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The nuclear isomer $$^{178}$$ Hfm2 enables various investigations owing to its unique properties. To study exotic nuclear reactions induced by $$^{178}$$ Hfm2, an isomeric target is the most effective option in terms of luminosity. However, this creates many challenges to overcome. One of the challenges is that nanogram quantities of the isomer are essential for fabricating a target. We conducted a pilot experiment to establish the method for isomer production, as the first step toward large-scale production at the Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory (RIBF), RIKEN. An $$\alpha$$ beam at 40 MeV supplied from the AVF cyclotron bombarded natural-abundance metallic Yb foils. Hf isotopes were extracted from the irradiated target by a new chemical separation method. We produced a sample containing $$10^{11}$$ atoms of $$^{178}$$ Hfm2, paving the way to future large-scale production at the RIBF.

Mountable controller with parallelized VERSA Module Eurocard (VME) (MPV) is a VME-compatible system having a parallel readout architecture. This article presents the system architecture and its data acquisition performance. In this system, the readout sequence is implemented in a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) to achieve the ideal VME bus speed. Data from multiple VME slave modules are read out in parallel, merged, and sent to a server. Maximum data throughput of 400 Mbps was achieved. Thus, the MPV system can dramatically improve the performance of VME data acquisition systems.

The Optimized Energy Degrading Optics (OEDO) beamline was constructed at RIBF to produce slowed-down, well-focused radioactive-isotope beams at 10–50 MeV/u, and began operation in June 2017. We examined the performance of the OEDO system by decelerating high-energy medium-mass radioactive ions. The main components of the OEDO beamline are two superconducting quadrupole triplet magnets and one radio-frequency deflector. This paper introduces the unique design of the ion optics of the beamline and describes the achieved performance of the beamline in the commissioning and following physics experiments. We will discuss the properties of energy-degraded beams produced by the OEDO beamline by comparison of simulations and the achieved performance.

New formula to describe the non-resonant background strength in the binary breakup is considered on the basis of the Migdal-Watson (MW) formula. The background strength is assumed to be generated by the direct breakup, which is the one step transition from the initial bound state to the final continuum state. The strength of the direct breakup is evaluated by the complex scaling method (CSM). We have found that the extended MW formula, which is proposed in the present study, nicely reproduces the strength of the direct breakup calculated by CSM. The relation of the parameters newly introduced in the extended MW formula and the spatial size of the initial wave function is also discussed.

We performed the first direct mass measurements of neutron-rich scandium, titanium, and vanadium isotopes around the neutron number 40 at the RIKEN RI Beam Factory using the time-of-flight magnetic-rigidity technique. The atomic mass excesses of ^{58-60}Sc, ^{60-62}Ti, and ^{62-64}V were measured for the first time. The experimental results show that the two-neutron separation energies in the vicinity of ^{62}Ti increase compared to neighboring nuclei. This shows that the masses of Ti isotopes near N=40 are affected by the Jahn-Teller effect. Therefore, a development of Jahn-Teller stabilization appears below the Cr isotopes, and the systematics in Sc, Ti, and V isotopes suggest that ^{62}Ti is located close to the peak of the Jahn-Teller effect.

The structure of a neutron-rich ^{25}F nucleus is investigated by a quasifree (p,2p) knockout reaction at 270A MeV in inverse kinematics. The sum of spectroscopic factors of π0d_{5/2} orbital is found to be 1.0±0.3. However, the spectroscopic factor with residual ^{24}O nucleus being in the ground state is found to be only 0.36±0.13, while those in the excited state is 0.65±0.25. The result shows that the ^{24}O core of ^{25}F nucleus significantly differs from a free ^{24}O nucleus, and the core consists of ∼35% ^{24}O_{g.s.}. and ∼65% excited ^{24}O. The result may infer that the addition of the 0d_{5/2} proton considerably changes neutron structure in ^{25}F from that in ^{24}O, which could be a possible mechanism responsible for the oxygen dripline anomaly.

The “Optimized Energy-Degrading Optics” (OEDO) project [1, 2] has been promoted to develop slowed-down radioactive-isotope (RI) beams from fast fragments provided by the in-flight RI separator BigR...

