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We present evidence for a new supersymmetric quartet in the A=190 region of the nuclear mass table. New experimental information on transfer and neutron capture reactions to the odd-odd nucleaus 194 Ir strongly suggests the existence of a new supersymmetric quartet, consisting of the 192,193 Os and 193,194 Ir nuclei. We make explicit predictions for the odd-neutron nucleus 193 Os, and suggest that its spectroscopic properties be measured in dedicated experiments., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, updated figures and revised text, Physical Review C, Rapid Communication, in press

The X-ray cascade from antiprotonic atoms was studied for 208Pb and 209Bi. Widths and shifts of the levels due to the strong interaction were determined. Using modern antiproton-nucleus optical potentials the neutron densities in the nuclear periphery were deduced. Assuming two parameter Fermi distributions (2pF) describing the proton and neutron densities the neutron rms radii were deduced for both nuclei. The difference of neutron and proton rms radii /\r_np equal to 0.16 +-(0.02)_{stat} +- (0.04)_{syst} fm for 208Pb and 0.14 +- (0.04)_{stat} +- (0.04)_{syst} fm for 209Bi were determined and the assigned systematic errors are discussed. The /\r_np values and the deduced shapes of the neutron distributions are compared with mean field model calculations., Comment: 22 pages, 8 tables, 15 figures

We report on an experiment at the Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen, Switzerland measuring x rays from muon transfer from deuterium to helium. Both the ground state transfer via the exotic dmu3,4He* molecules and the excited state transfer from mud* were measured. The use of CCD detectors allowed x rays from 1.5 keV to 11 keV to be detected with sufficient energy resolution to separate the transitions to different final states in both deuterium and helium. The x-ray peaks of the dmu3He* and dmu4He* molecules were measured with good statistics. For the D2+3He mixture, the peak has its maximum at E_dmu3He = 6768 +- 12 eV with FWHM Gamma_dmu3He = 863 +- 10 eV. Furthermore the radiative branching ratio was found to be kappa_dmu3He = 0.301 +- 0.061. For the D_2+4He mixture, the maximum of the peak lies at E_dmu4He = 6831 +- 8 eV and the FWHM is Gamma_dmu4He = 856 +- 10 eV. The radiative branching ratio is kappa_dmu4He = 0.636 +- 0.097. The excited state transfer is limited by the probability to reach the deuterium ground state, q_1s. This coefficient was determined for both mixtures: q^3He_1s = 68.9 +- 2.7% and q^4He_1s = 90.1 +- 1.5., Comment: 9 pages, 11 figures

The x-ray cascade from antiprotonic atoms was studied for 106Cd, 116Cd, 112Sn, 116Sn, 120Sn, and 124Sn. Widths and shifts of the levels due to strong interaction were deduced. Isotopic effects in the Cd and Sn isotopes are clearly seen. The results are used to investigate the nucleon density in the nuclear periphery. The deduced neutron distributions are compared with the results of the previously introduced radiochemical method and with HFB calculations.

A natural gold target was irradiated with the antiproton beam from the Low Energy Antiproton Ring at CERN. Antiprotons of 200 MeV/c momentum were stopped in a thick target, products of their annihilations on Au nuclei were detected using the off-line gamma-ray spectroscopy method. In total, yields for 114 residual nuclei were determined, providing a data set to deduce the complete mass and charge distribution of all products with A > 20 from a fitting procedure. The contribution of evaporation and fission decay modes to the total reaction cross section as well as the mean mass loss were estimated. The fission probability for Au absorbing antiprotons at rest was determined to be equal to (3.8+-0.5)%, in good agreement with an estimation derived using other techniques. The mass-charge yield distribution was compared with the results obtained for proton and pion induced gold fragmentation. On the average, the energy released in pbar annihilation is similar to that introduced by ~ 1 GeV protons. However, compared to proton bombardment products, the yield distribution of antiproton absorption residues in the N-Z plane is clearly distinct. The data for antiprotons exhibit also a substantial influence of odd-even and shell effects., Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, Revtex 4, to be published in Physical Review C

In the PS209 experiments at CERN two kinds of measurements were performed: the in-beam measurement of X-rays from antiprotonic atoms and the radiochemical, off-line determination of the yield of annihilation products with mass number A_t -1 (less by 1 than the target mass). Both methods give observables which allows to study the peripheral matter density composition and distribution., Comment: LaTeX (espcrc1 style), 6 pages, 3 EPS figures, 1 table, Proceedings of the Sixth Biennal Conference on Low-Energy Antiproton Physics LEAP 2000, Venice, Italy

Thirteen targets with mass numbers from 58 to 238 were irradiated with the antiproton beam from the Low Energy Antiproton Ring facility at CERN leading to the formation of antiprotonic atoms of these heavy elements. The antiproton capture at the end of an atomic cascade results in the production of more or less excited residual nuclei. The targets were selected with the criterion that both reaction products with one nucleon less than the proton and neutron number of the target be radioactive. The yield of these radioactive products after stopped-antiproton annihilation was determined using gamma-ray spectroscopy techniques. This yield is related to the proton and neutron density in the target nucleus at a radial distance corresponding to the antiproton annihilation site. The experimental data clearly indicate the existence of a neutron-rich nuclear periphery, a "neutron halo", strongly correlated with the target neutron separation energy Bn and observed for targets with Bn < 10 MeV. For two-target nuclei 106Cd and 144Sm, with larger neutron binding energies, a proton-rich nuclear periphery was observed. Most of the experimental data are in reasonable agreement with calculations based on current antiproton-nucleus and pion-nucleus interaction potentials and on nuclear densities deduced with the help of the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov approach. This approach was, however, unable to account for the 106Cd and 144Sm results., Comment: Latex (RevTeX,aps style), 13 pages + 12 Postscript figures

The first measurement of the elementary process $\mu^- p \rightarrow \nu_{\mu} n \gamma$ is reported. A photon pair spectrometer was used to measure the partial branching ratio ($2.10 \pm 0.22) \times 10^{-8}$ for photons of k > 60 MeV. The value of the weak pseudoscalar coupling constant determined from the partial branching ratio is $g_p(q^{2}=-0.88m_{\mu}^2) = (9.8 \pm 0.7 \pm 0.3) \cdot g_a(0)$, where the first error is the quadrature sum of statistical and systematic uncertainties and the second error is due to the uncertainty in $\lambda_{op}$, the decay rate of the ortho to para $p \mu p$ molecule. This value of g_p is $\sim$1.5 times the prediction of PCAC and pion-pole dominance., Comment: 13 pages, RevTeX type, 3 figures (encapsulated postscript), submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett