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The gamma-ray decay of excited states of the one-valence-proton nucleus Sb-133 has been studied using cold-neutron induced fission of U-235 and Pu-241 targets, during the EXILL campaign at the ILL reactor in Grenoble. By using a highly efficient HPGe array, coincidences between gamma-rays prompt with the fission event and those delayed up to several tens of microseconds were investigated, allowing to observe, for the first time, high-spin excited states above the 16.6 mu s isomer. Lifetimes analysis, performed by fast-timing techniques with LaBr3(Ce) scintillators, revealed a difference of almost two orders of magnitude in B(M1) strength for transitions between positive-parity medium-spin yrast states. The data are interpreted by a newly developed microscopic model which takes into account couplings between core excitations (both collective and non-collective) of the doubly magic nucleus Sn-132 and the valence proton, using Skyrme effective interaction in a consistent way. The results point to a fast change in the nature of particle-core excitations with increasing spin. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license.

Cross sections and corresponding momentum distributions have been measured for the first time at zero degrees for the exotic nuclei obtained from a beam of 18O at 8.5 MeV/A impinging on a 1 mg/cm2 238U target. Sizable cross sections were found for the production of exotic species arising from the neutron transfer and proton removal from the projectile. Comparisons of experimental results with calculations based on deep-inelastic reaction models, taking into account the particle evaporation process, indicate that zero degree is a scattering angle at which the differential reaction cross section for production of exotic nuclei is at its maximum. This result is important in view of the new generation of zero degrees spectrometers under construction, such as the S3 separator at GANIL, for example. Keywords: Nuclear reactions, Deep-inelastic collisions, Exotic nuclei

A study of fusion-evaporation and (partly) fusion-fission channels for the $^{88}$Mo compound nucleus, produced at different excitation energies in the reaction $^{48}$Ti + $^{40}$Ca at 300, 450 and 600 MeV beam energies, is presented. Fusion-evaporation and fusion-fission cross sections have been extracted and compared with the existing systematics. Experimental data concerning light charged particles have been compared with the prediction of the statistical model in its implementation in the Gemini++ code, well suited even for high spin systems, in order to tune the main model parameters in a mass region not abundantly covered by exclusive experimental data. Multiplicities for light charged particles emitted in fusion evaporation events are also presented. Some discrepancies with respect to the prediction of the statistical model have been found for forward emitted $\alpha$-particles; they may be due both to pre-equilibrium emission and to reaction channels (such as Deep Inelastic Collisions, QuasiFission/QuasiFusion) different from the compound nucleus formation.

A. Vogt et al. ; 12 págs.; 9 figs.; 1 tab., Detailed spectroscopic information on the N∼82 nuclei is necessary to benchmark shell-model calculations in the region. The nuclear structure above long-lived isomers in Xe134 is investigated after multinucleon transfer (MNT) and actinide fission. Xenon-134 was populated as (i) a transfer product in Xe136+U238 and Xe136+Pb208 MNT reactions and (ii) as a fission product in the Xe136+U238 reaction employing the high-resolution Advanced Gamma Tracking Array (AGATA). Trajectory reconstruction has been applied for the complete identification of beamlike transfer products with the magnetic spectrometer PRISMA. The Xe136+Pt198 MNT reaction was studied with the γ-ray spectrometer GAMMASPHERE in combination with the gas detector array Compact Heavy Ion Counter (CHICO). Several high-spin states in Xe134 on top of the two long-lived isomers are discovered based on γγ-coincidence relationships and information on the γ-ray angular distributions as well as excitation energies from the total kinetic energy loss and fission fragments. The revised level scheme of Xe134 is extended up to an excitation energy of 5.832 MeV with tentative spin-parity assignments up to 16+. Previous assignments of states above the 7- isomer are revised. Latest shell-model calculations employing two different effective interactions reproduce the experimental findings and support the new spin and parity assignments., The research leading to these results has received funding from the German BMBF under Contract No. 05P12PKFNE TP4, from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007–2013 under Grant Agreement No. 262010 - ENSAR, from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación under Contract No. FPA2011-29854-C04, from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad under Contract No. FPA2014-57196-C5, from the Bonn-Cologne Graduate School of Physics and Astronomy (BCGS), from the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), and from the US National Science Foundation (NSF). One of the authors (A. Gadea) has been supported by the Generalitat Valenciana, Spain, under Grant No. PROMETEOII/2014/019 and EU under the FEDER program.