Spallation reaction study has been performed for the long-lived fission products 137Cs, 90Sr and 107Pd. Isotopic cross sections on proton and deuteron were obtained by using the inverse kinematics technique at the RIKEN Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory. It was found that the deuteron-induced cross sections are larger than the proton-induced ones for the light-mass products. The experimental data were compared with the SPACS semi-empirical parameterization and a theoretical calculation including both the intra-nuclear cascade and evaporation models by the PHITS transport code. It was found that the spallation reaction could be a promising mechanism for the transmutation of 137Cs and 90Sr due to the large total cross section.

The isospin characters of low-energy dipole excitations in neutron-rich unstable nucleus 20O were investigated, for the first time in unstable nuclei. Two spectra obtained from a dominant isovector probe (View the MathML sourceO20+Au) and a dominant isoscalar probe (View the MathML sourceO20+α) were compared and analyzed by the distorted-wave Born approximation to extract independently the isovector and isoscalar dipole strengths. Two known 1−1− states with large isovector dipole strengths at energies of 5.36(5) MeV (View the MathML source11−) and 6.84(7) MeV (View the MathML source12−) were also excited by the isoscalar probe. These two states were found to have different isoscalar dipole strengths, 2.70(32)% (View the MathML source11−) and 0.67(12)% (View the MathML source12−), respectively, in exhaustion of the isoscalar dipole-energy-weighted sum rule. The difference in isoscalar strength indicated that they have different underlying structures. ispartof: Physics Letters B vol:768 pages:387-392 status: published

Isotope-production cross sections for p-, d-, and C-induced spallation reactions on Nb93 at 113 MeV/nucleon were measured using the inverse-kinematics method employing secondary targets of CH2, CD2, and C. The measured cross sections for Mo90, Nb90, Y86,88 produced by p-induced reactions were found to be consistent with those measured by the conventional activation method. We performed benchmark tests of the reaction models INCL-4.6, JQMD, and JQMD-2.0 implemented in the Particle and Heavy Ion Transport code System (PHITS) and of the nuclear data libraries JENDL-4.0/HE, TENDL-2017, and ENDF/B-VIII.0. The model calculations also showed generally good agreement with the measured isotope-production cross sections for p-, d-, and C-induced reactions. It also turns out that, among the three nuclear data libraries, JENDL-4.0/HE provides the best agreement with the measured data for the p-induced reactions. We compared the present Nb93 data with the Zr93 data, that were measured previously by the same inverse kinematics method (Kawase et al., Prog. Theor. Exp. Phys. 2017, 093D03 (2017)2050-391110.1093/ptep/ptx110), with particular attention to the effect of neutron-shell closure on isotope production in p- and d-induced spallation reactions. The isotopic distributions of the measured production cross sections in the Zr93 data showed noticeable jumps at neutron number N=50 in the isotopic chains of ΔZ=0 and -1, whereas no such jump appeared in isotopic chain of ΔZ=0 in the Nb93 data. From INCL-4.6 + GEM calculations, we found that the jump formed in the evaporation process is smeared out by the intranuclear cascade component in Nb91 produced by the Nb93(p,p2n) and (d,d2n) reactions on Nb93. Moreover, for Nb93, the distribution of the element-production cross sections as a function of the change in proton number ΔZ is shifted to smaller ΔZ than for Zr93, because the excited Nb prefragments generated by the cascade process are more likely to emit protons than the excited Zr prefragments, due to the smaller proton-separation energies of the Nb isotopes.

A method for controlling the energy of slowed-down RI beams with the goal energy of 20 MeV/u was developed at the RIKEN RI Beam Factory. The 93Zr beam energy was successfully tuned to 20.2 MeV/u in a single step by adjusting its momentum selected by the first dipole magnet after a primary target. A method for particle identification was developed for the secondary reaction fragments at 50 MeV/u. The dispersive mode was applied to the ZeroDegree spectrometer to measure the momentum at the final focus F11. The reaction fragments were stopped in the multi-sampling ionization chamber (MUSIC) placed at F11, which measured the Δ E − E of the beam particles. In addition, the range R in MUSIC was determined with a resolution of 1.4 mm ( σ ) by using the energy ratio obtained from multi-sampled energy deposits. The atomic number was determined from the E − R correlation with a resolution of 0.15 ( σ ). To distinguish the charge state of the RI beam after the secondary reaction target, the range with the correction for the β dependence was combined with the mass-to-charge ratio determined from the time-of-flight and magnetic-rigidity measurements. A 5.6 σ separation was obtained between 92Zr 40 + and 90Zr 39 + using these two values.

