The heaviest elements form by the rapid neutron capture process (r-process) in neutron star mergers and rare core-collapse supernovae. The light curve of the kilonova following the neutron star merger GW170817 showed indications of heavy elements being produced and direct observation of Strontium. This talk will report on recent breakthroughs in understanding the extreme environment in which...
In this presentation I will show some recent results obtained at GANIL.
Studies of nuclear excited states using High-resolution light-ion reactions have extensively been performed at RCNP and iThemba LABS in the past decades. Both facilities are unique for realizing zero-degree inelastic scattering experiments using proton or alpha particles and for the high-resolution capability of 20 keV.
For example, the proton-scattering experiment at zero degrees [1] has...
Inelastic proton scattering at very forward angles is an excellent tool for studying the dipole response in nuclei [1]. Reactions with intermediate proton energies of a few hundred MeV and scattering angles close to 0$^\circ$ are particularly suited to investigate the isovector spin-flip M1 resonance due to the strong spin-isospin dependent part of the effective proton-neutron interaction in...
The pygmy dipole resonance (PDR) is a cluster of 1- states around and below the neutron separation energy and has gained traction in nuclear structure studies. The microscopic nature of the PDR is still an open question in particular, whether these 1- states could be defined as collective or being dominated by specific single-particle configurations. The study here presented is one of the...
The RMS radius of neutrons within a nucleus may be measured cleanly, and without model dependence arising from hadronic interactions, through the parity-violating electroweak asymmetry in the elastic scattering of longitudinally polarized electrons. The PREX2 and CREX experiments recently measured the neutron radius of lead-208 and calcium-48 with varied physical implications from the...
The iThemba LABS fast neutron beam facility (D-line vault) is an international niche facility that can provide ns-pulsed quasi-monoenergetic neutron beams in the energy range of 30 to 200 MeV. Other available neutron beam facilities, with energy range similar to this facility, are described in details by the EURADOS (European Radiation Dosimetry) Report [1]. In the D-line, quasi-monoenergetic...
Flow following tracer particles containing short lived positron emitting species are placed inside physical and engineering devices. The pairs of photons produced by positron annihilation are detected in coincidence by large arrays of high speed position sensitive detectors, and used to determine the near-instantaneous position of the tracer. Hence the resulting bulk dynamics occurring inside...
Cosmic rays are comprised largely of high energy protons and alpha particles which create large amounts of secondary particles through spallation when they interact with our atmosphere. At aviation altitudes the radiation field is made up predominantly of neutrons in the energy range 1 - 100 MeV [1]. During space weather events, such as solar flares, the number of energetic particles entering...
Neutron-based nuclear techniques such as fast neutron analysis (FNA) and thermal neutron analysis (TNA) are among the most powerful techniques for elemental analysis in small and bulk samples [1, 2]. The techniques are rapid, non-destructive, and are capable of multi-elemental analysis of samples with complex matrices. Neutron-based techniques are often used in the minerals industry, where...
The goal of this work is to research photon interaction parameters of four meteorite samples which have various elemental contents from the scientific literature. Mass attenuation coefficients, effective atomic number values, effective electron density values, coherent scattering cross sections, incoherent scattering cross sections, photoelectric absorption cross sections, pair production...
The use of Energy Density Functional (EDF) method within a relativistic framework showed, this last decades, that it can both describe the bulk properties of nuclei (radii, GS energy, binding energy, ...)[1] as well as clusters formation[2].
The study of cluster structures allow for many applications ranging from $\alpha$ or cluster decay to many different kinds of excitations.
This last few...
The level structure of neutron rich nucleus, $^{78}$As has been investigated at the low- and medium-spin regime through the alpha-induced fusion evaporation reaction, at varying beam energies, using the mylar backed enriched $^{76}$Ge target. The de-excited gamma rays were detected using the INGA (Indian National Gamma Array) spectrometer stationed at VECC, Kolkata, India. The level scheme of...
In this work, we modify the Davydov-Chaban Hamiltonian describing the collective motion of a $\gamma$-rigid atomic nucleus by allowing the mass to depend on nuclear deformation. Exact analytical expressions are derived for energy spectra as well as normalized wave functions for Kratzer potential. The model called Z(4)-DDMD (Deformation Dependent Mass with Kratzer potential), is achieved by...
