No Arabic abstract
In this review article we discuss the present status of direct nuclear reactions and the nuclear structure aspects one can study with them. We discuss the spectroscopic information we can assess in experiments involving transfer reactions, heavy-ion-induced knockout reactions and quasifree scattering with (p,2p), (p,pn), and (e,ep) reactions. In particular, we focus on the proton-to-neutron asymmetry of the quenching of the spectroscopic strength.
A system of two microchannel-plate detectors has been successfully implemented for tracking projectile-fragmentation beams. The detectors provide interaction positions, angles, and arrival times of ions at the reaction target. The current design is an adaptation of an assembly used for low-energy beams ($sim$1.4 MeV/nucleon). In order to improve resolution in tracking high-energy heavy-ion beams, the magnetic field strength between the secondary-electron accelerating foil and the microchannel plate had to be increased substantially. Results from an experiment using a 37-MeV/nucleon ${}^{56}$Ni beam show that the tracking system can achieve sub-nanosecond timing resolution and a position resolution of $sim$1 mm for beam intensities up to $5times10^{5}$ pps.
The evolution of electromagnetic transitions along isotope chains is of particular importance for the nuclear structure and dynamics, as well as for the r-process nucleosynthesis. Recent measurement of inelastic proton scattering on even-even $^{112-124}$Sn isotopes provides a novel insight into the isotopic dependence of E1 and M1 strength distributions. We investigate M1 transitions in even-even $^{100-140}$Sn isotopes from a theoretical perspective, based on relativistic nuclear energy density functional. The M1 transition strength distribution is characterized by an interplay between single and double-peak structures, that can be understood from the evolution of single-particle states, their occupations governed by the pairing correlations, and two-quasiparticle transitions involved. It is shown that discrepancy between model calculations and experiment on B(M1) transition strength is considerably reduced than previously known, and the quenching of the g-factors for the free nucleons needed to reproduce the experimental data on M1 transition strength amounts $g_{eff}/g_{free}$=0.80-0.93. Since some of the B(M1) strength above the neutron threshold may be missing in the inelastic proton scattering measurement, further experimental studies are required to confirm if only small modifications of the bare g-factors are actually needed when applied in finite nuclei.
New measurements and reaction model calculations are reported for single neutron pickup reactions onto a fast uc{22}{Mg} secondary beam at 84 MeV per nucleon. Measurements were made on both carbon and beryllium targets, having very different structures, allowing a first investigation of the likely nature of the pickup reaction mechanism. The measurements involve thick reaction targets and $gamma$-ray spectroscopy of the projectile-like reaction residue for final-state resolution, that permit experiments with low incident beam rates compared to traditional low-energy transfer reactions. From measured longitudinal momentum distributions we show that the $ uc{12}{C} ( uc{22}{Mg}, uc{23}{Mg}+gamma)X$ reaction largely proceeds as a direct two-body reaction, the neutron transfer producing bound uc{11}{C} target residues. The corresponding reaction on the uc{9}{Be} target seems to largely leave the uc{8}{Be} residual nucleus unbound at excitation energies high in the continuum. We discuss the possible use of such fast-beam one-neutron pickup reactions to track single-particle strength in exotic nuclei, and also their expected sensitivity to neutron high-$ell$ (intruder) states which are often direct indicators of shell evolution and the disappearance of magic numbers in the exotic regime.
Halo nuclei are exotic nuclei which exhibit a strongly clusterised structure: they can be seen as one or two valence nucleons loosely bound to a core. Being observed at the ridge of the valley of stability, halo nuclei are studied mostly through reactions. In this contribution the reaction models most commonly used to analyse experimental data are reviewed and compared to one another. A reaction observable built on the ratio of two angular distributions is then presented. This ratio enables removing most of the sensitivity to the reaction mechanism, which emphasises the effects of nuclear structure on the reaction.
The HypHI collaboration aims to perform a precise hypernuclear spectroscopy with stable heavy ion beams and rare isotope beams at GSI and fAIR in order to study hypernuclei at extreme isospin, especially neutron rich hypernuclei to look insight hyperon-nucleon interactions in the neutron rich medium, and hypernuclear magnetic moments to investigate baryon properties in the nuclei. We are currently preparing for the first experiment with $^6$Li and $^{12}$C beams at 2 AGeV to demonstrate the feasibility of a precise hypernuclear spectroscopy by identifying $^{3}_{Lambda}$H, $^{4}_{Lambda}$H and $^{5}_{Lambda}$He. The first physics experiment on these hypernuclei is planned for 2009. In the present document, an overview of the HypHI project and the details of this first experiment will be discussed.