A very exotic process of β-delayed fission of 180Tl is studied in detail by using resonant laser ionization with subsequent mass separation at ISOLDE (CERN). In contrast to common expectations, the ...fission-fragment mass distribution of the post-β-decay daughter nucleus 180Hg (N/Z=1.25) is asymmetric. This asymmetry is more surprising since a mass-symmetric split of this extremely neutron-deficient nucleus would lead to two 90Zr fragments, with magic N=50 and semimagic Z=40. This is a new type of asymmetric fission, not caused by large shell effects related to fragment magic proton and neutron numbers, as observed in the actinide region. The newly measured branching ratio for β-delayed fission of 180Tl is 3.6(7) × 10(-3)%, approximately 2 orders of magnitude larger than in an earlier study.
The unstable N=42 nucleus 72Zn has been studied using multiple safe Coulomb excitation in inverse kinematics. The experiment was performed at the REX-ISOLDE facility at CERN making first use of the ...silicon detector array C-REX in combination with the γ-ray spectrometer Miniball. The high angular coverage of C-REX allowed to determine the reduced transition strengths for the decay of the yrast 01+, 21+ and 41+ as well as of the 02+ and 22+ states in 72Zn. The quadrupole moments of the 21+, 41+ and 22+ states were extracted. Using model independent quadrupole invariants, the ground state of 72Zn was found to have an average deformation in the γ degree of freedom close to maximum triaxiality. In comparison to experimental data in zinc isotopes with N<40, the collectivity of the 41+ state in neutron-rich 72Zn is significantly larger, indicating a collective yrast band based on the ground state of 72Zn. In contrast, a low experimental B(E2;02+→21+) strength was determined, indicating a different structure for the 02+ state. Shell-model calculations propose a 02+ state featuring a larger fraction of the (spherical) N=40 closed-shell configuration in its wave function than for the 01+ ground state.
The results were also compared with beyond mean field calculations which corroborate the large deformation in the γ degree of freedom, while pointing to a more deformed 02+ state. These experimental and theoretical findings establish the importance of the γ degree of freedom in the ground state of 72Zn, located between the 68,70Ni nuclei that have spherical ground states, and 76Ge, which has a rigid triaxial shape.
Single-neutron states in the Z=30, N=49isotope 79Zn have been populated using the 78Zn(d,p)79Zn transfer reaction at REX-ISOLDE, CERN. The experimental setup allowed the combined detection of protons ...ejected in the reaction, and of γrays emitted by 79Zn. The analysis reveals that the lowest excited states populated in the reaction lie at approximately 1MeV of excitation, and involve neutron orbits above the N=50shell gap. From the analysis of γ-ray data and of proton angular distributions, characteristic of the amount of angular momentum transferred, a5/2+configuration was assigned to a state at 983keV. Comparison with large-scale-shell-model calculations supports a robust neutron N=50shell-closure for 78Ni. These data constitute an important step towards the understanding of the magicity of 78Ni and of the structure of nuclei in the region.
An exploratory experiment performed at REX-ISOLDE to investigate cluster-transfer reactions with radioactive beams in inverse kinematics is presented. The aim of the experiment was to test the ...potential of cluster-transfer reactions at the Coulomb barrier as a mechanism to explore the structure of exotic neutron-rich nuclei. The reactions 7Li(98Rb,αxn) and 7Li(98Rb,txn) were studied through particle-γ coincidence measurements, and the results are presented in terms of the observed excitation energies and spins. Moreover, the reaction mechanism is qualitatively discussed as a transfer of a clusterlike particle within a distorted-wave Born approximation framework. The results indicate that cluster-transfer reactions can be described well as a direct process and that they can be an efficient method to investigate the structure of neutron-rich nuclei at medium-high excitation energies and spins.
Background: The neutron-deficient lead region provides a range of nuclear phenomena, including isomerism at low energies. This phenomenon can be studied by α decay because the degree of hindrance of ...α decay provides information on the change in nuclear structure of connected states. Purpose: The aim of this work was to investigate the α-decay properties of $^{200,202}$FR and daughter products. Method: Neutron-deficient francium nuclei are produced at ISOLDE-CERN bombarding a UCx target with 1.4 GeV protons. Surface ionization and mass-separation techniques were employed to provide a pure radioactive ion beam at a radiation-detection setup. Results: Due to the very high statistics and the high beam purity, improved decay data for $^{202}$FR and its daughters were obtained. In particular, this data set allowed us to identify many fine-structure α lines with a relative reduced α-decay width up to five orders of magnitude lower as the strongest ground-to-ground state or isomeric-to-isomeric state α-decay transition. In addition, several half-life values were extracted with similar or better precision as compared with the literature. Conclusions: The observation of crossover transitions positioned the isomeric high-spin level of $^{198}$At at an excitation energy of 265(3) keV. Half-life values of 4.47(5) s and 1.28(10) s were extracted for the ground state and isomeric state of $^{198}$At and 52(3) ms for the ground-state decay of $^{200}$FR. Furthermore, α-decay schemes for Fr202 and its daughter $^{198}$At could be constructed.
The strength functions of the πf5/2, πp3/2 and πf7/2 orbitals in neutron-rich 71Cu were obtained in a 72Zn(d,3He)71Cu proton pick-up reaction in inverse kinematics using a radioactive beam of 72Zn at ...38 MeV/u. A dedicated set-up was developed to overcome the experimental challenges posed by the low cross section of the reaction and the low energy of the outgoing 3He particles. The excitation-energy spectrum was reconstructed and spectroscopic factors were obtained after analysis of the angular distributions with the finite-range Distorted-Wave Born Approximation (DWBA). The results show that unlike for the πf5/2 orbital and contrary to earlier interpretation, the πf7/2 single-particle strength distribution is not appreciably affected by the addition of neutrons beyond N=40.
Hyperfine-structure parameters and isotope shifts for the 795-nm atomic transitions in $^{217,218,219}$At have been measured at CERN-ISOLDE, using the in-source resonance-ionization spectroscopy ...technique. Magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole moments, and changes in the nuclear mean-square charge radii, have been deduced. A large inverse odd-even staggering in radii, which may be associated with the presence of octupole collectivity, has been observed. Namely, the radius of the odd-odd isotope $^{218}$At has been found to be larger than the average of its even-$N$ neighbors, $^{217,219}$At. The discrepancy between the additivity-rule prediction and experimental data for the magnetic moment of $^{218}$At also supports the possible presence of octupole collectivity in the considered nuclei.
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