PEPT Cape Town has pioneered the development of Gallium-68 based tracer particle analogues for use in positron emission particle tracking studies of granular and multiphase systems. The accuracy of the measured data relies strongly on how representative the tracer particle analogue is to the media of interest in these dynamic systems. The ability to control and manipulate the tracer...
Direct neutron capture measurements on short-lived radionuclides can be extremely challenging, if not impossible using current techniques. Therefore, indirect methods have been developed. A new apparatus was installed at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) to measure neutron total cross sections on small radioactive samples as an indirect means to tightly constrain their...
Evidence for fusion hindrance in $^{12}$C + $^{24}$Mg was suggested by a recent experiment where the excitation function was over-estimated by standard CC calculations, and a pronounced indication of an S factor maximum vs energy was observed [1].
This system is slightly heavier than those of astrophysical interest, like $^{12}$C + $^{12}$C and $^{16}$O + $^{16}$O. Further measurements on...
The proton and neutron Fermi levels in nuclei with mass number A ~ 50 - 60 lie around the N = Z = 28 magic number. This shell gap is comparatively smaller which might have made the doubly magic $^{56}$Ni (N = Z = 28) a soft core [1]. The 1g$_{9/2}$ orbital, lies above fp orbital, has shape driving effect which leads to deformation and collectivity. Therefore, in these nuclei there is a...
A prompt and delayed $\gamma$-ray spectroscopy of neutron-deficient isotope $^{187}$Pb has been performed using the recoil-decay tagging and the isomer-decay tagging techniques at Argonne Gas-Filled Analyzer (AGFA). A new 4.66(4) $\mu$s isomer and a strongly-coupled band on top of it were identified. The band looks nearly identical to a band built on top of the 7/2$^{-}$[514] Nilsson orbital...
The formal concept of isospin has been introduced to explain the apparent exchange symmetry between neutrons and protons. However, if the nuclear force were the same for protons and neutrons properties such as masses and excitation energies would depend only on the mass number A. Recent studies have shown that the Coulomb force cannot account for all deviations, suggesting that other...
Keywords: LaBr3(Ce) detector; Background radiation; Gamma radiation; Detection limits
Abstract
NaI(Tl) detectors have for long been the preferred scintillation detector for radioisotope identification. However, one of the most profound shortcomings of this detector is its poor spectral resolution. A suitable replacement for NaI(Tl) is the LaBr3(Ce) detector. This detector shows...
B. P. Monteiro, K. C. C. Pires, R. Lichtenthäler, O. C. B. Santos
Departamento de Física Nuclear, Instituto de Física, Universidade de São
Paulo, 05508-090, SP, Brasil
A study of the mechanisms involved in the production of alpha particles from
reactions induced by a 6He radioactive beam on a 9Be light target, is presented. The
experimental data was obtained using the RIBRAS...
Electromagnetic excitations in finite nuclei represent one of the most important probes of relevance in nuclear structure and dynamic. Various aspects of magnetic dipole (M1) mode have been considered due to their relevance for nuclear properties associated e.g., to unnatural-parity states and spin-orbit splittings. Specifically, M1 spin-flip excitations are analog of Gamow-Teller (GT)...
The isotope $^{212}$Po has two-protons and neutrons outside the doubly-magic nucleus $^{208}$Pb and it may be assumed that the nuclear structure can be well described within the standard shell-model. But various experimental properties, such as the short-lived ground state are inconsistent with this model and better predicted by an $\alpha$-clustering model. The B(E2) values of the decays of...
The nuclear matrix elements of neutrinoless double-beta decay for nuclei 76Ge, 82Se, 100Mo, 130Te, and 150Nd are studied within the triaxial projected shell model, which incorporates simultaneously the triaxial deformation and quasiparticle configuration mixing. The low-lying spectra, the B(E2: 0+ to 2+) values, and the occupancies of single-particle orbits are reproduced well. The effects of...
Geant4 is a Monte Carlo based simulation toolkit utilized for the geometry and tracking of particles transport through matter. Geant4 offers variety of geometrical constructions, visualization, and multi-threading features, which are hard to find in simulating codes such as MCNP, FLUKA and FISPACTII. Evaluation of neutron radiation damage by means of Primary Knock-out Atoms (PKAs) and...
