Yuri A. Litvinov

Beta decay of highly charged ions

Beta decay of highly charged ions has attracted much attention in recent years. An obvious motivation for this research is that stellar nucleosynthesis proceeds at high temperatures where the involved atoms are highly ionized. Another important reason is addressing decays of well-defined quantum-mechanical systems, such as one-electron ions where all interactions with other electrons are excluded. The largest modifications of nuclear half-lives with respect to neutral atoms have been observed in beta decay of highly charged ions. These studies can be performed solely at ion storage rings and ion traps, because there high atomic charge states can be preserved for extended periods of time (up to several hours). Currently, all experimental results available in this field originate from experiments at the heavy-ion complex GSI in Darmstadt. There, the fragment separator facility FRS allows the production and separation of exotic, highly charged nuclides, which can then be stored and investigated in the storage ring facility ESR. In this review, we present and discuss in particular two-body beta decays, namely bound-state beta decay and orbital electron capture. Although we focus on experiments conducted at GSI, we will also attempt to provide general requirements common to any other experiment in this context. Finally, we address challenging but not yet performed experiments and we give prospects for the new radioactive beam facilities, such as FAIR in Darmstadt, IMP in Lanzhou and RIKEN in Wako.

Discovery and cross-section measurement of neutron-rich isotopes in the element range from neodymium to platinum with the FRS

Abstract:Using the high-resolution performance of the fragment separator FRS at GSI we have discovered 60 new neutron-rich isotopes in the atomic number range of 60⩽Z⩽78. The new isotopes were unambiguously identified in reactions with a

Isospin dependence in the odd-even staggering of nuclear binding energies

The FRS-ESR facility at GSI provides unique conditions for precision measurements of large areas on the nuclear mass surface in a single experiment. Values for masses of 604 neutron-deficient nuclides (30 < or = Z < or = 92) were obtained with a typical uncertainty of 30 microu. The masses of 114 nuclides were determined for the first time. The odd-even staggering (OES) of nuclear masses was systematically investigated for isotopic chains between the proton shell closures at Z = 50 and Z = 82. The results were compared with predictions of modern nuclear models. The comparison revealed that the measured trend of OES is not reproduced by the theories fitted to masses only. The spectral pairing gaps extracted from models adjusted to both masses, and density related observables of nuclei agree better with the experimental data.

SPARC collaboration: new strategy for storage ring physics at FAIR

SPARC collaboration at FAIR pursues the worldwide unique research program by utilizing storage ring and trapping facilities for highly-charged heavy ions. The main focus is laid on the exploration of the physics at strong, ultra-short electromagnetic fields including the fundamental interactions between electrons and heavy nuclei as well as on the experiments at the border between nuclear and atomic physics. Very recently SPARC worked out a realization scheme for experiments with highly-charged heavy-ions at relativistic energies in the High-Energy Storage Ring HESR and at very low-energies at the CRYRING coupled to the present ESR. Both facilities provide unprecedented physics opportunities already at the very early stage of FAIR operation. The installation of CRYRING, dedicated Low-energy Storage Ring (LSR) for FLAIR, may even enable a much earlier realisation of the physics program of FLAIR with slow anti-protons.

Dominant Secondary Nuclear Photoexcitation with the X-ray Free Electron Laser

The new regime of resonant nuclear photoexcitation rendered possible by x-ray free-electron laser beams interacting with solid state targets is investigated theoretically. Our results unexpectedly show that secondary processes coupling nuclei to the atomic shell in the created cold high-density plasma can dominate direct photoexcitation. As an example, we discuss the case of

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

^{93m}\mathrm{Mo}

96Ru(p,γ)97Rh measurement at the GSI storage ring

isomer depletion for which nuclear excitation by electron capture as a secondary process is shown to be orders of magnitude more efficient than the direct laser-nucleus interaction. General arguments revisiting the role of the x-ray free-electron laser in nuclear experiments involving solid-state targets are further deduced.

High precision hyperfine measurements in Bismuth challenge bound-state strong-field QED

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.

Storage ring mass spectrometry for nuclear structure and astrophysics research

A pioneering experiment was recently performed at the Experimental Storage Ring (ESR) at GSI. Fully stripped ions of 96Ru were injected into the storage ring and slowed down to a few MeV per nucleon. The 97Rh ions from the 96Ru(p,γ) reaction at a newly developed hydrogen jet target were detected with Double Sided Silicon Strip Detectors (DSSSD) mounted inside a pocket. The experiment and the status of the analysis at a beam energy of 11 MeV per nucleon will be presented.

Mass and lifetime measurements at the present ESR facility

Electrons bound in highly charged heavy ions such as hydrogen-like bismuth 209Bi82+ experience electromagnetic fields that are a million times stronger than in light atoms. Measuring the wavelength of light emitted and absorbed by these ions is therefore a sensitive testing ground for quantum electrodynamical (QED) effects and especially the electron–nucleus interaction under such extreme conditions. However, insufficient knowledge of the nuclear structure has prevented a rigorous test of strong-field QED. Here we present a measurement of the so-called specific difference between the hyperfine splittings in hydrogen-like and lithium-like bismuth 209Bi82+,80+ with a precision that is improved by more than an order of magnitude. Even though this quantity is believed to be largely insensitive to nuclear structure and therefore the most decisive test of QED in the strong magnetic field regime, we find a 7-σ discrepancy compared with the theoretical prediction.