The OEDO (Optimized Energy Degrading Optics for RI beam) beamline has been developed to obtain low-energy (10 – 50 MeV/u) RI beams by slowing down the secondary beams at RIBF, RIKEN. Such beams are useful probes to investigate nuclear structure by means of nucleon transfer and Coulomb excitation reactions. The beamline is designed to produce a well-focused beam of small energy spread with the help of the angle-tuneable wedge degrader and the radio-frequency deflector. The commissioning and first physics experiments using the OEDO beamline were carried out in 2017. OEDO successfully provided the energy-degraded beams of Se, Zr, and Pd. Its performance including the optics and transmission was evaluated using those experimental data and it functions properly as designed. We expect that our novel beamline shed a light on the experimental approaches involving nuclear reactions at several tens of MeV/u to expand our knowledge of nuclei far beyond the line of stability.

The spin-isospin responses of the 11Li drip-line nucleus has been measured. Preliminary results of the 11Li(p, n)11Be experiment in inverse kinematics at RI Beam Factory (RIBF) of RIKEN Nishina Center are presented including the observation of 1n, 2n, t, d, 2α and 6He+α decay channels of 11Be reaction product. Details of the experimental setup based on PANDORA (Particle Analyzer Neutron Detector Of Real-time Acquisition) low-energy neutron detector and the SAMURAI large-acceptance magnetic spectrometer are described.

We have combined the low-energy neutron detector WINDS (Wide-angle Inverse-kinematics Neutron Detectors for SHARAQ) and the SAMURAI spectrometer at RIKEN Nishina Center RI Beam Factory (RIBF) in order to perform ( p , n ) reactions in inverse kinematics for unstable nuclei in the mass region around A ∼ 100 . In this setup, WINDS is used for detecting recoil neutrons and the SAMURAI spectrometer is used for tagging decay channel of heavy residue. The first experiment by using the setup was performed to study Gamow–Teller transitions from 132 Sn in April 2014. The atomic number Z and mass-to-charge ratio A / Q of the beam residues were determined from the measurements of time of flight, magnetic rigidity and energy loss. The obtained A / Q and Z resolutions were σ A / Q = 0.14 % and σ Z = 0.22 , respectively. Furthermore, owing to the large momentum acceptance ( 50 % ) of SAMURAI, the beam residues associated with the γ , 1n and 2n decay channel were measured in the same magnetic field setting. The kinematic loci of the measured recoil neutron energy and laboratory angle are clearly seen. It shows that the excitation energy up to about 20 MeV can be reconstructed.

The isotope-production cross sections in p- and d-induced reactions on 93Zr at approximately 50 MeV/nucleon were measured by using the inverse-kinematics method at RIKEN RI Beam Factory. The measured data were compared with the previous experimental 93Zr + p, d at 105 and 209 MeV/nucleon data. This comparison represents that the isotopic distribution of production cross sections at 51 MeV p-induced reaction is appreciably different from those at 105 and 209 MeV. On the other hand, these three data sets show that the shape of isotopic distribution is similar in the case of the d-induced reaction. Also, the measured production cross sections were compared with the theoretical model calculations with Particle and Heavy Ion Transport code System (PHITS) version 3.10 in order to investigate the reproducibility of the models implemented in PHITS. The calculations well reproduced the experimental data even in such low incident energy, while several discrepancies were still seen as in the p- and d-induced reactions at 105 and 209 MeV/nucleon.