A high-spin isomer with $\ensuremath{\tau}g700$ ns has been found in $^{204}\mathrm{Hg}$, populated in reactions of 1360-MeV $^{208}\mathrm{Pb}$ and 330-MeV $^{48}\mathrm{Ca}$ beams with a thick $^{238}\mathrm{U}$ target and a 1450-MeV $^{208}\mathrm{Pb}$ beam on a thick $^{208}\mathrm{Pb}$ target. The observed $\ensuremath{\gamma}$-ray decay of the isomer has established the yrast states below it, including another isomer with $\ensuremath{\tau}=33(3)$ ns. The experimental results are compared with shell-model calculations that include four holes in the configuration space between $^{132}\mathrm{Sn}$ and $^{208}\mathrm{Pb}$. The available spectroscopic information, including transition strengths, total conversion, and angular correlation coefficients, together with the observed agreement with the calculations, allows spin, parity, and configuration assignments to be proposed for the experimental states. The $\ensuremath{\tau}g700$ ns isomer is the ${22}^{+}$ state of maximum spin available from the alignment of the four valence holes with the configuration $\ensuremath{\pi}{h}_{11/2}^{\ensuremath{-}2}\ensuremath{\nu}{i}_{13/2}^{\ensuremath{-}2}$.

Background: Nuclear structure information for the neutron-rich actinide nuclei is important since it is the benchmark for theoretical models that provide predictions for the heaviest nuclei. Purpose: gamma-ray spectroscopy of neutron-rich heavy nuclei in the actinide region. Method: Multinucleon-transfer reactions in Zn-70 + U-238 and Xe-136 + U-238 have been measured in two experiments performed at the INFN Legnaro, Italy. In the Zn-70 experiment the high-resolution HPGe Clover Array (CLARA) coupled to the magnetic spectrometer PRISMA was employed. In the Xe-136 experiment the high-resolution Advanced Gamma Tracking Array (AGATA) was used in combination with PRISMA and the Detector Array for Multinucleon Transfer Ejectiles (DANTE). Results: The ground-state band (g.s. band) of U-240 was measured up to the 20(+) level and a tentative assignment was made up to the (24(+)) level. Results from gamma gamma coincidence and from particle coincidence analyses are shown. Moments of inertia (MoI) show a clear upbend. Evidence for an extended first negative-parity band of U-240 is found. Conclusions: A detailed comparison with latest calculations shows best agreement with cranked relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov (CRHB) calculations for the g.s. band properties. The negative-parity band shows the characteristics of a K-pi = 0 band based on an octupole vibration.

Background: Multinucleon transfer reactions (MNT) are a competitive tool to populate exotic neutron-rich nuclei in a wide region of nuclei, where other production methods have severe limitations or cannot be used at all. Purpose: Experimental information on the yields of MNT reactions in comparison with theoretical calculations are necessary to make predictions for the production of neutron-rich heavy nuclei. It is crucial to determine the fraction of MNT reaction products which are surviving neutron emission or fission at the high excitation energy after the nucleon exchange. Method: Multinucleon transfer reactions in Xe-136 + U-238 have been measured in a high-resolution gamma-ray/particle coincidence experiment. The large solid-angle magnetic spectrometer PRISMA coupled to the high-resolution Advanced Gamma Tracking Array (AGATA) has been employed. Beamlike reaction products after multinucleon transfer in the Xe region were identified and selected with the PRISMA spectrometer. Coincident particles were tagged by multichannel plate detectors placed at the grazing angle of the targetlike recoils inside the scattering chamber. Results: Mass yields have been extracted and compared with calculations based on the GRAZING model for MNT reactions. Kinematic coincidences between the binary reaction products, i.e., beamlike and targetlike nuclei, were exploited to obtain population yields for nuclei in the actinide region and compared to x-ray yields measured by AGATA. Conclusions: No sizable yield of actinide nuclei beyond Z = 93 is found to perform nuclear structure investigations. In-beam gamma-ray spectroscopy is feasible for few-neutron transfer channels in U and the -2p channel populating Th isotopes.

High-energy giant dipole resonance (GDR) γ rays were measured following the decay of the hot, rotating compound nucleus of 88Mo, produced at excitation energies of 124 and 261 MeV. The reaction 48Ti+ 40Ca at 300 and 600 MeV bombarding energies has been used. The data were analyzed using the statistical modelMonte Carlo code GEMINI++. It allowed extracting the giant dipole resonance parameters by fitting the high-energy γ -ray spectra. The extracted GDR widths were compared with the available data at lower excitation energy and with theoretical predictions based on (i) The Lublin-Strasbourg drop macroscopic model, supplemented with thermal shape fluctuations analysis, and (ii) The phonon damping model. The theoretical predictions were convolutedwith the population matrices of evaporated nuclei from the statistical model GEMINI++. Also a comparison with the results of a phenomenological expression based on the existing systematics, mainly for lower temperature data, is presented and discussed. A possible onset of a saturation of the GDR width was observed around T = 3 MeV.

