A superdeformed (SD) band has been identified in a non - alpha - conjugate nucleus 35Cl. It crosses the negative parity ground band above 11/2- and becomes the yrast at 15/2-. Lifetimes of all relevant states have been measured to follow the evolution of collectivity. Enhanced B(E2), B(E1) values as well as energetics provide evidences for superdeformation and existence of parity doublet cluster structure in an odd-A nucleus for the first time in A = 40 region. Large scale shell model calculations assign (sd)16(pf)3 as the origin of these states. Calculated spectroscopic factors correlate the SD states in 35Cl to those in 36Ar.
There is a deep astrophysical interest in the structure of $^{19}$F states close to the alpha decay threshold. The nuclear structure of these states is important for understanding of the development of $alpha$ clustering in the $^{20}$Ne region. Emergence of clustered states and generally states that favor coupling to reaction channels near the corresponding decay thresholds is currently of special interest in theoretical physics. Excitation function for $^{15}$N($alpha$,$alpha$) elastic scattering was measured by the TTIK method. These new data together with old, high energy resolution data, were analyzed using the R matrix approach. $^{19}$F nuclear structure was calculated using configuration interaction methods with the recently developed effective interaction Hamiltonian. The parameters of broad low spin $ell = 0$ and 1 relative partial wave resonances close to the $alpha$ decay threshold in $^{19}$F were identified. Detailed theoretical analysis was carried out identifying all states coupled to the $ell = 0$ and 1 alpha cluster channels. Considering hierarchy of states with different harmonic oscillator shell excitations allows to evaluate coupling to the alpha channels with different number of nodes in the relative wave function and helps to explain the distribution of the clustering strength and emergence of broad clustering resonances. Comparison of clustering in $^{20}$Ne into $^{16}$O+$alpha$ and consideration of spin-orbit splitting of the $^{15}$N+$alpha$ channel provides additional evidence. Detailed analysis of new and old experimental data allows to identify a series of $alpha$ clustering resonances in $^{19}$F and to assess the distribution of the clustering strength which is of importance to questions of astrophysics and for theoretical understanding of many-body physics and emergence of clustering in loosely bound or unstable nuclei.
Excited states in 212Po have been populated by alpha transfer using the 208Pb(18O,14C) reaction at 85MeV beam energy and studied with the EUROBALL IV gamma multidetector array. The level scheme has been extended up to ~ 3.2 MeV excitation energy from the triple gamma coincidence data. Spin and parity values of most of the observed states have been assigned from the gamma angular distributions and gamma -gamma angular correlations. Several gamma lines with E(gamma) < 1 MeV have been found to be shifted by the Doppler effect, allowing for the measurements of the associated lifetimes by the DSAM method. The values, found in the range [0.1-0.6] ps, lead to very enhanced E1 transitions. All the emitting states, which have non-natural parity values, are discussed in terms of alpha-208Pb structure. They are in the same excitation-energy range as the states issued from shell-model configurations.
The first study of resonances in $^{17}$O+$alpha$ elastic scattering was carried out using the Thick Target Inverse Kinematics (TTIK) method. The data were analyzed in the framework of an $textit{R}$-matrix approach. Many $alpha$-cluster states were found in the $^{21}$Ne excitation region of the 9-13 MeV excitation energy including the first observation of a broad $textit{l}$=0 state in an odd-even nucleus, which is likely the analog of the broad 0$^+$ at 8 MeV in $^{20}$Ne. The observed structure in $^{21}$Ne appeared to be strikingly similar to that in $^{20}$Ne populated in the resonance $^{16}$O+$alpha$ scattering. The results are also useful for refinement of data on an $^{17}$O($alpha$,$textit{n}$) reaction important for astrophysics.
Background The nuclear structure of the cluster bands in $^{20}$Ne presents a challenge for different theoretical approaches. It is especially difficult to explain the broad 0$^+$, 2$^+$ states at 9 MeV excitation energy. Simultaneously, it is important to obtain more reliable experimental data for these levels in order to quantitatively assess the theoretical framework. Purpose To obtain new data on $^{20}$Ne $alpha$ cluster structure. Method Thick target inverse kinematics technique was used to study the $^{16}$O+$alpha$ resonance elastic scattering and the data were analyzed using an textit{R} matrix approach. The $^{20}$Ne spectrum, the cluster and nucleon spectroscopic factors were calculated using cluster-nucleon configuration interaction model (CNCIM). Results We determined the parameters of the broad resonances in textsuperscript{20}Ne: 0$^+$ level at 8.77 $pm$ 0.150 MeV with a width of 750 (+500/-220) keV; 2$^+$ level at 8.75 $pm$ 0.100 MeV with the width of 695 $pm$ 120 keV; the width of 9.48 MeV level of 65 $pm$ 20 keV and showed that 9.19 MeV, 2$^+$ level (if exists) should have width $leq$ 10 keV. The detailed comparison of the theoretical CNCIM predictions with the experimental data on cluster states was made. Conclusions Our experimental results by the TTIK method generally confirm the adopted data on $alpha$ cluster levels in $^{20}$Ne. The CNCIM gives a good description of the $^{20}$Ne positive parity states up to an excitation energy of $sim$ 7 MeV, predicting reasonably well the excitation energy of the states and their cluster and single particle properties. At higher excitations, the qualitative disagreement with the experimentally observed structure is evident, especially for broad resonances.
The $^{174}$Yb($^{29}$Si,5n) reaction at 148 MeV with thin targets was used to populate high-angular momentum states in $^{198}$Po. Resulting $gamma$ rays were observed with Gammasphere. A weakly-populated superdeformed band of 10 $gamma$-ray transitions was found and has been assigned to $^{198}$Po. This is the first observation of a SD band in the $A approx 190$ region in a nucleus with $Z > 83$. The ${cal J}^{(2)}$ of the new band is very similar to those of the yrast SD bands in $^{194}$Hg and $^{196}$Pb. The intensity profile suggests that this band is populated through states close to where the SD band crosses the yrast line and the angular momentum at which the fission process dominates.