Gamma-ray multiplicities in α-induced compound and precompound reactions

Measurements of γ-ray multiplicities from the¹⁵⁰Sm(α, xn) reactions at beam energies from 40–140 MeV show that the maximum angular momentum transfer occurs at an energy between 12 and 18 MeV higher than that of the maximum of the excitation function for the respective exit channel. At still higher bombarding energies, where precompound processes dominate, a decrease of the multiplicity is observed.     

The sub-barrier fusion of40Ar with144,148,154Sm

The cross sections for production of evaporation residues (σ _er) and for fusion-fission (σ _ff) have been measured for⁴⁰Ar+^{144, 148, 154}Sm at sub-barrier energies by observation of x-ray emission from radioactive products and by direct,ΔE?E identification of fission fragments, respectively. These isotopes span the transition region from spherical (¹⁴⁴Sm) to strongly deformed (¹⁵⁴Sm) equilibrium shapes. The cross section for fusion,σ _fus=σ _er+σ _ff, is found to vary markedly at low energies with the isotope number and, hence, with the quadrupole collectivity of the target. The thresholds for fusion of¹⁴⁸Sm and¹⁴⁴Sm are, respectively, ～3.5 MeV and ～7 MeV (c.m.) higher than for fusion with¹⁵⁴Sm. These differences and the energy dependence of the fusion cross sections are discussed in terms of the effect of nuclear deformation on heavy-ion fusion. A comparative analysis of results for¹⁶O+Sm and⁴⁰Ar+Sm in terms of static deformation indicates thatσ _fus for the Ar+Sm system at very low energies is enhanced relative to the prediction for a one-dimensional barrier based on a fit toσ _fus for¹⁶O+Sm. This may be an indication that additional degrees of freedom (such as formation of a neck or fragment elongation) may be important for fusion with the larger projectile. At energies above the fusion barrier, values ofσ _fus for^{144, 148}Sm are nearly equal, but are significantly smaller than for¹⁵⁴Sm. This is in contrast to the results of previous experiments with¹⁶O projectiles in whichσ _fus (¹⁶O+¹⁴⁸Sm) andσ _fus (¹⁶O+¹⁵⁴Sm) were nearly equal above the barrier. These differences, observed for^{144, 148}Sm and¹⁵⁴Sm at energies above the barrier may reflect a new mechanism which is not encompassed by a static theory.     

Three-nucleon yrast states in145Sm

In-beamγ-ray and conversion electron measurements with (α, xn) reactions have established the¹⁴⁵Sm highspin states up toI ^π=25/2⁺ at 3.5 MeV excitation. A shell model analysis using empirical two- and one-body energies from neighbouring nuclei classifies the low-lying odd-parity levels as 3-quasiparticle states formed by the¹⁴⁴Sm two-proton-hole excitations and thef _7/2 valence neutron. The higher-lying positive-parity states involve particle-hole core excitations with one proton inh _11/2.     

Excited states in145Gd from the (3He, 2n) reaction

Medium and high spin states in¹⁴⁵Gd up to 3.5 MeV excitation energy have been studied by in-beam gamma ray and conversion electron spectroscopy bombarding enriched¹⁴⁴Sm target with a³He beam. For a part of the identified levels a configuration is proposed in terms of weak coupling of one neutron hole with the¹⁴⁶Gd core or of one neutron particle with the¹⁴⁴Gd core.     

