P. Rahkila

The GREAT spectrometer

Abstract The GREAT spectrometer is designed to measure the decay properties of reaction products transported to the focal plane of a recoil separator. GREAT comprises a system of silicon, germanium and gas detectors optimised for detecting the arrival of the reaction products and correlating with any subsequent radioactive decay involving the emission of protons, α particles, β particles, γ rays, X-rays or conversion electrons. GREAT can either be employed as a sensitive stand-alone device for decay measurements at the focal plane, or used to provide a selective tag for prompt conversion electrons or γ rays measured with arrays of detectors deployed at the target position. A new concept of triggerless data acquisition (total data readout) has also been developed as part of the GREAT project, which circumvents the problems and limitations of common dead time in conventional data acquisition systems.

Nuclear isomers in superheavy elements as stepping stones towards the island of stability

A long-standing prediction of nuclear models is the emergence of a region of long-lived, or even stable, superheavy elements beyond the actinides. These nuclei owe their enhanced stability to closed shells in the structure of both protons and neutrons. However, theoretical approaches to date do not yield consistent predictions of the precise limits of the ‘island of stability’; experimental studies are therefore crucial. The bulk of experimental effort so far has been focused on the direct creation of superheavy elements in heavy ion fusion reactions, leading to the production of elements up to proton number Z = 118 (refs 4, 5). Recently, it has become possible to make detailed spectroscopic studies of nuclei beyond fermium (Z = 100), with the aim of understanding the underlying single-particle structure of superheavy elements. Here we report such a study of the nobelium isotope 254No, with 102 protons and 152 neutrons—the heaviest nucleus studied in this manner to date. We find three excited structures, two of which are isomeric (metastable). One of these structures is firmly assigned to a two-proton excitation. These states are highly significant as their location is sensitive to single-particle levels above the gap in shell energies predicted at Z = 114, and thus provide a microscopic benchmark for nuclear models of the superheavy elements.

Grain - A Java Data Analysis System for Total Data Readout

Grain is a data analysis system developed to be used with the novel Total Data Readout data acquisition system. In Total Data Readout all the electronics channels are read out asynchronously in singles mode and each data item is timestamped. Event building and analysis has to be done entirely in the software post-processing the data stream. A flexible and efficient event parser and the accompanying software system have been written entirely in Java. The design and implementation of the software are discussed along with experiences gained in running real-life experiments.

α decay studies of the nuclides U 218 and U 219

Very neutron deficient uranium isotopes were produced in fusion evaporation reactions using

Decay studies of Au 170 , 171 , Hg 171 – 173 , and Tl 176

^{40}\mathrm{Ar}

Quantum kinetic theory for fermions in temporally varying backrounds

ions on

Kinetic theory for scalar fields with nonlocal quantum coherence

^{182}\mathrm{W}

Application of Ultra-fast Timing Techniques to the Study of Exotic and Weakly Produced Nuclei

targets. The gas-filled recoil separator RITU was employed to collect the fusion products and to separate them from the scattered beam and other reaction products. The activities were implanted into a position sensitive silicon detector after passing through a gas-counter system. The isotopes were identified using spatial and time correlations between the implants and the decays. Two

In-beam spectroscopy using the JYFL gas-filled magnetic recoil separator RITU

\ensuremath{\alpha}

Collective Rotational - Vibrational Transition in the Very Neutron-Deficient Nuclei

-decaying states, with