No Arabic abstract
Electromagnetic transitions from deformed structures based on $alpha$ configurations or on heavier clusters are discussed, drawing the link between multiparticle-multihole excited bands and cluster structures. Enhanced E2 and E1 transitions are reviewed in the light nuclei, $^8$Be, $^{10}$Be, $^{12}$C, $^{16}$O, $^{18}$O and heavier ones like $^{212}$Po. Connections between cluster structures and superdeformed configurations in $^{36}$Ar and $^{40}$Ca are discussed. What the cluster states based on heavier substructures like $^{12}$C and $^{16}$O are concerned, recent results on the resonant radiative capture reaction $^{12}$C($^{16}$O,$gamma$)$^{28}$Si are presented, in particular the strong decay mode involving the feeding of low-lying $^{28}$Si 1$^+$ and 2$^+$ T=1 states by enhanced M1 isovector transitions.
A study of the 7Li(9Be,4He 10Be)2H reaction at E{beam}=70 MeV has been performed using resonant particle spectroscopy techniques and provides the first measurements of alpha-decaying states in 14C. Excited states are observed at 14.7, 15.5, 16.4, 18.5, 19.8, 20.6, 21.4, 22.4 and 24.0 MeV. The experimental technique was able to resolve decays to the various particle bound states in 10Be, and provides evidence for the preferential decay of the high energy excited states into states in 10Be at ~6 MeV. The decay processes are used to indicate the possible cluster structure of the 14C excited states.
Second-order processes in physics is a research topic focusing attention from several fields worldwide including, for example, non-linear quantum electrodynamics with high-power lasers, neutrinoless double-$beta$ decay, and stimulated atomic two-photon transitions. For the electromagnetic nuclear interaction, the observation of the competitive double-$gamma$ decay from $^{137mathrm{m}}$Ba has opened up the nuclear structure field for detailed investigation of second-order processes through the manifestation of off-diagonal nuclear polarizability. Here we confirm this observation with an $8.7sigma$ significance, and an improved value on the double-photon versus single-photon branching ratio as $2.62times10^{-6}(30)$. Our results, however, contradict the conclusions from the original experiment, where the decay was interpreted to be dominated by a quadrupole-quadrupole component. Here, we find a substantial enhancement in the energy distribution consistent with a dominating octupole-dipole character and a rather small quadrupole-quadrupole element in the decay, hindered due to an evolution of the internal nuclear structure. The implied strongly hindered double-photon branching in $^{137mathrm{m}}$Ba opens up the possibility of the double-photon branching as a feasible tool for nuclear-structure studies on off-diagonal polarizability in nuclei where this hindrance is not present.
Background: Two-phonon excitations originating from the coupling of two collective one-phonon states are of great interest in nuclear structure physics. One possibility to generate low-lying $E1$ excitations is the coupling of quadrupole and octupole phonons. Purpose: In this work, the $gamma$-decay behavior of candidates for the $(2_1^+otimes 3_1^-)_{1^-}$ state in the doubly-magic nucleus $^{40}$Ca and in the heavier and semi-magic nucleus $^{140}$Ce is investigated. Methods: $(vec{gamma},gamma)$ experiments have been carried out at the High Intensity $gamma$-ray Source (HI${gamma}$S) facility in combination with the high-efficiency $gamma$-ray spectroscopy setup $gamma^3$ consisting of HPGe and LaBr$_3$ detectors. The setup enables the acquisition of $gamma$-$gamma$ coincidence data and, hence, the detection of direct decay paths. Results: In addition to the known ground-state decays, for $^{40}$Ca the decay into the $3^-_1$ state was observed, while for $^{140}$Ce the direct decays into the $2^+_1$ and the $0^+_2$ state were detected. The experimentally deduced transition strengths and excitation energies are compared to theoretical calculations in the framework of EDF theory plus QPM approach and systematically analyzed for $N=82$ isotones. In addition, negative parities for two $J=1$ states in $^{44}$Ca were deduced simultaneously. Conclusions: The experimental findings together with the theoretical calculations support the two-phonon character of the $1^-_1$ excitation in the light-to-medium-mass nucleus $^{40}$Ca as well as in the stable even-even $N=82$ nuclei.
A $^{52}$Cr$(p,t)$$^{50}$Cr two-neutron pickup reaction was performed using the Q3D magnetic spectrograph at the Maier-Leibnitz-Laboratorium in Garching, Germany. Excited states in $^{50}$Cr were observed up to an excitation energy of 5.3 MeV. Despite significantly increased sensitivity and resolution over previous work, no evidence of the previously assigned first excited $0^+$ state was found. As a result, the $0^+_2$ state is reassigned at an excitation energy of $E_x=3895.0(5)$ keV in $^{50}$Cr. This reassignment directly impacts direct searches for a non-analogue Fermi $beta^+$ decay branch in $^{50}$Mn. These results also show better systematic agreement with the theoretical predictions for the $0^+$ state spectrum in $^{50}$Cr using the same formalism as the isospin-symmetry-breaking correction calculations for superallowed nuclei. The experimental data are also compared to $ab$-$initio$ shell-model predictions using the IM-SRG formalism based on $NN$ and $3N$ forces from chiral-EFT in the $pf$-shell for the first time.
The hyperfine coupling constants of neutron deficient $^{37}$Ca were deduced from the atomic hyperfine spectrum of the $4s~^2S_{1/2}$ $leftrightarrow$ $4p~^2P_{3/2}$ transition in Ca II, measured using the collinear laser spectroscopy technique. The ground-state magnetic-dipole and spectroscopic electric-quadrupole moments were determined for the first time as $mu = +0.7453(72) mu_N$ and $Q = -15(11)$ $e^2$fm$^2$, respectively. The experimental values agree well with nuclear shell model calculations using the universal sd model-space Hamiltonia