Recent studies of nuclear reactions involving weakly bound stable nuclei, $^{6,7}$Li and $^{9}$Be have revealed several interesting phenomena [1]. The low breakup threshold, small binding energy, and cluster structure are some of the unique features of these nuclei, which strongly influence the reaction dynamics at near barrier energies. The simultaneous measurement of complete/ incomplete...
HPGe detectors are one of the most important components of experimental nuclear physics. Therefore, a deeper understanding of them is required for better utilization of the available resources. Simulations allow us to do that in a faster way while also pointing to unaccounted processes in case of a mismatch between simulated and measured spectra. While there exist many simulation routines to...
Fusion-evaporation reactions have been proven very successful in populating excited states of deformed nuclei. The rare-earth region has been the focus of various studies (using Coulex etc) aiming at the understanding of nuclear structure and providing information on the details of the reaction mechanism. The Gd isotopes belong to this group of nuclei and despite the available spectroscopic...
The microscopic structure of the low-energy electric dipole response, commonly denoted as the Pygmy Dipole Resonance (PDR), was studied for $^{120}$Sn in a $^{119}$Sn$(d,p\gamma)^{120}$Sn experiment, using the SONIC@HORUS setup at the University of Cologne. Unprecedented access to the single-particle structure of excited $1^-$ states below and around the neutron-separation threshold was...
One of the current limitations of predicting the nuclear astrophysics r-process abundance is the lack of data on neutron-rich isotopes; measured neutron-capture cross-sections are the scarcest data. These cross-sections are also invaluable for nuclear reactions and structure in general. The current limitations come from the instability of the target and the projectiles. We proposed a method...
Abstract
Barrier distribution is a very sensitive tool for understanding fusion process in the presence of various possible channel couplings. There exist two experimental methods for investigating barrier distributions: (i) by the measurement of fusion excitation function and (ii) by the measurement of quasi-elastic excitation function. Among the two methods of measurements, the...
The K600 magnetic spectrometer at iThemba LABS has been augmented over the last few years with various ancillary detectors for coincidence measurements. One of these ancillary detector arrays is the Coincidence Array for K600 Experiments (the CAKE) which consists of double-sided silicon strip detectors.
One of the mainstays of the experimental programme of the K600 and the CAKE has been...
A neutron star is one of the possible end states of a massive star. It is compressed by gravity and stabilized by the nuclear degeneracy pressure. Despite its name, the composition of these objects are not exactly known. However, from the inferred densities, neutrons will most likely compose a significant fraction of the star’s interior. While all neutron stars are expected to have a...
Classical novae are thermonuclear explosions that take place in the H-rich envelopes of accreting white dwarfs in stellar binary systems. The material piles up under degenerate conditions, driving a thermonuclear runaway. The energy released by the suite of nuclear processes operating at the envelope heats the material up to peak temperatures of 100 - 400 MK. During these events, about...
The rare-earth isotopic chain of Samarium provides an excellent opportunity to systematically investigate the evolution of nuclear structure effects from the near-spherical ($β_{2}$=0.00) $^{144}$Sm isotope to the well-deformed system ($β_{2}$=0.27) $^{154}$Sm. As the nuclear shape changes, statistical properties such as the nuclear level density (NLD) and $\gamma$-strength function...
Nuclei in $A\sim50$ region that are close to the line of stability and have ($1f_{7/2}$)$^{n}$ ground state configuration for both proton and neutron, were investigated. Particularly, $^{51}Cr$ (Z =24) and $^{50}V$(Z =23) are of special interest as the proton $1f_{7/2}$ is only about half-occupied, but number of neutrons in neutron $1f_{7/2}$ orbital is just one short of the shell closure. ...
Although the atomic nucleus consists of strongly interacting nucleons, it is noteworthy that for such strongly interacting quantum system the independent-particle model is proven to be a valid approximation and has provided a basic framework to explain many properties of nuclei. However, correlations between the nucleons, both of short- and long-range nature, modify the mean-field...
Our understanding of the formation of the heaviest elements via r-process nucleosynthesis is built up through the detection and analysis of a variety of astrophysical observables: isotopic and elemental abundance patterns, electromagnetic signatures, and radioisotopes. The interpretation of each type of observable is complicated by the unknown nuclear physics of the thousands of neutron-rich...