Spallation reaction for the long-lived fission product 107Pd has been studied for the purpose of nuclear waste transmutation. The isotopic-distribution cross sections on both proton and deuteron were obtained at 118 MeV/nucleon in inverse kinematics at the RIKEN Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory. A large cross-section difference was found between the proton and deuteron results for the light-mass products. The data were compared with the SPACS semi-empirical parameterization and the PHITS calculations including both the intranuclear cascade and evaporation processes. In addition, the potential of spallation reaction for transmutation of 107Pd is discussed.

Direct reactions are important and useful tools for obtaining information on nuclear properties. Basic quantum scattering theories, their features and underlying pictures are presented and discussed. New aspects using rare-isotope beams are also introduced.

The key parameter to discuss the possibility of the pion condensation in nuclear matter, i.e., the so-called Landau-Migdal parameter g^{'}, was extracted by measuring the double-differential cross sections for the (p,n) reaction at 216 MeV/u on a neutron-rich doubly magic unstable nucleus, ^{132}Sn with the quality comparable to data taken with stable nuclei. The extracted strengths for Gamow-Teller (GT) transitions from ^{132}Sn leading to ^{132}Sb exhibit the GT giant resonance (GTR) at the excitation energy of 16.3±0.4(stat)±0.4(syst) MeV with the width of Γ=4.7±0.8 MeV. The integrated GT strength up to E_{x}=25 MeV is S_{GT}^{-}=53±5(stat)_{-10}^{+11}(syst), corresponding to 56% of Ikeda's sum rule of 3(N-Z)=96. The present result accurately constrains the Landau-Migdal parameter as g^{'}=0.68±0.07, thanks to the high sensitivity of the GTR energy to g^{'}. In combination with previous studies on the GTR for ^{90}Zr and ^{208}Pb, the result of this work shows the constancy of this parameter in the nuclear chart region with (N-Z)/A=0.11 to 0.24 and A=90 to 208.

We perform the first direct mass measurements of neutron-rich calcium isotopes beyond neutron number 34 at the RIKEN Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory by using the time-of-flight magnetic-rigidity technique. The atomic mass excesses of ^{55-57}Ca are determined for the first time to be -18650(160), -13510(250), and -7370(990) keV, respectively. We examine the emergence of neutron magicity at N=34 based on the new atomic masses. The new masses provide experimental evidence for the appearance of a sizable energy gap between the neutron 2p_{1/2} and 1f_{5/2} orbitals in ^{54}Ca, comparable to the gap between the neutron 2p_{3/2} and 2p_{1/2} orbitals in ^{52}Ca. For the ^{56}Ca nucleus, an open-shell property in neutrons is suggested.

The (^{12}N, ^{12}C) charge-exchange reaction at 175 MeV/u was developed as a novel probe for studying the isovector spin giant monopole resonance (IVSMR), whose properties are important for better understanding the bulk properties of nuclei and asymmetric nuclear matter. This probe, now available through the production of ^{12}N as a secondary rare-isotope beam, is exothermic, is strongly absorbed at the surface of the target nucleus, and provides selectivity for spin-transfer excitations. All three properties enhance the excitation of the IVSMR compared to other, primarily light-ion, probes, which have been used to study the IVSMR thus far. The ^{90}Zr(^{12}N,^{12}C) reaction was measured and the excitation energy spectra up to about 70 MeV for both the spin-transfer and non-spin-transfer channels were deduced separately by tagging the decay by γ emission from the ^{12}C ejectile. Besides the well-known Gamow-Teller and isobaric analog transitions, a clear signature of the IVSMR was identified. By comparing with the results from light-ion reactions on the same target nucleus and theoretical predictions, the suitability of this new probe for studying the IVSMR was confirmed.

It is a major and complex task to accelerate an ion which has the same charge to mass ratio with strong contaminant ions, such as

Two-proton relative momentum ($q_{pp}$) and opening angle ($\theta_{pp}$) distributions from the three-body decay of two excited proton-rich nuclei, namely $^{23}$Al $\rightarrow$ p + p + $^{21}$Na and $^{22}$Mg $\rightarrow$ p + p + $^{20}$Ne, have been measured with the projectile fragment separator (RIPS) at the RIKEN RI Beam Factory. An evident peak at $q_{pp}\sim20$ MeV/c as well as a peak in $\theta_{pp}$ around 30$^\circ$ are seen in the two-proton break-up channel from a highly-excited $^{22}$Mg. In contrast, such peaks are absent for the $^{23}$Al case. It is concluded that the two-proton emission mechanism of excited $^{22}$Mg is quite different from the $^{23}$Al case, with the former having a favorable diproton emission component at a highly excited state and the latter dominated by the sequential decay process.

