Search

Beta-delayed neutron emission is being studied by detecting the β particles and recoiling ions emerging from the Beta-decay Paul Trap. For β decays to the ground state or γ -emitting states of the daughter nucleus, the fraction of recoiling ions which reach the ion detector in coincidence with a β particle has been determined for 134, 135Sb, 137, 138, 140I, and 144, 145Cs. This value is needed for the determination of the β -delayed neutron emission branching ratio solely from the recoil-ion time-of-flight (TOF) spectrum. The β -particle energy and recoil-ion TOF spectra were used to constrain a simple decay model, which can be used to determine the detection efficiency. The method is compared to simulations to estimate the uncertainty introduced by incomplete knowledge of the decay pattern. By fitting the simulation results to several β -ion coincidence properties measured during the experiment, the fraction of ions which reach the microchannel plate detector can be determined to within ± 4 % . This result opens the possibility of using the recoil-ion TOF spectra for high precision β -delayed neutron branching-ratio measurements.

The structure of 71Zn was investigated by one-neutron transfer and heavy-ion induced complex (deep-inelastic) reactions using the GRETINA-CHICO2 and the Gammasphere setups, respectively. The observed inversion between the 9/2+ and 1/2− states is explained in terms of the role of neutron pairing correlations. Non-collective sequences of levels were delineated above the 9/2+ isomeric state. These are interpreted as being associated with a modest oblate deformation in the framework of Monte-Carlo shell-model calculations carried out with the A3DA-m Hamiltonian in the p f g 9 / 2 d 5 / 2 valence space. Similarities with the structure of Ni 40 28 68 were observed and the shape-coexistence mechanism in the N = 40 region of neutron-rich nuclei is discussed in terms of the so-called Type-II shell evolution, with an emphasis on proton–neutron correlations between valence nucleons, especially those involving the shape-driving g 9 / 2 neutron orbital.

Fast-rotating N = 151 isotones 245 Pu, 247 Cm and 249 Cf have been studied through inelastic excitation and transfer reactions with radioactive targets. While all have a ground-state band built on a ν j 15 / 2 [ 734 ] 9 / 2 − Nilsson configuration, new excited bands have also been observed in each isotone. These odd- N excited bands allow a comparison of the alignment behavior for two different configurations, where the ν j 15 / 2 alignment is either blocked or allowed. The effect of higher order deformations is explored through cranking calculations, which help clarify the elusive nature of ν j 15 / 2 alignments.

New, low-lying levels in the odd-odd, N=Z nucleus 62Ga have been identified using a sensitive technique, where in-beam γ rays from short-lived nuclei are tagged with β decays following recoil mass identification. A comparison of the results with shell-model and IBM-4 calculations demonstrates good agreement between theory and experiment, with the majority of predicted low-lying, low-spin T=0 states now identified. There is a dramatic change in the level density at low excitation energies for the N=Z nucleus 62Ga when compared with neighbouring odd-odd Ga isotopes where, in contrast, the low-lying level structure is dominated by configurations with T=1 pairing interactions between excess neutrons. This illustrates the distinctively different aspects of nuclear structure exhibited by nuclei with N=Z. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

The transition quadrupole moments. Q(t), of four weakly populated collective bands up to spin similar to 65h in Er-157,Er-158 have been measured to be similar to II eb demonstrating that these sequences are associated with large deformations. However, the data are inconsistent with calculated values from cranked Nilsson-Strutinsky calculations that predict the lowest energy triaxial shape to be associated with rotation about the short principal axis. The data appear to favor either a stable triaxial shape rotating about the intermediate axis or, alternatively, a triaxial shape with larger deformation rotating about the short axis. These new results challenge the present understanding of triaxiality in nuclei. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. (Less)

Three strongly coupled sequences have been established in Te-110,Te-112 up to high spins. They are interpreted in terms of deformed structures built on proton 1-particle-1-hole excitations that reach termination at I similar to 40h. This is the first observation of smooth terminating dipole structures in this mass region. Lifetime measurements have allowed the extraction of experimental B(M 1; 1 -> I - 1) and B(E2; I -> I - 2) reduced transition rates for one of the dipole bands in Te-110. The results support the deformed interpretation. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Excited states have been identified in the very neutron-deficient 122Ce nucleus. This is the first observation of this nucleus and its excited states. The ground-state rotational band has been observed up to spin 14 ℏ. The band has been assigned to 122Ce by detecting gamma rays in coincidence with evaporated charged particles and neutrons. The E ( 2 1 + ) value suggests a rather large ground-state deformation of β 2 = 0.35 , in good agreement with Hartree–Fock–Bogoliubov (HFB) mean-field calculations. The aligned angular momentum of the band has been studied and is compared with those of the neighboring even–even cerium isotopes, and to Woods–Saxon cranking calculations. The non-observation of the π ( h 11 / 2 ) 2 alignment until at least 0.4 MeV/ℏ is consistent with the extracted value of β 2 .