On the influence of shell structure in dissipative collisions

A kinematically complete study of the symmetric systems ¹⁴⁴Sm+¹⁴⁴Sm and ¹⁵⁴Sn+¹⁵⁴Sm has been performed at energies 30% in excess of the interaction barrier. They have been chosen because of their different internal structure: ¹⁴⁴Sm has a closed N = 82 neutron shell and a spherical ground-state configuration; ¹⁵⁴Sm with ten neutrons outside this shell is strongly deformed. The observed gross features of both reactions like energy, angular and total mass or element distributions are very similar; the ratio of the mass variances as function of the total kinetic energy loss indicates the number of exchanged nucleons to be comparable in all stages of the reactions. At small energy losses, however, the element distributions of the ¹⁴⁴Sm + ¹⁴⁴Sm reaction are considerably broader, pointing at an enhanced proton transfer at the cost of the number of exchanged neutrons in this system. This observation is attributed to the influence of the closed shell which seems to block the transfer of neutrons at low excitation energies. These results can be explained quantitatively by the different gradients of the shell-corrected potential energy surfaces of the two systems.     

(p,t) Reaction studies on some even isotopes of samarium

The (p, t) reaction on the even isotopes¹⁴⁴Sm,¹⁴⁸Sm and¹⁵⁰Sm has been investigated at an incident proton energy of 25.5 MeV. Angular distributions have been measured for transitions to the ground state and excited states up to an excitation energy of about 2.5 MeV. Especially theL=0 angular distributions are discussed.     

Ground state bands in142Gd and140Sm

The ground state bands of theN=78 isotones¹⁴² Gd and¹⁴⁰Sm were observed up to the 8⁺ state by bombarding¹⁴⁴Sm and¹⁴²Nd withα-particles of energies between 80 and 130 MeV. Excitation functions,γ-γ coincidences, lifetimes and angular distributions were measured. The ground state band in¹⁴⁰Sm is partially fed by an isomeric state ofT _1/2?17ns. No such isomerism is observed for¹⁴²Gd. The level energies are very similar in both cases and agree well with the predictions of the VMI model.     

Nucleon transfer reactions to rotational states induced by206, 208Pb projectiles

In a systematic study of nucleon transfer reactions accompanied by Coulomb excitation we have bombarded¹⁵²Sm,¹⁶⁰Gd and²³²Th with^{206, 208}pb beams at incident energies close to the Coulomb barrier. Particle-gamma coincidence techniques were used to identify excited states of reaction products populated through inelastic scattering and in nucleon transfer reactions. One-neutron stripping and pick-up reactions on¹⁵²Sm were observed leading to known states of the rotation alignedi _13/2-bands in¹⁵³Sm and¹⁵¹Sm. In the¹⁶⁰Gd+^{206, 208}Pb systems no significant population of low lying states of product nuclei was found in the nucleon-transfer channels. Large cross sections were observed for one- and two-neutron pick-up from²³²Th at an incident energy of 6.4 MeV/u. Around the grazing angle they are of the same order of magnitude as the cross section measured for inelastic scattering. The results are analyzed in the framework of semiclassical models.     

Reactions on 209Bi induced by intermediate energy protons and the effect of direct reactions

Excitation functions and ranges of recoil nuclei in the ²⁰⁹Bi(p, 3n)²⁰⁷Po, ²⁰⁹Bi(p, 4n) ²⁰⁶Po and ²⁰⁹Bi(p, p3n)²⁰⁶Bi reactions have been measured for incident energies from 18 MeV up to 52 MeV. It has been found that the recoil ranges in (p, p3n) reactions are rather shorter than those in (p, 4n), and that beyond E_p = 40 MeV the high energy tail of the excitation function for (p, p3n) is roughly flat, in contrast to the decreasing tail for (p, 4n). A theoretical analysis of the excitation functions and of the nuclear recoil ranges has been made. It has been found that in (p, p3n) reactions the direct process plays a very important part in the reaction mechanism. It is also found that the reaction mechanisms of (p, 3n) and (p, 4n) reactions should be interpreted by means of an admixture of the equilibrium compound process and the pre-equilibrium decay process at bombarding energies up to 40 MeV and 50 MeV, respectively, and that the direct process seems to appear at bombarding energies higher than these respective energies.     

