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Register a new userA proton density bubble in the doubly magic $^{34}$Si nucleus
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Many properties of the atomic nucleus, such as vibrations, rotations and incompressibility, can be interpreted as due to a two component quantum liquid of protons and neutrons. Electron scattering measurements on stable nuclei demonstrate that their central densities are saturated, as for liquid drops. In exotic nuclei near the limits of mass and charge, with large imbalances in their proton and neutron numbers, the possibility of a depleted central density, or a bubble structure, has been discussed in a recurrent manner since the 1970s. Here we report first experimental evidence that points to a depletion of the central density of protons in the short-lived nucleus 34Si. The proton-to-neutron density asymmetry in 34Si offers the possibility to place constraints on the density and isospin dependence of the spin--orbit force-on which nuclear models have disagreed for decades-and on its stabilizing effect towards limits of nuclear existence.
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The possibility that an unconventional depletion in the center of the charge density distribution of certain nuclei occurs due to a purely quantum mechanical effect has attracted theoretical and experimental attention in recent years. We report on ab initio self-consistent Greens function calculations of one of such candidates, $^{34}$Si, together with its Z+2 neighbour $^{36}$S. Binding energies, rms radii and density distributions of the two nuclei as well as low-lying spectroscopy of $^{35}$Si, $^{37}$S, $^{33}$Al and $^{35}$P are discussed. The interpretation of one-nucleon removal and addition spectra in terms of the evolution of the underlying shell structure is also provided. The study is repeated using several chiral effective field theory Hamiltonians as a way to test the robustness of the results with respect to input inter-nucleon interactions. The prediction regarding the (non-)existence of the bubble structure in $^{34}$Si varies significantly with the nuclear Hamiltonian used. However, demanding that the experimental charge density distribution and the root mean square radius of $^{36}$S are well reproduced, along with $^{34}$Si and $^{36}$S binding energies, only leaves the NNLO$_{text{sat}}$ Hamiltonian as a serious candidate to perform this prediction. In this context, a bubble structure, whose fingerprint should be visible in an electron scattering experiment of $^{34}$Si, is predicted. Furthermore, a clear correlation is established between the occurrence of the bubble structure and the weakening of the 1/2$^-$-3/2$^-$ splitting in the spectrum of $^{35}$Si as compared to $^{37}$S.
The fully self-consistent Hartree-Fock (HF) plus random phase approximation (RPA) based on Skyrme-type interaction is used to study the existence problem of proton semi-bubble structure in the $2_1^+$ state of $^{34}$Si. The experimental excitation energy and the B(E2) strength of the $2_1^+$ state in $^{34}$Si can be reproduced quite well. The tensor effect is also studied. It is shown that the tensor interaction has a notable impact on the excitation energy of the $2_1^+$ state and a small effect on the B(E2) value. Besides, its effect on the density distributions in the ground and $2_1^+$ state of $^{34}$Si is negligible. Our present results with T36 and T44 show that the $2_1^+$ state of $^{34}$Si is mainly caused by proton transiton from $pi 1d_{5/2}$ orbit to $pi 2s_{1/2}$ orbit, and the existence of a proton semi-bubble structure in this state is very unlikely.
Nuclei with magic numbers serve as important benchmarks in nuclear theory. In addition, neutron-rich nuclei play an important role in the astrophysical rapid neutron-capture process (r-process). 78Ni is the only doubly-magic nucleus that is also an important waiting point in the r-process, and serves as a major bottleneck in the synthesis of heavier elements. The half-life of 78Ni has been experimentally deduced for the first time at the Coupled Cyclotron Facility of the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory at Michigan State University, and was found to be 110 (+100 -60) ms. In the same experiment, a first half-life was deduced for 77Ni of 128 (+27 -33) ms, and more precise half-lives were deduced for 75Ni and 76Ni of 344 (+20 -24) ms and 238 (+15 -18) ms respectively.
High resolution experiments have recently lead to a complete identification (energy, spin, and parity) of 151 nuclear levels up to an excitation Energy of Ex= 6.20 MeV in 208Pb. We present a thorough study of the fluctuation properties in the energy spectra of the unprecedented set of nuclear bound states. In a first approach we grouped states with the same spin and parity into 14 subspectra, analyzed standard statistical measures for short- and long-range correlations and then computed their ensemble average. Their comparison with a random matrix ensemble which interpolates between Poisson statistics expected for regular systems and the Gaussian Orthogonal Ensemble (GOE) predicted for chaotic systems shows that the data are well described by the GOE. In a second approach, following an idea of Rosenzweig and Porter we considered the complete spectrum composed of the independent subspectra. We analyzed their fluctuation properties using the method of Bayesian inference involving a quantitative measure, called the chaoticity parameter f, which also interpolates between Poisson (f=0) and GOE statistics (f=1). It turns out to be f~0.9. This is so far the closest agreement with GOE observed in spectra of bound states in a nucleus. The same analysis has also been performed with spectra computed on the basis of shell model calculations with different interactions (SDI, KB, M3Y). While the simple SDI exhibits features typical for nuclear many-body systems with regular dynamics, the other, more realistic interactions yield chaoticity parameters f close to the experimental values.
The structure of $^{34}$Si was studied through $gamma$ spectroscopy separately in the $beta^-$ decays of $^{34}$Mg and $^{34}$Al at the ISOLDE facility of CERN. Different configurations in $^{34}$Si were populated independently from the two recently identified $beta$-decaying states in $^{34}$Al having spin-parity assignments $J^pi = 4^-$ dominated by the normal configuration $pi (d_{5/2})^{-1} otimes u (f_{7/2})$ and $J^pi = 1^+$ by the intruder configuration $pi (d_{5/2})^{-1} otimes u (d_{3/2})^{-1}(f_{7/2})^{2}$. The paper reports on spectroscopic properties of $^{34}$Si such as an extended level scheme, spin and parity assignments based on log($ft$) values and $gamma$-ray branching ratios, absolute $beta$ feeding intensities and neutron emission probabilities. A total of 11 newly identified levels and 26 transitions were added to the previously known level scheme of $^{34}$Si. Large scale shell-model calculations using the {sc sdpf-u-mix} interaction, able to treat higher order intruder configurations, are compared with the new results and conclusions are drawn concerning the predictive power of {sc sdpf-u-mix}, the $N=20$ shell gap, the level of mixing between normal and intruder configurations for the 0$_1^+$, 0$_2^+$ and 2$_1^+$ states and the absence of triaxial deformation in $^{34}$Si.
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