A high-efficiency evaporation-residue counter (named HERCULES ) has been designed and constructed. It consists of 64 thin fast-plastic scintillators arranged in four rings covering an angular range of 3.1– 19 . 1 ∘ at 30.9 cm from the target. The device design has been optimized for use with GAMMASPHERE . Evaporation residues are well separated from elastic scattering, fission events, and other undesirable reaction debris by time-of-flight and pulse-height analysis. Each detector element can operate at rates up to 0.5 MHz with signal recovery in about 10 ns. The geometry, construction, light-output characteristics, stability of the measured quantities, associated electronics, and in-beam performance of the device are described. For energy-degraded fission fragments with kinetic energies of less than 45 MeV, it is found that (1) the Z dependence of the pulse height disappears and (2) the light output per unit energy increases with decreasing energy. For evaporation residues from two reactions, in which the evaporation channels dominate and in which the residue cross-section is about 100 times smaller than the fission cross-section, angular distributions and sample γ -ray spectra are shown.

A shell of neutron detectors was designed, constructed, and employed in γ−ray spectroscopy with Gammasphere. It consists of up to 35 tapered regular hexagons that replace the same number of forward Ge-detector modules in Gammasphere. The shell was designed for high detection efficiency and very good neutron−γ discrimination. The simultaneous use of time of flight, and two methods of pulse shape discrimination between neutrons and γ rays is described. Techniques for spectroscopy with efficient detection of two neutrons are discussed.

The effects introduced by 4π charged-particle detector arrays such as the Microball on lifetime measurements by Doppler-shift attenuation techniques are discussed. The effect originates from the lower efficiency for detecting charged particles at backward angles. Procedures for correcting for such “bias” are described.

A novel background subtraction method for Doppler-shift attenuation and angular correlation measurements with large multi-detector HpGe arrays is presented. The formalism is designed for recently developed data base storage techniques with the event format resembling the original raw data structure. The background spectrum is constructed based on parameters extracted from one-dimensional spectra; the method, therefore, is complementary to currently applied methods which are designed for multi-dimensional, symmetrized histograms.

The performance of new scintillator detectors based on LaBr{sub 3}(Ce) technology was evaluated in conjunction with the Gammasphere spectrometer. Specifically, the lifetimes of states between 50 ps and 1 ns, populated in the decay of the {sup 177m}Lu isomeric state (T{sub 1/2} = 160 d), have been measured. Even though the decay scheme is rather complex, it is possible to perform precise measurements because of the superior energy resolution of the LaBr{sub 3}(Ce) detectors, compared to that of BaF{sub 2} scintillators, when used in combination with the power of the Gammasphere array to isolate a specific {gamma} cascade

Excited states have been identified in the very neutron-deficient 112 Xe nucleus. The ground-state band has been observed up to spin 12 ℏ, and a negative-parity side band has been observed up to 13 ℏ. The bands have been assigned to 112 Xe by detecting gamma rays in coincidence with evaporated charged particles and neutrons. The energy of the 2 + 1 state in 112 Xe is lower than would be expected from both calculations and from systematics of the neighboring xenon isotopes, which indicates a larger than expected ground-state deformation. The observations of a low-lying 3 − state and large deduced B (E1) values are suggestive of increased octupole correlations, which may explain the apparently large ground-state deformation. Constrained Hartree–Fock+BCS calculations have been performed which show qualitative agreement with the trend in deformation of the very neutron-deficient xenon isotopes.

High-spin states have been observed in 120 Ba up to spin 42 ℏ. The ground-state band is observed to fork into two aligned two-quasiparticle bands, which are identified with the π ( h 11/2 ) 2 and ν ( h 11/2 ) 2 quasiparticles. At higher spin in each of the two aligned bands, the other pair of h 11/2 nucleons aligns in each band are observed to align, resulting in the single four-quasiparticle ν ( h 11/2 ) 2 ⊗ π ( h 11/2 ) 2 band. This unique and novel phenomenon has allowed interaction strengths and alignment frequencies to be studied and compared. Differences in alignment frequencies, for the same pairs of nucleons are attributed to shape polarization by the aligned or aligning quasiparticles. The interaction strengths have been investigated using a four-band mixing model. The results are discussed with respect to cranked Woods–Saxon calculations, and to alignments in neighboring nuclei.

Excited states have been observed for the first time in the very neutron-deficient odd-odd 55118Cs nucleus. A doubly-decoupled band based on the π(h112) ⊗ ν(h112) configuration has been identified to spins over 30 ħ. The band has been assigned to 118Cs using γ-recoil and γ-X-ray coincidences. A low-spin signature inversion is observed between 16 and 17 ħ. The band is discussed with respect to the systematics of signature inversion in odd-odd A ⋍ 120 nuclei.