The reaction network in the neutron-deficient part of the nuclear chart around A~100 contains several nuclei of importance to astrophysical processes, such as the p-process. This work reports on the results from recent experimental studies of the radiative proton-capture reactions $^{112,114}$Cd(p,γ)$^{113,115}$In. Isotopically enriched $^{112}$Cd and $^{114}$Cd targets have been used for...
One of the two main nucleosynthesis processes for explaining the formation and abundances of the neutron-rich nuclei in our universe is the slow neutron-capture process (s process). It takes place in environments with neutron densities in the range of 10$^{6}$–10$^{12}$ cm$^{−3}$. Due to these relatively small neutron densities, the β- decay rate usually dominates over the neutron-capture rate...
Globular clusters are key grounds for models of stellar evolution and early stages of the formation of galaxies. Abundance anomalies observed in the globular cluster NGC 2419, such as the enhancement of potassium and depletion of magnesium [1] can be explained in terms of an earlier generation of stars polluting the presently observed stars [2]. However, the nature and the properties of the...
This article reports in-situ measurements of the gamma dose rates and the activity concentrations 238U, 232Th and 40K, at about 1m above earth over kaolin mining fields in Ilorin-south and Ilorin-west, Kwara, Nigeria. A calibrated high precision and great accuracy RS-125 Super-Spec gamma spectrometer was utilized to perform radioactivity measurements on both minefields. Readings were recorded...
Cosmic radiation consisting of Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCRs) and Solar Energetic Particles (SEPs), and their associated secondary particles are a known radiation hazard for high altitude flights, satellites, and space operations. Solar energetic particles result from highly unpredictable space weather events, releasing a large number of high energy protons and alpha particles over short periods...
LaBr$_3$:Ce (2" x 2") detectors were used to measure soil samples placed in Marinelli beakers in singles and coincidence modes. Time-stamped data were acquired and background removed offline by using photon time-of-flight in addition to measurement of the two photon energies in coincidence. Coincident gamma-ray pairs from $^{238}$U ($^{214}$Bi) and $^{232}$Th ($^{208}$Tl) series were...
Indoor radon measurements started in Cameroon since 2012 by measuring 222Rn using the Electret Ionization chambers (EIC) in about 500 dwellings of some ore bearing areas, followed by the discriminative measurements of 222Rn and 220Rn in 450 dwellings using RADUET detectors in some mining and ore bearing areas of Cameroon. The collected data helped to build a Technical Cooperation Project with...
The low energy structure of nuclei close to the doubly magic $^{40}$Ca and $^{56}$Ni are driven by collective excitations, including shape coexistence and super-deformation [1]. On the other hand, the N=28 shell closure is also strongly influencing the nuclei between N=Z=20 and 28. Electric monopole, $E$0 transitions are often cited as excellent probes to explore the interactions of collective...
Prompt $\gamma$-ray spectroscopy is one of the experimental approaches that can effectively be utilized for extracting the relative isotopic and mass yield distributions of the fission fragment nuclei, produced from the compound fissioning nucleus. Ideally, this is a novel technique, in the sense, that it can be used to measure accurate fission yield distributions with one unit of mass...
Di-neutron correlations are extensively explored in recent experiments, and the enhancement of the spatial localization of the pair of the neutrons (n) has been confirmed at the nuclear surface in the light neutron-excess systems, such as $^{11}$Li and $^{19}$B. The di-neutron correlations are also investigated theoretically by employing the three-body model with core + n + n. The analysis of...
The single-particle excitations, particle-hole interactions, and mixing of various single particle configurations in nuclei with few valence particles or holes around $^{132}$Sn have been the subject of contemporary interest, both experimentally [1–4] and theoretically [5]. The excited states of these neutron-rich nuclei provide key inputs to understand the effective interactions in terms of...
The medium-to-heavy mass ytterbium isotopes ($_{70}$Yb) in the rare-earth mass region are known to be well-deformed nuclei, which can be populated to very high spin. Spectroscopic information becomes scarcer as the neutron number increases, impeding the understanding of nuclear structure in this mass region, where interesting phenomena, such as shape coexistence, have been predicted. The lack...
