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Register a new userProbing pre-formed alpha particles in the ground state of nuclei
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In this Letter, we report on alpha particle emission through the nuclear break-up in the reaction 40Ca on a 40Ca target at 50A MeV. It is observed that, similarly to nucleons, alpha particles can be emitted to the continuum with very specific angular distribution during the reaction. The alpha particle properties can be understood as resulting from an alpha cluster in the daughter nucleus that is perturbed by the short range nuclear attraction of the collision partner and emitted. A time-dependent theory that describe the alpha particle wave-function evolution is able to reproduce qualitatively the observed angular distribution. This mechanism offers new possibilities to study alpha particle properties in the nuclear medium.
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In a measurement of the 9Be(7Li,alpha 7Li)n alpha reaction at E = 52 MeV it is unambigously established for the first time that the 9Be excited states around 6.5 and 11.3 MeV decay into the alpha + 5He channel. This fact may support previous claims that the 11.3 MeV state is also a member of the ground state rotational band.
Method: To examine signatures of this alpha-condensation, a compound nucleus reaction using 160, 280, and 400 MeV 16O beams impinging on a carbon target was used to investigate the 12C(16O,7a) reaction. This permits a search for near-threshold states in the alpha-conjugate nuclei up to 24Mg. Results: Events up to an alpha-particle multiplicity of 7 were measured and the results were compared to both an Extended Hauser-Feshbach calculation and the Fermi break-up model. The measured multiplicity distribution exceeded that predicted from a sequential decay mechanism and had a better agreement with the multi-particle Fermi break-up model. Examination of how these 7 alpha final states could be reconstructed to form 8Be and 12C(0_2+) showed a quantitative difference in which decay modes were dominant compared to the Fermi break-up model. No new states were observed in 16O, 20Ne, and 24Mg due to the effect of the N-alpha penetrability suppressing the total alpha-particle dissociation decay mode. Conclusion: The reaction mechanism for a high energy compound nucleus reaction can only be described by a hybrid of sequential decay and multi-particle breakup. Highly alpha-clustered states were seen which did not originate from simple binary reaction processes. Direct investigations of near-threshold states in N-alpha systems are inherently impeded by the Coulomb barrier prohibiting the observation of states in the N-alpha decay channel. No evidence of a highly clustered 15.1 MeV state in 16O was observed from (28Si*,12C(0_2+))16O(0_6+) when reconstructing the Hoyle state from 3 alpha-particles. Therefore, no experimental signatures for alpha-condensation were observed.
The neutron-rich 6He and 8He isotopes exhibit an exotic nuclear structure that consists of a tightly bound 4He-like core with additional neutrons orbiting at a relatively large distance, forming a halo. Recent experimental efforts have succeeded in laser trapping and cooling these short-lived, rare helium atoms, and have measured the atomic isotope shifts along the 4He-6He-8He chain by performing laser spectroscopy on individual trapped atoms. Meanwhile, the few-electron atomic structure theory, including relativistic and QED corrections, has reached a comparable degree of accuracy in the calculation of the isotope shifts. In parallel efforts, also by measuring atomic isotope shifts, the nuclear charge radii of lithium and beryllium isotopes have been studied. The techniques employed were resonance ionization spectroscopy on neutral, thermal lithium atoms and collinear laser spectroscopy on beryllium ions. Combining advances in both atomic theory and laser spectroscopy, the charge radii of these light halo nuclei have now been determined for the first time independent of nuclear structure models. The results are compared with the values predicted by a number of nuclear structure calculations, and are used to guide our understanding of the nuclear forces in the extremely neutron-rich environment.
The extremely neutron-rich system $^{6}$H was studied in the direct $^2text{H}(^8text{He},{^4text{He}})^{6}$H transfer reaction with a 26 $A$ MeV secondary $^{8}$He beam. The measured missing mass spectrum shows a broad bump at $sim 4-8$ MeV energy relative to the $^3$H+$3n$ decay threshold. This bump can be interpreted as a broad resonant state in $^{6}$H at $6.8(5)$ MeV. The population cross section of such a presumably $p$-wave state (or may be few overlapping states) in the energy range from 4 to 8 MeV is $dsigma/dOmega_{text{c.m.}} simeq 190(40)$ $mu$b/sr in the angular range $5^{circ}<theta_{text{c.m.}}<16^{circ}$. The obtained missing mass spectrum is practically free of the $^{6}$H events below 3.5 MeV ($dsigma/dOmega_{text{c.m.}} lesssim 5$ $mu$b/sr in the same angular range). The steep rise of the $^{6}$H missing mass spectrum at $sim 3$ MeV allows to derive the lower limit for the possible resonant state energy in $^{6}$H of $4.5(3)$ MeV. According to the paring energy estimates, such a $4.5(3)$ MeV resonance is a realistic candidate for the $^{6}$H ground state (g.s.). The obtained results confirm that the decay mechanism of the $^{7}$H g.s. (located at 2.2 MeV above the $^{3}$H+$4n$ threshold) is the true (or simultaneous) $4n$ emission. The resonance energy profiles and the momentum distributions of fragments of the sequential $^{6}$H$ ,rightarrow , ^5$H(g.s.)+$n, rightarrow , ^3$H+$3n$ decay were analyzed by the theoretically-updated direct four-body-decay and sequential-emission mechanisms. The measured momentum distributions of the $^{3}$H fragments in the $^{6}$H rest frame indicate very strong dineutron-type correlations in the $^{5}$H ground state decay.
Our present understanding of the structure of the Hoyle state in $^{12}$C and other near-threshold states in $alpha$-conjugate nuclei is reviewed in the framework of the $alpha$-condensate model. The $^{12}$C Hoyle state, in particular, is a candidate for $alpha$-condensation, due to its large radius and $alpha$-cluster structure. The predicted features of nuclear $alpha$-particle condensates are reviewed along with a discussion of their experimental indicators, with a focus on precision break-up measurements. Two experiments are discussed in detail, firstly concerning the break-up of $^{12}$C and then the decays of heavier nuclei. With more theoretical input, and increasingly complex detector setups, precision break-up measurements can, in principle, provide insight into the structures of states in $alpha$-conjugate nuclei. However, the commonly-held belief that the decay of a condensate state will result in $N$ $alpha$-particles is challenged. We further conclude that unambiguously characterising excited states built on $alpha$-condensates is difficult, despite improvements in detector technology.
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