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Register a new userExploring the neutron dripline two neutrons at a time: The first observations of the 26O and 16Be ground state resonances
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The two-neutron unbound ground state resonances of $^{26}$O and $^{16}$Be were populated using one-proton knockout reactions from $^{27}$F and $^{17}$B beams. A coincidence measurement of 3-body system (fragment + n + n) allowed for the decay energy of the unbound nuclei to be reconstructed. A low energy resonance, $<$ 200 keV, was observed for the first time in the $^{24}$O + n + n system and assigned to the ground state of $^{26}$O. The $^{16}$Be ground state resonance was observed at 1.35 MeV. The 3-body correlations of the $^{14}$Be + n + n system were compared to simulations of a phase-space, sequential, and dineutron decay. The strong correlations in the n-n system from the experimental data could only be reproduced by the dineutron decay simulation providing the first evidence for a dineutron-like decay.
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Evidence for the ground state of the neutron-unbound nucleus 26O was observed for the first time in the single proton-knockout reaction from a 82 MeV/u 27F beam. Neutrons were measured in coincidence with 24O fragments. 26O was determined to be unbound by 150+50-150 keV from the observation of low-energy neutrons. This result agrees with recent shell model calculations based on microscopic two- and three-nucleon forces.
Background: Theoretical calculations have shown that the energy and angular correlations in the three-body decay of the two-neutron unbound O26 can provide information on the ground-state wave function, which has been predicted to have a dineutron configuration and 2n halo structure. Purpose: To use the experimentally measured three-body correlations to gain insight into the properties of O26, including the decay mechanism and ground-state resonance energy. Method: O26 was produced in a one-proton knockout reaction from F27 and the O24+n+n decay products were measured using the MoNA-Sweeper setup. The three-body correlations from the O26 ground-state resonance decay were extracted. The experimental results were compared to Monte Carlo simulations in which the resonance energy and decay mechanism were varied. Results: The measured three-body correlations were well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulations but were not sensitive to the decay mechanism due to the experimental resolutions. However, the three-body correlations were found to be sensitive to the resonance energy of O26. A 1{sigma} upper limit of 53 keV was extracted for the ground-state resonance energy of O26. Conclusions: Future attempts to measure the three-body correlations from the ground-state decay of O26 will be very challenging due to the need for a precise measurement of the O24 momentum at the reaction point in the target.
A new technique was developed to measure the lifetimes of neutron unbound nuclei in the picosecond range. The decay of 26O -> 24O+n+n was examined as it had been predicted to have an appreciable lifetime due to the unique structure of the neutron-rich oxygen isotopes. The half-life of 26O was extracted as 4.5^{+1.1}_{-1.5}(stat.) +/- 3 (sys.) ps. This corresponds to 26O having a finite lifetime at an 82% confidence level and, thus, suggests the possibility of two-neutron radioactivity.
Neutron decay spectroscopy has become a successful tool to explore nuclear properties of nuclei with the largest neutron-to-proton ratios. Resonances in nuclei located beyond the neutron dripline are accessible by kinematic reconstruction of the decay products. The development of two-neutron detection capabilities of the Modular Neutron Array (MoNA) at NSCL has opened up the possibility to search for unbound nuclei which decay by the emission of two neutrons. Specifically this exotic decay mode was observed in 16Be and 26O.
We report the first measurement of angular correlation parameters in neutron $beta$-decay using polarized ultracold neutrons (UCN). We utilize UCN with energies below about 200 neV, which we guide and store for $sim 30$ s in a Cu decay volume. The $vec{mu}_n cdot vec{B}$ potential of a static 7 T field external to the decay volume provides a 420 neV potential energy barrier to the spin state parallel to the field, polarizing the UCN before they pass through an adiabatic fast passage (AFP) spin-flipper and enter a decay volume, situated within a 1 T, $2 times 2pi$ superconducting solenoidal spectrometer. We determine a value for the $beta$-asymmetry parameter $A_0$, proportional to the angular correlation between the neutron polarization and the electron momentum, of $A_0 = -0.1138 pm 0.0051$.
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