V. Guimaraes $^{1)}$, J. C. Zamora $^{1)}$, G. V. Rogachev $^{2,3)}$, S. Ahn $^{2)}$, E. Aboud $^{2,3)}$, M. Assuncao $^{4)}$, M. Barbui $^{2)}$, J. Bishop $^{2,3)}$, A. Bosh $^{2,3)}$, J. Hooker $^{2,3)}$, C. Hunt $^{2,3)}$,
D. Jayatissa $^{2,3)}$, E. Koshchiy $^{2)}$, S. Lukyanov $^{5)}$, R O’Dwyer $^{2,3)}$, Y. Penionzhkevich $^{5)}$,B. T. Roeder $^{2)}$, A. Saastamoinen $^{2)}$, E....
Halo phenomenon has long been a hot topic in nuclear physics. Due to the weakly binding nature, the Fermi surface of a halo nucleus is very close to the continuum threshold, and the pairing interaction can scatter nucleons from bound states to resonant ones in the continuum. It is therefore necessary to take into account the pairing correlations and continuum effects in describing the halo...
I will presented a novel Monte Carlo technique based on DSAM (Doppler Shift Attenuation Method), which has been developed to determine lifetimes of excited states in the tens to-hundreds femtoseconds range in products of low-energy heavy-ion binary reactions [1]. These reaction processes are characterized by large energy dissipation, leading to complex velocity distributions which do not allow...
Alpha emitting radionuclides with medically relevant half-lives are interesting for treatment of tumors and other diseases because they deposit large amounts of energy close to the location of the radioisotope. Researchers at the Cyclotron Institute at Texas A&M University are developing a program to produce $^{211}$At, an alpha emitter with a 7.2 h half-life. The properties of $^{211}$At make...
The radiosensitivity of haematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) to neutron radiation remains largely underexplored, notwithstanding their role as target cells for radiation-induced leukemogenesis. This is important for radiation protection purposes, particularly for aviation, space missions, nuclear accidents and even particle therapy. In this study, HSPCs (CD34+ cells) were isolated...
Coupling alpha-emitting radionuclides with disease seeking targeting vectors for site-selective delivery of cytotoxic radiation has the potential to be a powerful technique for treating metastatic and hard to treat cancers. The success of this type of treatment, termed targeted alpha therapy (TAT), is reliant on the availability of isotope and ability to securely tether said isotope to a...
The lack of information on how biological systems respond to low-dose and low dose-rate radiation makes it difficult to accurately assess the corresponding health risks. This is of critical importance to space radiation, which remains a serious concern for long-term manned space exploration. Therefore, a growing number of particle accelerator facilities implement ground-based analogues to...
Abstract
Several properties of nuclear structure for even- even 124-130Barium nuclei have been explored with Interacting Boson Model. This work studies the systematic reduced transition probabilities B(E2) ↓ of Ba isotopes with even neutrons from N=68 to 74. The values of parameters have been determined with the formation of cubic terms by Casimir invariant operators and...
The advent of high-efficiency $\gamma$ ray spectrometers with multiple types of detectors, digital signal processing-based data acquisition system, and the realistic possibility of taking a stride in the hitherto unknown territory of nuclear landscape are driving the low- and medium-energy nuclear physics into the path of exciting exploration. With this in consideration, a novel facility,...
In nuclear reactions induced by low-energy charged particles, atomic electrons can participate in the process by screening the nuclear charge and so, effectively reduce the repulsive Coulomb barrier. Consequently, the measured cross section is enhanced by an effect called electron screening. In numerous experiments, different research groups [1-4] obtained extremely high values of electron...
Nuclei around doubly magic $^{208}$Pb have long served as a testing ground for the validity of the shell model. While the high-spin states of these nuclei have been studied extensively, data on electromagnetic transition rates between the low-spin states are scarce. Members of the $N = 125$ isotone chain – including $^{209}$Po, $^{211}$Rn and $^{213}$Ra – exhibit a ground state with...
The development of deformation in proton deficient N = 28 isotones is analyzed by employing relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov (RHB) model based on recently introduced energy density functional DD-PCX. The calculations are performed by imposing constraints on axial and triaxial mass quadrupole moments. The regions of low-level density in neutron and proton single-particle states, around the Fermi...