Fusion and deep inelastic collisions studied on the Ar + Au system

We investigated the Ar + Au system at two different bombarding energies 201 and 248 MeV. The mass and the energy of the products have been measured at different angles. Mass distributions exhibits two components separated at the low bombarding energy and partly merging into each other at the high bombarding energy. One of them can be attributed to fission following complete fusion, the other one is centered around mass 40 and corresponds to deep inelastic products. These two different mechanisms correspond to different time scales. Angular distributionsd ² σ/dθdM are peaked a little bit forward the grazing angle for products close to the projectile and, when the mass transfer increases, becomes constant. For deep inelastic collisions the mass transfer occurs in the way predicted using potential energy considerations, but the small FWHM and the slight shift of the position of the maximum of these distributions indicates a short contact time. Due to the increase of the temperature, the FWHM of the mass distribution of deep inelastic products increases with the bombarding energy. The mean total kinetic energy studied as a function of the detection angle shows the influence of statistical fluctuations at backward angles. One also observes for this system that the relaxation time connected with the mass asymmetry degree of freedom is larger than the one associated to the energy damping. Complete fusion cross sections measurements were also done at 183, 189 and 195 MeV which allowed to draw the excitation function for this process. Calculations of the fusion cross section using the concept of critical distance are in agreement with the data.     

Spectroscopy of highly excited states in29Si

Particleγ-ray coincidences have been measured in the²⁸Si (d,pγ) reaction at 6.5 and 7 MeV bombarding energy, in the²⁶Mg (α,nγ) reaction at 12, 14 and 15 MeV, and in the²⁷A1 (τ,pγ) reaction at 9 MeV. Theγ-decay has been observed for all bound states of²⁹Si and for 56 unbound states up to 12,960 KeV excitation energy. Particleγ-ray angular correlations were measured in the²⁸Si (d,pγ) reaction at 6.5 MeV and in the²⁶Mg (α,nγ) reaction at 12 MeV. Spin (-parity) assignments or restrictions were obtained for nearly all bound states and some high-spin states above the binding energy. The assignment of mirror levels in²⁹Si and²⁹P has been extended to 8.2 MeV excitation energy. The excitation energies of 41 positive-parity states are reproduced by shell model calculations. The possible existence of aK ^π=5/2⁺ band with prolate deformation is discussed.     

Untersuchung von57Co mit der Reaktion57Fe(p,n)57Co

A neutron time-of-flight investigation of the⁵⁷Fe(p, n)⁵⁷Co reaction performed at bombarding energies of 4.9, 5.6 and 6.2 MeV results in new energy levels of⁵⁷Co. In addition, gamma spectra andn-γ-coincidence spectra were taken to complete the decay scheme of⁵⁷Co up to an excitation energy of 4 MeV.     

Production of149gTb in deep inelastic transfer reactions: An approach to the angular momentum of fragments

The excitation functions for deep inelastic reactions in which two to six charges are transferred from⁴⁰Ar and⁶³Cu ions to rare earth targets have been measured using activation techniques, the observed radionuclides being^{150, 151}Dy and^149gTb. From the comparison of the curves relative to^149gTb and those relative to^{150, 151}Dy, it was deduced that the low spin isomer^149gTb was produced with significant probability for low incident energies. Using data from (heavy ions,xn) reactions, it was possible to attribute this production to the deexcitation of Tb fragments formed in deep inelastic transfers with angular momenta lower than 9?. This result is in good agreement with the angular momentum calculations performed under the hypothesis that the initial angular momentum window leading to deep inelastic reactions is situated between the critical angular momentum for fusion and that corresponding to grazing collisions. As far as Cu induced reactions are concerned, both hypothesis of rolling and sticking are consistent with the experimental data. For Ar induced reactions, the results indicate that the stage of sticking is not reached when the incident energy is lower than 200 MeV. Nuclear Reactions:^{142, 145}Nd,^{144, 148}Sm,¹⁵⁴Gd(Ar,X)^{151, 150}Dy,^149gTbE=160–280 MeV; measuredσ(E).¹⁴⁴Nd,¹⁴⁸Sm,¹⁵¹Eu,¹⁵⁴Gd(Cu, X)^{151, 150}Dy,^149gTb.E=280–420 MeV measuredσ(E). Enriched targets. Deduced angular momentum of Tb fragments.     