A time-stamping system for nuclear physics experiments has been introduced at the RIKEN Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory. Individual trigger signals can be applied for separate data acquisition (DAQ) systems. After the measurements are complete, separately taken data are merged based on the time-stamp information. In a typical experiment, coincidence trigger signals are formed from multiple detectors to take desired events only. The time-stamping system allows the use of minimum bias triggers. Since coincidence conditions are given by software, a variety of physics events can be flexibly identified. The live time for a DAQ system is important when attempting to determine reaction cross-sections. However, the combined live time for separate DAQ systems is not clearly known because it depends not only on the DAQ dead time but also on the coincidence conditions. Using the proposed time-stamping system, all trigger timings can be acquired, so that the combined live time can be easily determined. The combined live time is also estimated using Monte Carlo simulations, and the results are compared with the directly measured values in order to assess the accuracy of the simulation.

The optical line spectra of multi-charged gaseous and metal ion beams from ECR plasma have been observed using a grating monochromator with photomultiplier. This new method simplifies the observation of the targeted ion species in the plasma during beam tuning. In this paper we describe present condition of the Hyper-ECR ion source tuning with this plasma spectroscopy method. This data is important because separation of ion species of the same charge to mass ratio with an electromagnetic mass analyzer is almost impossible.

One-neutron knockout from 24O leading to the first excited state in 23O has been measured for a proton target at a beam energy of 62 MeV/nucleon. The decay energy spectrum of the neutron unbound state of 23O was reconstructed from the measured four momenta of the 22O fragment and emitted neutron. A sharp peak was found at E decay = 50 ± 3 keV , corresponding to an excited state in 23O at 2.78 ± 0.11 MeV , as observed in previous measurements. The longitudinal momentum distribution for this state was consistent with d-wave neutron knockout, providing support for a J π assignment of 5 / 2 + . The associated spectroscopic factor was deduced to be C 2 S ( 0 d 5 / 2 ) = 4.1 ± 0.4 by comparing the measured cross section ( σ − 1 n exp = 61 ± 6 mb ) with a distorted wave impulse approximation calculation. Such a large occupancy for the neutron 0 d 5 / 2 orbital is in line with the N = 16 shell closure in 24O.

Low-pressure multi-wire drift chambers have been developed to track high-intensity radioactive isotope beams at the energies of around 200 MeV/nucleon. In order to minimize the effect of multiple scattering by radioactive isotope beam, the thickness of the detectors were minimized by using isobutane gas at low pressure (10 kPa). The performance of the position resolution, the tracking efficiency, and the beam intensity capability were evaluated as a function of atomic number and applied voltage. As a result, an overall position resolution of 300 μm was achieved for radioactive isotope beams with an intensity of 1 MHz. The details of the design specifications and performances of the low-pressure multi-wire drift chambers are described.

The paper describes recent developments of diamond detector at CNS and discusses the timing signal transfer system suitable for optimizing its performance. The diamond detector is well known to have good properties as a radiation detector such as fast response and good radiation hardness. Consequently, it is an excellent candidate for serving as a high-resolution thin timing detector. CNS and NSCL/MSU started a collaboration to develop diamond detectors, and manufactured a detector with a size of 28 × 28 mm2 and thickness of 200 μm. An irradiation experiment of the detector was performed by using a 32-MeV α beam to check its basic performance. The CNS detector had almost 100% efficiency and a timing resolution of 27 ps ( σ ). Jitter in long optical-fiber signal-transfer lines was examined and found to be 10.7 ps ( σ ). Diamond detectors and signal transfer system using a optical fiber enable us to provide time-of-flight measurements with extremely high resolution.