The study of exotic nuclei is presently a challenge for nuclear physics. Indeed, exotic nuclei properties are useful to investigate nuclear structure models, features of the nuclear force and nuclear reactions important for nuclear astrophysics. These investigations can be helpful also to add a further constraint to the knowledge of the Equation of State of nuclear matter. Within this...
17F is a well-known proton halo nucleus (Sp = 0.6 MeV) that can be described as a 16O core nucleus plus a weakly bounded proton. The 17F breakup mechanism can be induced by electromagnetic and nuclear interactions. Previous experiments of 17F breakup on 58Ni and 208Pb nuclei show a strong interference of Coulomb and nuclear breakup processes. New experimental data of 17F breakup on a 4He...
In recent years, the search for neutrinoless double beta ($0\nu\beta\beta$) decay has attracted much interest among physicists due to the extraordinary consequences that could derive from its observation. The NUMEN project aims to provide experimental information on the nuclear matrix elements involved in the expression of $0\nu\beta\beta$ decay half-life by measuring the cross section of...
Glioblastoma (GB) remains the most fatal brain tumor with a median survival of approximately 14 months and less than 10% of patients living longer than 5 years from diagnosis. GB tumors are characterized by a high infiltration rate and treatment resistance. At recurrence, there is no consensus on the standard of care as no therapeutic options thus far could demonstrate a substantial survival...
The Indian National Gamma Array (INGA), which moves between the three major accelerator centres in India, was recently setup at VECC, Kolkata. Moreover, a complementary horizontal array of clover detector, VENUS (VECC Nuclear Spectroscopy) array was also setup. Several experiments have been performed to study the medium and high spin states in nuclei with these two array using light ion...
With the advent of new facilities for radioactive ion beams mainly rich in neutrons, SPES @ LNL, FRAISE @ LNS and FAIR @ GSI to give some examples, the detection of neutrons and charged particles in Heavy radioactive Ion collisions with both high angular and energy resolutions became a mandatory request. As a consequence, the construction of new multi-detection systems suitable for...
Chirality is a subject of general interest in natural science. Nuclear chirality was first predicted in 1997 [1], and up to now more than 60 candidate chiral doublet bands in around 50 nuclei have been reported [2]. Based on the covariant density functional theory, a phenomenon named multiple chiral doublets (MχD), i.e., more than one pair of chiral doublet bands in one single nucleus, was...
Atomic nuclei are unique quantum-body systems where the spontaneous symmetry breaking phenomena enrich a variety of shapes and structures. In recent years, the nuclei lying in the vicinity of the mid-shell region have attracted considerable attention as it exhibits a class of remarkable phenomena such as shape coexistence, shape evolution, octupole correlations, chirality, etc. The...
The tungsten isotopes exist in a region of deformed nuclei with soft, triaxial shapes that evolve into oblate deformation as the proton, Z, and (or) neutron, N, numbers increase, before reaching sphericity at $Z = 82$ [1]. The heaviest stable W ($Z = 74$) isotope is at $A=186$. Its low-lying structure has been investigated in the past using Coulomb excitation [2] and $\beta$ decay [3];...
The atomic nucleus is a fundamental and unique laboratory of nature for investigating the relationships among the fundamental symmetries. Exploring the relations between these symmetries is one of the major objectives of present-day researches. The nucleon-nucleon interactions inside the nucleus play a crucial role in the occurrence of various exotic phenomena like shape coexistence,...
A recent ab-initio calculation of the monopole transition form factor of $^4$He (Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 042503 (2013)) pointed to a strong dependence on the different realistic potentials used. The inconsistencies met between the recent ab-initio form factor calculation and the existing data from $^4$He(e,e‘)$^4$He* call for further investigation. In order to shed some light on this challenging...
The yrast spectra and electromagnetic properties of even-even medium mass tellurium isotopes are studied by employing projected shell model. From the analysis of projected shell model wave functions, the structure of yrast states is predicted. The low-lying yrast states up to spin 4+ are predicted to arise from zero-quasiparticle (qp) bands whereas the yrast 6+ states arise from 2-qp proton...
In this work, the principal results of data analysis of the reactions 78Kr +40 Ca and 86Kr +48Ca at laboratory energy of 10 AMeV, will be presented.
The experiment has been carried out at INFN-Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, with the 4π multidetector CHIMERA, which is used for the first time in this low energy regime, thanks to the implementation of its identification capabilities (pulse shape...