Target fragmentation in proton-nucleus and16O-nucleus reactions at 60 and 200 GeV/nucleon

Target remnants withZ<3 from proton-nucleus and¹⁶O-nucleus reactions at 60 and 200 GeV/nucleon were measured in the angular range from 30° to 160° (?1.7<η<1.3) employing the Plastic Ball detector. The excitation energy of the target spectator matter in central oxygen-induced collisions is found to be high enough to allow for complete disintegration of the target nucleus into fragments withZ<3. The average longitudinal momentum transfer per proton to the target in central collisions is considerably higher in the case of¹⁶O-induced reactions (≈300 MeV/c) than in proton-induced reactions (≈130 MeV/c). The baryon rapidity distributions are roughly in agreement with one-fluid hydrodynamical calculations at 60 GeV/nucleon¹⁶O+Au but are in disagreement at 200 GeV/nucleon, indicating the higher degree of transparency at the higher bombarding energy. Both, the transverse momenta of target spectators and the entropy produced in the target fragmentation region are compared to those attained in head-on collisions of two heavy nuclei at Bevalac energies. They are found to be comparable or do even exceed the values for the participant matter at beam energies of about 1–2 GeV/nucleon.     

Results on two-, three-, and four-body events from the100Mo+100Mo and120Sn+120Sn collisions aroundE/A=20 MeV

Events with 2, 3 and 4 heavy-fragments (A≧20) have been detected in the reactions¹⁰⁰Mo+¹⁰⁰Mo atE/A =18.7, 23.7 MeV and¹²⁰Sn+¹²⁰Sn atE/A=18.4 MeV. The experiments were performed with an array of 12 detectors which together covered a large fraction of the forward hemisphere and allowed a high detection efficiency for these events. Masses and energies of all fragments have been reconstructed by means of an improved version of the kinematic coincidence method. The probabilitiesP ₃ andP ₄ of producing 3- and 4-body events were found to depend mainly on the dissipated energy rather than on the bombarding energy, thus indicating that their origin lies more in the decay properties of the excited fragments than in the dynamics of the interaction. Emission of light particles from the composite system is shown to become more relevant with increasing bombarding energy and may explain the drop of theP ₃ andP ₄ curves at high energy losses. Small deviations of theP ₃ andP ₄ curves at 23.7A · MeV from those at lower bombarding energies were used to estimate the amount of a possible pre-equilibrium light particle emission as a function of impact parameter.     

Seniority-three yrast states in theN=82 nucleus147Tb

Firm spin-parity assignments for the high-spin states up to 3.5 MeV in the one-proton nucleus¹⁴⁷Tb were obtained from¹⁴⁴Sm(⁶Li, 3n) in-beamγ-ray and conversion electron measurements. The energies of these two-particle one-hole excitations were calculated from the shell model with empirical nucleon-nucleon interaction energies. The calculated energy splittings agree well with experiment, whereas the theoretical excitation energies disagree by ?1 MeV if recently measured ground state masses are used.     

Particle hole yrast states in146Gd and147Gd and the Z=64 shell closure

The level structures of¹⁴⁶Gd and¹⁴⁷Gd have been investigated by in-beamγ-ray ande ^? spectroscopy with (α, xn) reactions on enriched Sm targets. Detailed level schemes up to ～4 MeV, which differ radically from earlier schemes, are reported. The energy levels are characterized as particle-hole excitations using empirical single particle energies and two nucleon interactions. Analysis of pure 1p 1h proton excitations demonstrates that theZ=64 andN=82 energy gaps are about equally large.     

