, n) 9 C reaction in inverse kinematics at 14.4 MeV/u, using the RIPS facility. The deduced astrophysical S factor S18 of the 8 B(p ,γ ) 9 C capture reaction in the center of mass energy range 1–100 keV is S18 = 45 ± 13 eV b.  2001

Candidate Resonant Tetraneutron State Populated by the He 4 (He 8, Be 8) Reaction

A candidate resonant tetraneutron state is found in the missing-mass spectrum obtained in the double-charge-exchange reaction ^{4}He(^{8}He,^{8}Be) at 186  MeV/u. The energy of the state is 0.83±0.65(stat)±1.25(syst)  MeV above the threshold of four-neutron decay with a significance level of 4.9σ. Utilizing the large positive Q value of the (^{8}He,^{8}Be) reaction, an almost recoilless condition of the four-neutron system was achieved so as to obtain a weakly interacting four-neutron system efficiently.

Energy resolution of gas ionization chamber for high-energy heavy ions

The energy resolution is reported for high-energy heavy ions with energies of nearly 340 MeV/nucleon and was measured using a gas ionization chamber filled with a 90%Ar/10%CH4 gas mixture. We observed that the energy resolution is proportional to the inverse of the atomic number of incident ions and to the inverse-square-root of the gas thickness. These results are consistent with the Bethe–Bloch formula for the energy loss of charged particles and the Bohr expression for heavy ion energy straggling. In addition, the influence of high-energy δ-rays generated in the detector on the energy deposition is discussed.

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

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