No Arabic abstract
Background: In the island of inversion, ground states of neutron-rich $sd$-shell nuclei exhibit strong admixtures of intruder configurations from the $fp$ shell. The nucleus $^{30}$Mg, located at the boundary of the island of inversion, serves as a cornerstone to track the structural evolution as one approaches this region. Purpose: Spin-parity assignments for excited states in $^{30}$Mg, especially negative-parity levels, have yet to be established. In the present work, the nuclear structure of $^{30}$Mg was investigated by in-beam $gamma$-ray spectroscopy mainly focusing on firm spin-parity determinations. Method: High-intensity rare-isotope beams of $^{31}$Mg, $^{32}$Mg, $^{34}$Si, and $^{35}$P bombarded a Be target to induce nucleon removal reactions populating states in $^{30}$Mg. $gamma$ rays were detected by the state-of-the-art $gamma$-ray tracking array GRETINA. For the direct one-neutron removal reaction, final-state exclusive cross sections and parallel momentum distributions were deduced. Multi-nucleon removal reactions from different projectiles were exploited to gain complementary information. Results: With the aid of the parallel momentum distributions, an updated level scheme with revised spin-parity assignments was constructed. Spectroscopic factors associated with each state were also deduced. Conclusions: Results were confronted with large-scale shell-model calculations using two different effective interactions, showing excellent agreement with the present level scheme. However, a marked difference in the spectroscopic factors indicates that the full delineation of the transition into the island of inversion remains a challenge for theoretical models.
Excited states in the neutron-rich N=38,36 nuclei uc{60}{Ti} and uc{58}{Ti} were populated in nucleon-removal reactions from uc{61}{V} projectiles at 90~MeV/nucleon. The gamma-ray transitions from such states in these Ti isotopes were detected with the advanced gamma-ray tracking array GRETINA and were corrected event-by-event for large Doppler shifts (v/c sim 0.4) using the gamma-ray interaction points deduced from online signal decomposition. The new data indicate that a steep decrease in quadrupole collectivity occurs when moving from neutron-rich N=36,38 Fe and Cr toward the Ti and Ca isotones. In fact, uc{58,60}{Ti} provide some of the most neutron-rich benchmarks accessible today for calculations attempting to determine the structure of the potentially doubly-magic nucleus uc{60}{Ca}.
Excited states in the very neutron-rich nuclei 35Mg and 33Na were populated in the fragmentation of a 38Si projectile beam on a Be target at 83 MeV/u beam energy. We report on the first observation of gamma-ray transitions in 35Mg, the odd-N neighbor of 34Mg and 36Mg, which are known to be part of the Island of Inversion around N = 20. The results are discussed in the framework of large- scale shell-model calculations. For the A = 3Z nucleus 33Na, a new gamma-ray transition was observed that is suggested to complete the gamma-ray cascade 7/2+ --> 5/2+ --> 3/2+ gs connecting three neutron 2p-2h intruder states that are predicted to form a close-to-ideal K = 3/2 rotational band in the strong-coupling limit.
The odd-$Z$ $^{251}$Md nucleus was studied using combined $gamma$-ray and conversion-electron in-beam spectroscopy. Besides the previously observed rotational band based on the $[521]1/2^-$ configuration, another rotational structure has been identified using $gamma$-$gamma$ coincidences. The use of electron spectroscopy allowed the rotational bands to be observed over a larger rotational frequency range. Using the transition intensities that depend on the gyromagnetic factor, a $[514]7/2^-$ single-particle configuration has been inferred for this band, i.e., the ground-state band. A physical background that dominates the electron spectrum with an intensity of $simeq$ 60% was well reproduced by simulating a set of unresolved excited bands. Moreover, a detailed analysis of the intensity profile as a function of the angular momentum provided a method for deriving the orbital gyromagnetic factor, namely $g_K = 0.69^{+0.19}_{-0.16}$ for the ground-state band. The odd-$Z$ $^{249}$Md was studied using $gamma$-ray in-beam spectroscopy. Evidence for octupole correlations resulting from the mixing of the $Delta l = Delta j = 3$ $[521]3/2^-$ and $[633]7/2^+$ Nilsson orbitals were found in both $^{249,251}$Md. A surprising similarity of the $^{251}$Md ground-state band transition energies with those of the excited band of $^{255}$Lr has been discussed in terms of identical bands. Skyrme-Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov calculations were performed to investigate the origin of the similarities between these bands.
We report on the first in-beam $gamma$-ray spectroscopy of uc{23}{Al} using two different reactions at intermediate beam energies: inelastic scattering off uc{9}{Be} and heavy-ion induced one-proton pickup, uc{9}{Be}( uc{22}{Mg}, uc{23}{Al}$+gamma$)X, at 75.1 MeV/nucleon. A $gamma$-ray transition at 1616(8) keV -- exceeding the proton separation energy by 1494 keV -- was observed in both reactions. From shell model and proton decay calculations we argue that this $gamma$-ray decay proceeds from the core-excited $7/2^+$ state to the $5/2^+$ ground state of uc{23}{Al}. The proposed nature of this state, $[ uc{22}{Mg}(2^+_1) otimes pi d_{5/2}]_{7/2+}$, is consistent with the presence of a gamma-branch and with the population of this state in the two reactions.
After the successful commissioning of the radioactive beam experiment at ISOLDE (REX-ISOLDE) - an accelerator for exotic nuclei produced by ISOLDE - first physics experiments using these beams were performed. Initial experiments focused on the region of deformation in the vicinity of the neutron-rich Na and Mg isotopes. Preliminary results show the high potential and physics opportunities offered by the exotic isotope accelerator REX in conjunction with the modern Germanium gamma spectrometer MINIBALL.