The SHARAQ spectrometer and High-Resolution Beamline, which began operation in March 2009, have been put into use for six experiments using charge exchange reactions with radioactive isotope beams. For experiments at SHARAQ, detector developments and ion optics studies continue to improve performance in high-resolution nuclear spectroscopy. We have introduced improved timing resolution with CVD diamond detectors, high count-rate beamline tracking detectors and development of multi-particle detection by cathode-readout drift chambers. Ion-optics studies for the high-resolution achromatic (HA) and dispersion-matching (DM) transport modes are also reported here. Momentum tagging in the HA mode demonstrated an improvement in spectroscopic resolution with respect to the momentum spread of the radioactive beam. For the DM transportation mode, a momentum resolution of 1 / 8100 (FWHM) was achieved by taking into account the positions and angles of the beam at the third focal plane of BigRIPS.

The 16C nucleus has been investigated by the neutron knockout reaction of 17C on a liquid hydrogen target. Applying the invariant mass method in inverse kinematics and γ-ray spectroscopy, the energy spectrum was reconstructed by triple-coincidence measurement, in which neutrons, charged fragments, and γ rays from the decay of the reaction residue (16C*) were detected. A peak at 0.47 MeV was observed in the invariant mass spectrum in coincidence with a peak at 0.74 MeV in the γ-ray spectrum, which indicates the presence of an unbound state with an excitation energy of 5.46 MeV. Comparison of the experimental cross section with the value derived by a theoretical calculation provided evidence that the spin-parity of this state is 2−.

Spectroscopy for neutron-rich nuclei 9He and 12Be has been performed by means of heavy-ion double charge exchange (HIDCX) (18O, 18Ne) reaction on stable target nuclei 9Be and 12C, respectively. Several clear peaks in 12Be at low excitation energy region even above neutron separation energy have been observed in one-shot measurement, whereas no prominent signals of 9He have been observed owing to the small cross section. It is shown that the HIDCX reaction is a new powerful spectroscopic tool for study of unstable neutron-rich nuclei.

The proton-proton momentum correlation functions ($C_{pp}(q)$) for kinematically complete decay channels of $^{23}$Al $\rightarrow$ p + p + $^{21}$Na and $^{22}$Mg $\rightarrow$ p + p + $^{20}$Ne have been measured at the RIKEN RI Beam Factory. From the very different correlation strength of $C_{pp}(q)$ for $^{23}$Al and $^{22}$Mg, the source size and emission time information were extracted from the $C_{pp}(q)$ data by assuming a Gaussian source profile in the correlation function calculation code (CRAB). The results indicated that the mechanism of two-proton emission from $^{23}$Al was mainly sequential emission, while that of $^{22}$Mg was mainly three-body simultaneous emission. By combining our earlier results of the two-proton relative momentum and the opening angle, it is pointed out that the mechanism of two-proton emission could be distinguished clearly.

A candidate resonant tetraneutron state is found in the missing-mass spectrum obtained in the double-charge-exchange reaction ^{4}He(^{8}He,^{8}Be) at 186 MeV/u. The energy of the state is 0.83±0.65(stat)±1.25(syst) MeV above the threshold of four-neutron decay with a significance level of 4.9σ. Utilizing the large positive Q value of the (^{8}He,^{8}Be) reaction, an almost recoilless condition of the four-neutron system was achieved so as to obtain a weakly interacting four-neutron system efficiently.

New operation mode, "separated flow mode", has been developed for in-flight proton decay experiments with the SHARAQ spectrometer. In the separated flow mode, the protons and the heavy-ion products are separated and measured in coincidence at two different focal planes of SHARAQ. The ion-optical properties of the new mode were studied by using a proton beam at $246~{\rm MeV}$, and the momentum vector was properly reconstructed from the parameters measured in the focal plane of SHARAQ. In the experiment with the $({}^{16}{\rm O},{}^{16}{\rm F})$ reaction at a beam energy of $247~{\rm MeV/u}$, the outgoing ${}^{15}{\rm O}+p$ produced by the decay of ${}^{16}{\rm F}$ were measured in coincidence with SHARAQ. High energy resolutions of $100~{\rm keV}$ (FWHM) and $\sim 2~{\rm MeV}$ were achieved for the relative energy of $535~{\rm keV}$, and the ${}^{16}{\rm F}$ energy of $3940~{\rm MeV}$, respectively., Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures, submitted to Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A