Single nucleon transfer reactions are considered among the best resources for probing single particle configurations in the populated many-body nuclear states. Besides a valuable spectroscopic tool, transfer reactions offer also an insight of the reaction dynamics. An example is the study of the degree of competition between sequential nucleon transfer and charge exchange reactions, the latter...
The interacting boson model-1 has been used to calculate the reduced electric transition probability B(E2) ↓ of even-even 122-130Te (Tellurium) isotopes with even neutrons from N = 70 to 78. The three-three boson interactions are also formed in the Hamiltonian from Casimir invariant operators. The parameters of best fit to measure the data is used from the experimental value of B (E2; 21+ →...
Observations of Ultra Metal Poor stars such as HD 221170 [1] show that the abundances of elements heavier than silver can be reliably predicted by models of nucleosynthesis. However, elements between iron and silver have much higher observed abundances than predicted by models which only consider the ‘normal’ r- and s- processes. A potential solution for these underestimates is an extension of...
Although logic would suggest the contrary, it seems that cancer incidence is not related to body size (number of cells) and species life span (number of cell divisions). Large, long-living mammals, such as elephants, have no increased risk of developing cancer compared to smaller mammals with fewer cells and shorter lifespans. This lack of correlation between body size, life span and cancer...
Based on an idea by Carlo Rubbia, the n_TOF facility at CERN has been operating during the last 20 years. it is a neutron spallation source, driven by the 20 GeV/c proton beam from the CERN PS accelerator. Neutrons in a very wide energy range (from GeV, down to sub-eV kinetic energy) are generated by a massive Lead spallation target feeding two experimental areas set at 185 meters (EAR1,...
Beta decay has a direct access to the absolute values of the Fermi and Gamow-Teller transition strengths. The comparison with complementary charge exchange reactions, such as the ($^3$He,t) reaction performed on the mirror stable targets at RCNP Osaka, allows us the investigation of fundamental questions related to the role of the isospin in atomic nuclei. A systematic study of proton-rich...
The spontaneous proton emission from the nuclei at the proton drip-line is a unique tool to investigate the nuclear structure properties in extreme conditions. Furthermore, as the astrophysical rapid proton capture (rp) process is the inverse of proton emission, the study of the latter can provide insights into the possible paths of the rp process [1-3]. However, due to the short half-life,...
The National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory on the campus of Michigan State University provided fast, stopped, and reaccelerated beams of rare isotopes for nuclear science research. This presentation will give an overview of the nuclear structure program with representative examples showcasing a complementary set of experimental techniques.
Giant Resonances (GRs) are considered to be high frequency shape-vibrations of the nucleus. Since the new millennium it became apparent that the IsoScalar Giant Quadrupole Resonance (ISGQR) exhibits fine structure that is independent of probe, and soon after that it was shown that other GRs also exhibit such fine structure. As such, this fine structure as an additional GR observable has been...
The study of nuclear giant resonances has long been a subject of extensive theoretical and experimental research. The multipole response of nuclei far from the beta-stability line and the possible occurrence of exotic modes of excitation present a growing field of research. In particular, the study of the isoscalar giant monopole resonances (ISGMR) in neutron-rich nuclei is presently an...
The dipole polarizability of $^{40}$Ca has been extracted from a zero-degree (p,p$^\prime$) experiment at RCNP [1]. Together with results from a previous experiment on $^{48}$Ca [2] it serves as a test of state-of-the-art ab initio [3,4] and EDF [5] calculations. From the good agreement obtained for both methods one can derive limits on the density dependence of the symmetry energy. These are...
Active-Target technology enables a gas target also to act as the detection gas, eliminating the physical barrier between the target and the detection volumes. Detectors using this technology play a significant role in low energy nuclear physics. The ability to use radioactive beams and a flexible choice of target gas, enable these detectors to efficiently study various nuclear reactions with...
The evolution of shell structure around doubly-magic exotic nuclei is of great interest in nuclear physics and astrophysics. In the ‘south-west’ region of $^{78}$Ni, the development of deformation might trigger a major shift in our understanding of explosive nucleosynthesis. To this end, new spectroscopic information on key close-lying nuclei is very valuable.
The isomeric and β decay of...
