No Arabic abstract
We report final-state-exclusive measurements of the light charged fragments in coincidence with 26Ne residual nuclei following the direct two-proton removal from a neutron-rich 28Mg secondary beam. A Dalitz-plot analysis and comparisons with simulations show that a majority of the triple- coincidence events with two protons display phase-space correlations consistent with the (two-body) kinematics of a spatially-correlated pair-removal mechanism. The fraction of such correlated events, 56(12) %, is consistent with the fraction of the calculated cross section, 64 %, arising from spin S = 0 two-proton configurations in the entrance-channel (shell-model) 28Mg ground state wave function. This result promises access to an additional and more specific probe of the spin and spatial correlations of valence nucleon pairs in exotic nuclei produced as fast secondary beams.
The two-proton removal reaction from 28Mg projectiles has been studied at 93 MeV/u at the NSCL. First coincidence measurements of the heavy 26Ne projectile residues, the removed protons and other light charged particles enabled the relative cross sections from each of the three possible elastic and inelastic proton removal mechanisms to be determined. These more final-state-exclusive measurements are key for further interrogation of these reaction mechanisms and use of the reaction channel for quantitative spectroscopy of very neutron-rich nuclei. The relative and absolute yields of the three contributing mechanisms are compared to reaction model expectations - based on the use of eikonal dynamics and sd-shell-model structure amplitudes.
Background: Thick-target-induced nucleon-adding transfer reactions onto energetic rare-isotope beams are an emerging spectroscopic tool. Their sensitivity to single-particle structure complements one-nucleon removal reaction capabilities in the quest to reveal the evolution of nuclear shell structure in very exotic nuclei. Purpose: To add intermediate-energy, carbon-target-induced one-proton pickup reactions to the arsenal of $gamma$-ray tagged direct reactions applicable in the regime of low beam intensities and to apply these for the first time to $fp$-shell nuclei. Methods: Inclusive and partial cross sections were measured for the $ uc{12}{C}( uc{48}{Cr}, uc{49}{Mn}+gamma)$X and $ uc{12}{C}( uc{50}{Fe}, uc{51}{Co}+gamma)$X proton pickup reactions at 56.7 and 61.2 MeV/nucleon, respectively, using coincident particle-$gamma$ spectroscopy at the NSCL. The results are compared to reaction theory calculations using $fp$-shell-model nuclear structure input. For comparison with our previous work, the same reactions were measured on uc{9}{Be} targets. Results: The measured partial cross sections confirm the specific population pattern predicted by theory, with pickup into high-$ell$ orbitals being strongly favored; driven by linear and angular momentum matching. Conclusion: Carbon target-induced pickup reactions are well-suited, in the regime of modest beam intensity, to study the evolution of nuclear structure, with specific sensitivities that are well described by theory.
Fragmentation reactions with intermediate-energy heavy-ion beams exhibit a wide range of reaction mechanisms, ranging from direct reactions to statistical processes. We examine this transition by measuring the relative population of excited states in several sd-shell nuclei produced by fragmentation with the number of removed nucleons ranging from two to sixteen. The two-nucleon removal is consistent with a non-dissipative process whereas the removal of more than five nucleons appears to be mainly statistical.
Vector and tensor analysing powers of the d(pol)p->(pp)n (charge-exchange) and d(pol)p->(pn)p (non-charge-exchange) breakup reactions have been measured with the ANKE spectrometer at the COSY ring at a deuteron beam energy of 1170 MeV for small momentum transfers to the low excitation energy (pp) or (pn) systems. A quantitative understanding of the values of A_xx and A_yy for the charge-exchange reaction is provided by impulse approximation calculations. The data suggest that spin-flip isospin-flip transitions, which dominate the charge-exchange breakup of the deuteron, are also important in the non-charge-exchange reaction.
Intermediate-energy heavy-ion collisions can produce a spin polarization of the projectile-like species. Spin polarization has been observed for both nucleon removal and nucleon pickup processes. Qualitative agreement with measured spin polarization as a function of the momentum of the projectile-like fragment is found in a kinematical model that considers conservation of linear and angular momentum and assumes peripheral interactions between the fast projectile and target. Better quantitative agreement was reached by including more realistic angular distributions, de-orientation caused by gamma-ray emission, and by correcting for the out-of-plane acceptance. The newly introduced corrections were found to apply to both nucleon removal and nucleon pickup processes.