Extending the Southern Shore of the Island of Inversion to F28

Detailed spectroscopy of the neutron-unbound nucleus 28 F has been performed for the first time following proton/neutron removal from 29 Ne / 29 F beams at energies around 230 MeV / nucleon . The invariant-mass spectra were reconstructed for both the 27 F ( * ) + n and 26 F ( * ) + 2 n coincidences and revealed a series of well-defined resonances. A near-threshold state was observed in both reactions and is identified as the 28 F ground state, with S n ( 28 F ) = − 199 ( 6 ) keV , while analysis of the 2 n decay channel allowed a considerably improved S n ( 27 F ) = 1620 ( 60 ) keV to be deduced. Comparison with shell-model predictions and eikonal-model reaction calculations have allowed spin-parity assignments to be proposed for some of the lower-lying levels of 28 F . Importantly, in the case of the ground state, the reconstructed 27 F + n momentum distribution following neutron removal from 29 F indicates that it arises mainly from the 1 p 3 / 2 neutron intruder configuration. This demonstrates that the island of inversion around N = 20 includes 28 F , and most probably 29 F , and suggests that 28 O is not doubly magic.