Isovector excitations in 100Nb and their decays by neutron emission studied via the Mo100(t,He3+n) reaction at 115 MeV/u

Spin–isospin excitations in Nb100 were studied via the Mo100(t,He3) charge-exchange reaction at 115 MeV/u with the goal to constrain theoretical models used to describe the isovector spin response of nuclei. The experiment was performed with a secondary beam of tritons, and 3He particles were analyzed in the S800 magnetic spectrometer. Decay by neutron emission from excited states in Nb100 was observed by using plastic and liquid scintillator arrays. Differential cross sections were analyzed and monopole excitations were revealed by using a multipole decomposition analysis. The Gamow–Teller transition strength observed at low excitation energies, which is important for estimating the electron-capture rate in astrophysical scenarios, was strongly fragmented and reduced compared to single-particle and spherical mean-field models. The consideration of deformation in the theoretical estimates was found to be important to better describe the fragmentation and strengths. A strong excitation of the isovector spin giant monopole resonance was observed, and well reproduced by the mean-field models. Its presence makes the extraction of Gamow–Teller strengths at high excitation energies difficult. The branches for statistical and direct decay by neutron emission were identified in the spectra. The upper limit for the branching ratio by direct decay (integrated over all observed excitations) was determined to be 20±6%. Even though the statistical uncertainties in the neutron-coincident data were too large to perform detailed studies of the decay by neutron emission from individual states and resonances, the experiment demonstrates the feasibility of the method.