Electron-positron angular correlations were measured for the isovector magnetic dipole 17.6 MeV state ($J^pi=1^+$, $T=1$) $rightarrow$ ground state ($J^pi=0^+$, $T=0$) and the isoscalar magnetic dipole 18.15 MeV ($J^pi=1^+$, $T=0$) state $rightarrow$
ground state transitions in $^{8}$Be. Significant deviation from the internal pair creation was observed at large angles in the angular correlation for the isoscalar transition with a confidence level of $> 5sigma$. This observation might indicate that, in an intermediate step, a neutral isoscalar particle with a mass of 16.70$pm0.35 $ (stat)$pm 0.5 $ (sys) MeV$/c^2$ and $J^pi = 1^+$ was created.
The $^{208}$Pb($p$,$ngammabar p$) $^{207}$Pb reaction at a beam energy of 30 MeV has been used to excite the anti-analog of the giant dipole resonance (AGDR) and to measure its $gamma$-decay to the isobaric analog state in coincidence with proton dec
ay of IAS. The energy of the transition has also been calculated with the self-consistent relativistic random-phase approximation (RRPA), and found to be linearly correlated to the predicted value of the neutron-skin thickness ($Delta R_{pn}$). By comparing the theoretical results with the measured transition energy, the value of 0.190 $pm$ 0.028 fm has been determined for $Delta R_{pn}$ of $^{208}$Pb, in agreement with previous experimental results. The AGDR excitation energy has also been used to calculate the symmetry energy at saturation ($J=32.7 pm 0.6$ MeV) and the slope of the symmetry energy ($L=49.7 pm 4.4$ MeV), resulting in more stringent constraints than most of the previous studies.
A neutron spectrometer, the European Low-Energy Neutron Spectrometer (ELENS), has been constructed to study exotic nuclei in inverse-kinematics experiments. The spectrometer, which consists of plastic scintillator bars, can be operated in the neutron
energy range of 100 keV to 10 MeV. The neutron energy is determined using the time-of-flight technique, while the position of the neutron detection is deduced from the time-difference information from photomultipliers attached to both ends of each bar. A novel wrapping method has been developed for the plastic scintillators. The array has a larger than 25% detection efficiency for neutrons of approximately 500 keV in kinetic energy and an angular resolution of less than 1 degree. Details of the design, construction and experimental tests of the spectrometer will be presented.
High resolution experimental data has been obtained for the 40,42,44,48Ca(3He,t)Sc charge exchange reaction at 420 MeV beam energy, which favors the spin-isospin excitations. The measured angular distributions were analyzed for each state separately,
and the relative spin dipole strength has been extracted for the first time. The low-lying spin-dipole strength distribution in 40Sc shows some interesting periodic gross feature. It resembles to a soft, dumped multi-phonon vibrational band with $hbaromega$= 1.8 MeV, which might be associated to pairing vibrations around $^{40}$Ca.
The gamma-decay of the anti-analog of the giant dipole resonance (AGDR) has been measured to the isobaric analog state excited in the p(124Sn,n) reaction at a beam energy of 600 MeV/nucleon. The energy of the transition was also calculated with state
-of-the-art self-consistent random-phase approximation (RPA) and turned out to be very sensitive to the neutron-skin thickness (DeltaR_(pn)). By comparing the theoretical results with the measured one, the DeltaR_(pn) value for 124Sn was deduced to be 0.175 pm 0.048 fm, which agrees well with the previous results. The energy of the AGDR measured previously for ^(208)Pb was also used to determine the DeltaR_(pn) for ^(208)Pb. In this way a very precise DeltaR_(pn) = 0.181 pm 0.031 neutron-skin thickness has been obtained for 208Pb. The present method offers new possibilities for measuring the neutron-skin thicknesses of very exotic isotopes.
The fission probability of 232Pa was measured as a function of the excitation energy in order to search for hyperdeformed (HD) transmission resonances using the (d,pf) transfer reaction on a radioactive 231Pa target. The experiment was performed at t
he Tandem accelerator of the Maier-Leibnitz Laboratory (MLL) at Garching using the 231Pa(d,pf) reaction at a bombarding energy of E=12 MeV and with an energy resolution of dE=5.5 keV. Two groups of transmission resonances have been observed at excitation energies of E=5.7 and 5.9 MeV. The fine structure of the resonance group at E=5.7 MeV could be interpreted as overlapping rotational bands with a rotational parameter characteristic to a HD nuclear shape. The fission barrier parameters of 232Pa have been determined by fitting TALYS 1.2 nuclear reaction code calculations to the overall structure of the fission probability. From the average level spacing of the J=4 states, the excitation energy of the ground state of the 3rd minimum has been deduced to be E(III)=5.05 MeV.