Neutron-hole strength distributions in heavy nuclei: (II). The 144, 148, 152Sm(3He, α) 143, 147, 151Sm and the 144, 148, 150, 152, 154Sm(p,d) 143, 147, 149, 151, 153Sm reactions

Valence and deep-lying neutron-hole strengths corresponding to orbits near and well below the Fermi surface have been observed in high-resolution studies of the ^{144, 148, 152}Sm(³He, α) and of the ^{144, 148, 150, 152, 154}Sm(p, d) reactions at 70 and 42 MeV bombarding energy, respectively. The explored excitation energy range was 28 MeV for the (³He, α) experiment and about 12 MeV in the (p, d) study. Complete angular distributions have been measured in both cases and the data was analyzed within the framework of the distorted waves Born approximation theory of direct reactions.For the neutron closed shell target (¹⁴⁴Sm), in addition to the well-known fragmentation of the 2d_{$\text{5}\text{2}$} and 1g_{$\text{7}\text{2}$} valence-hole strength, a new bump observed around 7.6 MeV excitation energy is excited in both reactions. This structure corresponds to the 1g_{$\text{9}\text{2}$} inner-hole strength in ¹⁴³Sm and the analysis of the (³He, α) data suggests that more than 50% of the l = 4 strength can be found between 6 and 12 MeV. When one goes to the heavier Sm isotopes, the energy spacing between valence-hole states located above and just below the N = 82 shell decreases strongly and disappears in ¹⁵¹Sm as a result of increasing deformation.Combining good energy resolution and detailed analysis of the two reactions, rather complete spectroscopic information is obtained for the valence-hole strength distributions. With regard to inner-hole states, the energy spectra exhibit a narrow structure whose centroid energy decreases from 4.4 to 2.9 MeV when the mass number increases from A = 147 to A = 153. The main peak displays an asymmetric shape with an extremely large high-energy tail. The 1h_{$\text{11}\text{2}$} hole strength is split into the Nilsson Orbitals. The narrow bumps are found to carry a large fraction of the l = 5 and l = 2 hole strengths in ^{147,149,151,152}Sm isotopes. In the high-energy tail of the structures one observes overlapping and increasing spreading of the g_{$\text{7}\text{2}$}, 2d_{$\text{5}\text{2}$} and possibly 1g_{$\text{9}\text{2}$} inner-hole strengths due to the disappearance of the N = 82 shell gap between N = 83 and N = 89 neutron numbers. The experimental hole strengths distributions are compared where possible to the predictions of the quasiparticle-phonon nuclear model or to the simple Nilsson model.     

Investigation of states in17F by the15N(3He,n)17F reaction

The absolute differential cross sections for several levels in the¹⁵N(³He,n)¹⁷F reaction were measured at laboratory scattering angles from 0 to 140 degrees using neutron time-of-flight techniques. Angular distributions were obtained at effective helion bombarding energies of 3.8 and 4.8 MeV. A new state was identified at 5.18 ±0.02 MeV excitation energy which is probably the analogue of the 5.217 MeV state in¹⁷O. Spectroscopic factors were obtained for the low-lying states using distorted wave method calculations.     

Complete fusion in a light heavy-ion reaction from 2.5 to 20 MeV/nucleon

Mass distributions of evaporation-residue-like fragments have been measured using a time-of-flight system for the reaction ²⁰Ne + ²⁶Mg in the energy range of 51 to 400 MeV bombarding energy for ²⁰Ne. A good mass resolution allowed for the separation of the evaporation residues and fragments from two-body reactions like e.g. damped processes. The residue distributions were compared with evaporation calculations. The analysis of velocity spectra measured at bombarding energies of 85–395 MeV showed incomplete momentum transfer for evaporation-residue-like fragments at higher energies. Statistical-model calculations and Monte Carlo methods applied to the calculation of the velocity spectra have been used to extract the complete-fusion cross section.