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The charge state distributions of krypton (^{86}Kr) with an energy of 2.7 MeV/nucleon were measured using hydrogen (H_{2}) and helium (He) gas charge strippers. A differential pumping system was constructed to confine H_{2} and He gases to a thickness sufficient for the charge state distributions to attain equilibrium. The mean charge states of ^{86}Kr in H_{2} and He gases attained equilibrium at 25.1 and 23.2, respectively, whereas the mean charge state in N_{2} gas at equilibrium was estimated to be less than 20. The charge distributions are successfully reproduced by the cross sections of ionization and electron capture processes optimized by a fitting procedure.

Development of a nondestructive, efficient electric-charge-stripping method is a key requirement for next-generation high-intensity heavy-ion accelerators such as the RIKEN Radioactive-Isotope Beam Factory. A charge stripper employing a low-Z gas is an important candidate applicable to high-intensity uranium beams for replacing carbon-foil strippers. In this study, a high-beam-transmission charge-stripping system employing helium gas for ^{238}U beams injected at 10.8 MeV/u was developed and demonstrated for the first time. The charge-state evolution measured using helium in a thickness range of 0.24–1.83 mg/cm^{2} is compared with theoretical predictions. Energy attenuation and energy spread due to the helium stripper are also investigated.

The charge-state distributions of ^{238}U with energies of 14 and 15 MeV/nucleon were measured using nitrogen (N_{2}) gas and carbon foil (C-foil) charge strippers. The most probable charge states of ^{238}U with energies of 14 and 15 MeV/nucleon in N_{2} gas attain equilibrium at 60.8 and 62.4, whereas those in C-foils attain equilibrium at 75.8 and 76.7, respectively. Novel empirical formulas for the accurate prediction of the equilibrium charge states of ^{238}U with energies 10–20 MeV/nucleon in gases and C-foil were derived by fitting the data in the energy range of 1–20 MeV/nucleon. The charge states predicted by using the formulas for gases and C-foil are in good agreement with the data in the energy range of 10–20 MeV/nucleon within an average of 0.23 and 0.21, respectively.

The RIKEN accelerator complex started feeding the next-generation exotic beam facility radioisotope beam factory (RIBF) with heavy-ion beams from 2007 after the successful commissioning of RIBF at the end of 2006. Many improvements made from 2007 to 2010 were instrumental in increasing the intensity of various heavy-ion beams. However, the available beam intensity of very heavy ion beams, especially uranium beams, is far below our goal of 1 pμA (6×10^{12} particles/s). In order to achieve this goal, upgrade programs are already in progress; the programs include the construction of a new 28-GHz superconducting electron cyclotron resonance ion source and a new injector linac. However, the most serious problem, that of a charge stripper for high-power uranium beams, still remains unsolved, despite extensive research and development work using large foils mounted on a rotating cylinder and a N_{2} gas stripper. A gas stripper is free from problems related to lifetime, though the equilibrium charge state in this stripper is considerably lower than that in a carbon foil, owing to the absence of the density effect. Nevertheless, the merits of gas strippers motivated us to develop a low-Z gas stripper to achieve a higher equilibrium charge state even in gases. We measured the electron-loss and electron-capture cross sections of uranium ions in He gas as a function of their charge state at 11, 14, and 15 MeV/nucleon. The equilibrium charge states extracted from the intersection of the lines of the two cross sections were promisingly higher than those in N_{2} gas by more than 10. Simple simulations of charge development along the stripper thickness were performed by assuming the measured cross sections. The simulation results show that about 1 mg/cm^{2} of He gas should be accumulated to achieve a charge state higher than that of N_{2} gas, notwithstanding the difficulty in accumulation of this helium amount owing to its fast dispersion. However, we now believe that the following two solutions can overcome this difficulty: a gas cell with a very large differential pumping system and a gas cell with a plasma window. Their merits and demerits are discussed in the paper.

The charge-state distributions and equilibrium charge states of uranium (^{238}U) and xenon (^{136}Xe) ions at 11 MeV/nucleon were determined using a gas charge stripper. A differential pumping system facilitated the increase of the nitrogen gas thickness up to 1.3 mg/cm^{2}, which is sufficient for the most probable charge state to attain equilibrium. The charge states of ^{238}U attain equilibrium at 56.0, 56.6, and 55.7 in N_{2}, Ar, and CO_{2} media with thicknesses of 125, 79, and 126 μg/cm^{2}, respectively, while those of ^{136}Xe attain equilibrium at 40.5, 40.1, and 40.3 in N_{2}, Ar, and CO_{2} media with thicknesses of 163, 95, and 139 μg/cm^{2}, respectively. The equilibrium charge states of ^{136}Xe are acceptable for acceleration by the subsequent cyclotron. The measured data of ^{238}U were used to devise an empirical formula for the prediction of the equilibrium charge state in gaseous media over the energy region of 0.01–60 MeV/nucleon. The equilibrium charge state of ^{136}Xe as predicted by the devised formula is in good agreement with the data.

The double-differential cross sections for the 48Ca(p,n) and 48Ti(n,p) reactions were measured at 300 MeV. A multipole decomposition technique was applied to the spectra to extract the Gamow-Teller (GT) components. The integrated GT strengths up to an excitation energy of 30 MeV in 48Sc are 15.3+/-2.2 and 2.8+/-0.3 in the (p,n) and (n,p) spectra, respectively. In the (n,p) spectra additional GT strengths were found above 8 MeV where shell models within the fp shell-model space predict almost no GT strengths, suggesting that the present shell-model description of the nuclear matrix element of the two-neutrino double-beta decay is incomplete.

We report the results of the first-time test of the local hidden variable theories (Bell-Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt) involving strongly interacting pairs of massive spin 1/2 hadrons from the decay of short-lived (tau<10;-21sec) 2He spin-singlet state, populated in the nuclear reaction 2H+;1H-->;2He+n. The novel features of this experiment are (a) the use of an 'event-ready' [corrected] detector of nearly 100% efficiency to prepare an unbiased sample and (b) a focal-plane polarimeter of full 2pi sr acceptance with a random "post selection" of the reference axes. The spin-correlation function is deduced to be S[exp](pi/4)=2.83+/-0.24stat+/-0.07sys. This result is in agreement with nonlocal quantum mechanical prediction and it violates the Bell-CHSH inequality of |S|

Three precise measurements for elastic pd scattering at 135 MeV/A have been performed with the three different experimental setups. The cross sections are described well by the theoretical predictions based on modern nucleon-nucleon forces combined with three-nucleon forces. Relativistic Faddeev calculations show that relativistic effects are restricted to backward angles. This result supports the two measurements recently reported by RIKEN and contradicts the KVI data.