The unbound excited states of the most neutron-rich oxygen isotope, (24)O (Z = 8, N = 16), have been investigated using the (24)O(p,p')(24)O*-->(23)O+n reaction at RIKEN, where a 63 MeV/neuclon secondary beam of (24)O was produced in a Be production target by the projectile-like fragmentation of a 95 MeV/u (40)Ar primary beam. The first 2(+) excited state was observed in the invariant mass spectrum. This experiment; will give us a deeper understanding of the new magic number at N = 16 in the neutron-rich oxygen isotopes.

Two-proton relative momentum distributions from the break-up channels 23Al→p+p+21Na and 22Mg→p+p+20Ne at an energy of 60–70 A MeV have been measured together with two-proton opening angles at the projectile fragment separator beamline (RIPS) in the RIKEN Ring Cyclotron Facility. The results demonstrate the existence of diproton emission component from single-step 2He for highly excited 23Al and 22Mg.

A Gamow–Teller (GT) transition from the drip-line nucleus 14Be to 14B was studied via the ( p , n ) reaction in inverse kinematics using a secondary 14Be beam at 69 MeV/nucleon. The invariant mass method is employed to reconstruct the energy spectrum. A peak is observed at an excitation energy of 1.27(2) MeV in 14B, together with bumps at 2.08 and 4.06(5) MeV. The observed forward peaking of the state at 1.27 MeV and a good description for the differential cross section, obtained with a DWBA calculation provide support for the 1 + assignment to this state. By extrapolating the cross section to zero momentum transfer the GT-transition strength is deduced. The value is found to compare well with that reported in a β-delayed neutron emission study.

An experiment of 22 Mg and 20 Ne beams bombarding on a 12 C target at an energy of 60~70 A MeV has been performed at the RIKEN projectile fragment separator (RIPS) in the RIKEN Ring Cyclotron Facility to study the two-proton correlated emission from 22 Mg and 20 Ne excited states. The two-protons momentum correlation functions have been obtained for 22 Mg and 20 Ne , respectively. The trajectories of the 22 Mg decayed products (20 Ne + p + p ) were also measured to get the angular correlations between the two protons in Center of Mass of decaying system by relativistic-kinematics reconstruction. The results exhibit that 22 Mg has the features of 2 He cluster decay mechanism.

An experimental study for the unbound nucleus 13Be has been performed by means of the invariant mass method via the one-neutron removal reaction H 1 ( Be 14 , Be 12 + n ) . A resonance has been observed at 0.51(1) MeV in the relative energy ( E rel ) spectrum of the Be 12 + n system. The transverse momentum distribution of the Be 12 + n system as well as the resonance width of 0.45(3) MeV gives evidence for the p-wave nature of the resonance. A d-wave resonance has also been observed at 2.39(5) MeV in the E rel spectrum. The observation of the low-lying p-wave resonance indicates the disappearance of the N = 8 magicity in the vicinity of the neutron drip line region.

Experiments of 23 Al and 22 Mg radioactive beams bombarding a 12 C target at an energy of 60 ~70 A MeV have been performed at the projectile fragment separator beamline (RIPS) in the RIKEN Ring Cyclotron Facility to study the two-proton emission from 23 Al and 22 Mg excited states, respectively. The trajectorie of the decay products, namely 21 Na + p + p from 23 Al and 20 Ne + p + p from 22 Mg , are clean identified. The relative momentum and opening angle between two protons in the rest frame of three body decay channels are obtained by relativistic-kinematics reconstruction. The results demonstrate that there are some di-proton emission components from 2 He cluster for the excited 23 Al and 22 Mg .

A new data-acquisition (DAQ) system has been introduced at the RIKEN Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory (RIBF). This system has functions of network-distributed data processing, hierarchical event building and parallel readout which are achieved with newly developed software and commodity hardware. This system is both versatile and scalable, allowing it to meet the various requirements for RIBF experiments. It has a maximum data processing capability of around 40 MB/s. This paper describes the configuration and the data processing performance of the DAQ system.