The Nuclear Physics Tool (NPTool) is an open source data analysis and Monte Carlo simulation framework that has been developed for low-energy nuclear physics experiments with an emphasis on ...radioactive beam experiments. The NPTool offers a unified framework for designing, preparing and analyzing complex experiments employing multiple detectors, each of which may comprise some hundreds of channels. The framework has been successfully used for the analysis and simulation of experiments at facilities including GANIL, RIKEN, ALTO and TRIUMF, using both stable and radioactive beams. This paper details the NPTool philosophy together with an overview of the workflow. The framework has been benchmarked through the comparison of simulated and experimental data for a variety of detectors used in charged particle and gamma-ray spectroscopy.
The nuclei below lead but with more than 126 neutrons are crucial to an understanding of the astrophysical r process in producing nuclei heavier than A∼190. Despite their importance, the structure ...and properties of these nuclei remain experimentally untested as they are difficult to produce in nuclear reactions with stable beams. In a first exploration of the shell structure of this region, neutron excitations in ^{207}Hg have been probed using the neutron-adding (d,p) reaction in inverse kinematics. The radioactive beam of ^{206}Hg was delivered to the new ISOLDE Solenoidal Spectrometer at an energy above the Coulomb barrier. The spectroscopy of ^{207}Hg marks a first step in improving our understanding of the relevant structural properties of nuclei involved in a key part of the path of the r process.
Theoretical models of β-delayed neutron emission are used as crucial inputs in r-process calculations. Benchmarking the predictions of these models is a challenge due to a lack of currently available ...experimental data. In this work the β-delayed neutron emission probabilities of 33 nuclides in the important mass regions south and south-west of 132Sn are presented, 16 for the first time. The measurements were performed at RIKEN using the Advanced Implantation Detector Array (AIDA) and the BRIKEN neutron detector array. The P1n values presented constrain the predictions of theoretical models in the region, affecting the final abundance distribution of the second r-process peak at A≈130.
The radioactivity of 76160Os84 and 74156W82 that lie at the two-proton drip line has been measured in an experiment performed at the Accelerator Laboratory of the University of Jyväskylä. The 160Os ...nuclei were produced using fusion-evaporation reactions induced by a beam of 310 MeV 58Ni ions bombarding a 106Cd target. The 160Os ions were separated in flight using the recoil separator MARA and implanted into a double-sided silicon strip detector, which was used to measure their decays. The α decays of the ground state of 160Os (Eα = 7092(15) keV, t1/2 = 97−32+97 μs) and its isomeric state (Eα = 8890(10) keV, t1/2 = 41−9+15 μs) were measured, allowing the excitation energy of the isomer to be determined as 1844(18) keV. These α-decay properties and the excitation energy of the isomer are compared with systematics. The α decays were correlated with subsequent decays to investigate the β decays of the ground state of 156W, revealing that unlike its isotones, both low-lying isomers were populated in its daughter nuclide, 156Ta. An improved value for the half-life of the proton-decaying high-spin isomeric state in 73156Ta83 of 333−22+25 ms was obtained in a separate experiment using the same experimental systems with a 102Pd target. This result was employed to improve the precision of the half-life determined for 156W, which was measured as 157−34+57 ms.
The design study of the AGATA array began with the development of the AGATA simulation code using GEANT4. The latter played a key part in the final design of the array and provided a cost effective ...solution for the early development of the tracking algorithm. The code has since been maintained and developed by the collaboration to provide more realistic simulations, with reaction chambers, ancillary detectors and surrounding mechanical structures completing the entire setup.
Abstract
The
β
-delayed neutron-emission probabilities of 28 exotic neutron-rich isotopes of Pm, Sm, Eu, and Gd were measured for the first time at RIKEN Nishina Center using the Advanced ...Implantation Detector Array (AIDA) and the BRIKEN neutron detector array. The existing
β
-decay half-life (
T
1/2
) database was significantly increased toward more neutron-rich isotopes, and uncertainties for previously measured values were decreased. The new data not only constrain the theoretical predictions of half-lives and
β
-delayed neutron-emission probabilities, but also allow for probing the mechanisms of formation of the high-mass wing of the rare-earth peak located at
A
≈ 160 in the
r
-process abundance distribution through astrophysical reaction network calculations. An uncertainty quantification of the calculated abundance patterns with the new data shows a reduction of the uncertainty in the rare-earth peak region. The newly introduced variance-based sensitivity analysis method offers valuable insight into the influence of important nuclear physics inputs on the calculated abundance patterns. The analysis has identified the half-lives of
168
Sm and of several gadolinium isotopes as some of the key variables among the current experimental data to understand the remaining abundance uncertainty at
A
= 167–172.
The excited states of unstable ^{20}O were investigated via γ-ray spectroscopy following the ^{19}O(d,p)^{20}O reaction at 8 AMeV. By exploiting the Doppler shift attenuation method, the lifetimes ...of the 2_{2}^{+} and 3_{1}^{+} states were firmly established. From the γ-ray branching and E2/M1 mixing ratios for transitions deexciting the 2_{2}^{+} and 3_{1}^{+} states, the B(E2) and B(M1) were determined. Various chiral effective field theory Hamiltonians, describing the nuclear properties beyond ground states, along with a standard USDB interaction, were compared with the experimentally obtained data. Such a comparison for a large set of γ-ray transition probabilities with the valence space in medium similarity renormalization group ab initio calculations was performed for the first time in a nucleus far from stability. It was shown that the ab initio approaches using chiral effective field theory forces are challenged by detailed high-precision spectroscopic properties of nuclei. The reduced transition probabilities were found to be a very constraining test of the performance of the ab initio models.
New physics opportunities are opening up by the Advanced Gamma Tracking Array, AGATA, as it evolves to the full 4
π
instrument. AGATA is a high-resolution
γ
-ray spectrometer, solely built from ...highly segmented high-purity Ge detectors, capable of measuring
γ
rays from a few tens of keV to beyond 10 MeV, with unprecedented efficiency, excellent position resolution for individual
γ
-ray interactions, and very high count-rate capability. As a travelling detector AGATA will be employed at all major current and near-future European research facilities delivering stable and radioactive ion beams.
The lifetimes of the low-lying excited states 2+ and 4+ have been directly measured in the neutron-deficient 106,108Sn isotopes. The nuclei were populated via a deep-inelastic reaction and the ...lifetime measurement was performed employing a differential plunger device. The emitted γ rays were detected by the AGATA array, while the reaction products were uniquely identified by the VAMOS++ magnetic spectrometer. Large-Scale Shell-Model calculations with realistic forces indicate that, independently of the pairing content of the interaction, the quadrupole force is dominant in the B(E2;21+→0g.s.+) values and it describes well the experimental pattern for 104−114Sn; the B(E2;41+→21+) values, measured here for the first time, depend critically on a delicate pairing-quadrupole balance, disclosed by the very precise results in 108Sn.
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