An exploratory experiment performed at REX-ISOLDE to investigate cluster-transfer reactions with radioactive beams in inverse kinematics is presented. The aim of the experiment was to test the potential of cluster-transfer reactions at the Coulomb barrier as a mechanism to explore the structure of exotic neutron-rich nuclei. The reactions Li7(Rb98,αxn) and Li7(Rb98,txn) were studied through particle-γ coincidence measurements, and the results are presented in terms of the observed excitation energies and spins. Moreover, the reaction mechanism is qualitatively discussed as a transfer of a clusterlike particle within a distorted-wave Born approximation framework. The results indicate that cluster-transfer reactions can be described well as a direct process and that they can be an efficient method to investigate the structure of neutron-rich nuclei at medium-high excitation energies and spins., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Physics letters / B 747, 88 - 92 (2015). doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2015.04.055, Published by North-Holland Publ., Amsterdam

7 pags.; 10 figs., © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. A new phoswich array, for the detection of high-energy protons and gamma rays from nuclear reactions, has been built. This new detector consists of four individual closely packed scintillator detectors, each of them made of 4 cm of LaBr3(Ce) and 6 cm of LaCl3(Ce) in phoswich configuration (optically coupled and with a common readout). In this paper we report on the results of a beam test performed at the Bronowice Cyclotron Centre (CCB) in Krakow, showing the response of this versatile instrument to high energy protons (70-230 MeV). Furthermore, for the first time we prove that we can reconstruct the original energy of fast protons (E>200MeV) which pass through the total length of the crystal while still retaining a good energy resolution., This work was partly financed by the Spanish Research funding agency: Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad under project FPA2012-32443, and partly through FP7 by the Era-Net NuPNET/03/12 (GANAS) project. We thank the staff of the Bronowice Cyclotron Centre (CCB) for their kind help and for providing stable proton beams for our measurements.

Excited states above the seniority $\ensuremath{\nu}=2$ isomers have been investigated in even neutron-rich ${}^{118--128}$Sn isotopes produced by fusion-fission of 6.9 MeV/$A$ $^{48}\mathrm{Ca}$ beams with $^{208}\mathrm{Pb}$ and $^{238}\mathrm{U}$ targets and by fission of 6.7 MeV/$A$ $^{64}\mathrm{Ni}$ beams on a $^{238}\mathrm{U}$ target. Level schemes up to excitation energies in excess of 8 MeV have been established based on multifold $\ensuremath{\gamma}$-ray coincidence relationships measured with the Gammasphere array. Isotopic identification of crucial transitions was achieved through a number of techniques, including prompt and delayed cross-coincidence methods. As a result, seniority $\ensuremath{\nu}=4$, 15${}^{\ensuremath{-}}$, and 13${}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ isomers were observed and their half-lives determined. These long-lived states in turn served as steppingstones to delineate the isomeric decays and to locate higher-lying states with good sensitivity. As the observed isomeric decays feed down to 10${}^{+}$ and 7${}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ isomers, firm spin-parity assignments could be proposed for most of the seniority $\ensuremath{\nu}=4$ states. Higher-lying, seniority $\ensuremath{\nu}=6$ levels were assigned tentatively on the basis of the observed deexcitation paths as well as of general yrast population arguments. Shell-model calculations were carried out down to $^{122}\mathrm{Sn}$ in the ${g}_{7/2}$, ${d}_{5/2}$, ${d}_{3/2}$, ${s}_{1/2}$, and ${h}_{11/2}$ model space of neutron holes with respect to a $^{132}\mathrm{Sn}$ core. Effective two-body interactions were adjusted such that satisfactory agreement with data was achieved for $^{130}\mathrm{Sn}$. The results reproduce the experimental level energies and spin-parity assignments rather well. The intrinsic structure of the states is discussed on the basis of the calculated wave functions which, in many instances, point to complex configurations. In a few cases, the proposed assignments lead to unresolved issues. The smooth, systematic decrease of the level energies with mass $A$ is accompanied by the similarly regular behavior with $A$ of the reduced transition probabilities extracted from the isomeric half-lives. This $A$ dependence is discussed for the $E1$ and $E2$ transitions in the decay of the seniority $\ensuremath{\nu}=4$ isomers and is compared to that determined in earlier work for the $E2$ transition rates from the $\ensuremath{\nu}=2,3$ isomers.

The high-spin structure of the neutron-rich {sup 204}Tl isotope has been studied up to a 11.2-MeV excitation energy and a I=30 spin range using the deep-inelastic heavy-ion {gamma}-spectroscopy method with reactions of {sup 48}Ca on thick {sup 208}Pb and {sup 238}U targets. The established structure of yrast levels involves four isomeric states up to I{sup {pi}=}22{sup -}, the highest spin state available for the maximally aligned four valence holes. The observations are interpreted and quantitatively confirmed by shell-model calculations. The rates of the identified M2 and E3 isomeric decays are discussed and a striking analogy is found for the yrast level structures and {gamma} decays observed in the 18{sup +} to 22{sup -} and 45/2{sup -} to 53/2{sup +} spin ranges in {sup 204}Tl and {sup 203}Hg, respectively. In the highest spin part of the scheme, two prominently populated yrast states are tentatively identified as the 3{sup -} {sup 208}Pb core excitation built on the 22{sup -} and 20{sup +} maximally aligned four-hole states. Their energies are reproduced well by using energy shifts observed in experiments for the {sup 208}Pb core octupole excitation coupled to simpler intrinsic structures.

The decay of a new, 53/2{sup +}, isomer at 8281 keV in {sup 203}Hg has been studied by {gamma} coincidence spectroscopy. A half-life of 146(30) ns was measured. In addition, another isomeric, 39/2{sup +}, level with a half-life of 7.8(1.5) ns was observed. Some elements of the Rydstroem shell-model interaction have been adjusted to reproduce level energies in nuclei with two to four holes in the {sup 208}Pb core. With this interaction, the new states in the five-hole nucleus {sup 203}Hg are reproduced with an rms error of 105 keV.

Excited states in the Z=19, N=29 neutron-rich 48K isotope have been studied using deep-inelastic transfer reactions with a thick target at Gammasphere and with a thin target at the PRISMA-CLARA spectrometer. The lowest excited states were located ; they involve a proton hole in the s1/2 or d3/2 orbital coupled to a p3/2 neutron. A new 7.1(5) ns, 5+ isomer, analog of the 7/2- isomer in 47K, was identified. Based on the observed gamma-decay pattern of the isomer a revised spin-parity assignment of 1- is proposed for the ground state of 48K.

Excited states in the N=30 neutron-rich isotope {sup 49}K have been studied using multinucleon transfer reactions with thin targets and the PRISMA-CLARA spectrometer combined with thick-target {gamma}-coincidence data from Gammasphere. The d{sub 3/2} proton-hole state is located 92 keV above the s{sub 1/2} ground state, and the proton-particle f{sub 7/2} state is suggested at 2104 keV. Three other levels are established as involving the coupling to 2{sup +} of two neutrons above the N=28 shell. The measured or estimated lifetimes served to reinforce the interpretation of the observed level structure, which is found to be in satisfactory agreement with shell-model calculations.

International audience; In this article we introduce a subjective notion of the predictive power of nuclear Hamiltonians (an objective one does not exist) and examine it in the particular context of the single-nucleon energy spectra. We consider various types of uncertainties originating both from the experiment and theory stressing the dominating character of the theoretical errors. The latter originate from the complexity of the nuclear many body systems that is not matched adequately by the formalism behind the present day nuclear Hamiltonians. The related inverse problem is formulated and the presence of errors (ignorance, lack of knowledge) is parametrized in terms of the associated probability distributions. Various hypotheses concerning the input uncertainties ('numerical noise ') are formulated and the impact of the input-uncertainties in the adjustment procedures down to the final parameter values and theoretical spectra is illustrated and discussed. A number of Open Problems are formulated and listed at the end of the article.

In this article we discuss the problem of a reliable determination of parameters of the nuclear mean-field Hamiltonians in view of obtaining high quality comparisons with the experimental single particle spectra: a. In the case of extrapolations to extreme (exotic) isospin nuclei as well as b. In terms of predictions of the energy levels that have not been so far measured also in 'non-exotic' nuclei. We formulate our discussion in terms of the Inverse Problem, a quickly growing sub-field of Applied Mathematics, and introduce a number of mathematical properties which are illustrated in Ref.1 We focus on those mechanisms that may significantly limit the predictive power of the resulting Hamiltonians.

International audience; In this paper we formulate and discuss the strategy of constructing theories capable of providing not only the numerical predictions sensu strict but also the distributions of probability that such predictions apply in the predefined physics context. Examples of applications of the presented ideas are illustrated using as a choice the nuclear mean-field theory with two realistic realizations of the underlying Hamiltonians: Phenomenological Woods-Saxon and self-consistent Skyme-Hartree-Fock.