Super-allowed α decay above doubly-magic <Superscript>100</Superscript>Sn and properties of <Superscript>104</Superscript>Te = <Superscript>100</Superscript>Sn ⊗ α

α-decay half-lives for ^{104, 105, 106}Te and ^{108, 109, 110}Xe close above the doubly-magic ¹⁰⁰Sn are calculated from systematic double-folding potentials. The derived α preformation factors are compared to results for ^{212, 213, 214}Po and ^{216, 217, 218}Rn above the doubly-magic ²⁰⁸Pb. α-decay energies of Q _α = 5.42±0.07MeV and 4.65±0.15MeV are predicted for ¹⁰⁴Te and ¹⁰⁸Xe; the corresponding half-lives are T _1/2 ≈ 5ns for ¹⁰⁴Te and of the order of 60μs for ¹⁰⁸Xe. Additionally, the properties of rotational bands in ¹⁰⁴Te are analyzed, and the first excited 2⁺ state in ¹⁰⁴Te is predicted at E _x = 650±40keV; it decays preferentially by γ emission with a reduced transition strength of 10 Weisskopf units to the ground state of ¹⁰⁴Te and with a minor branch by α emission to the ground state of ¹⁰⁰Sn.     

Measurement of the coherence time of the ground-state Zeeman states in <Superscript>40</Superscript>Ca<Superscript>+</Superscript>

The transition between the two Zeeman sublevels of ²S_1/2 in a single trapped ⁴⁰Ca⁺ ion is directly excited by a radio-frequency magnetic field. A coherence time of 29.4±2.5 ms is measured by Ramsey interferometry. The ratio of the maximum Rabi frequency of the Zeeman transition (∼250 kHz) to the inverse of the coherence time is 7.3×10³, which is considered to be a figure of merit for Zeeman states when they are used as a quantum bit. Several applications of the Zeeman qubit to quantum information processing are also discussed.     

Analysis of <Superscript>4</Superscript>He+<Superscript>40</Superscript>Ca and <Superscript>4</Superscript>He+<Superscript>44</Superscript>Ti scattering using different optical model potentials

Elastic scattering of ⁴He+⁴⁰Ca and ⁴He+⁴⁴Ti reactions at backward angles has been analyzed using two differentmodels, microscopic and semimicroscopic folding potentials. The derived real potentials supplemented with phenomenological Woods–Saxon imaginary potentials, provide good agreement with the experimental data at energy E_c.m. = 21.8 MeV without need to renormalize the potentials. Coupledchannels calculations are used to extract the inelastic scattering cross section to the low-lying state 2+ (1.083 MeV) of ⁴⁴Ti. The deformation length is obtained and compared with the electromagnetic measurement values as well as those obtained from previous studies.     

Lifetimes of <Superscript>48</Superscript>Ti, <Superscript>52</Superscript>Cr and <Superscript>80</Superscript>Se excited states

Doppler shift attenuation was used to measure the lifetimes of ⁴⁸Ti, ⁵²Cr and ⁸⁰Se nuclei excited states populated in the (n, n′γ) reaction using the neutron beam of the Republic of Kazakhstan’s WWR-K research reactor. The measured data are in good agreement with the latest literature data.     

Analysis of the normal optical,Michel and molecular potentials on the <Superscript>40</Superscript>Ca(<Superscript>6</Superscript>Li,d)<Superscript>44</Superscript> Ti reaction

Full finite-range (FFR) distorted-wave Born approximation (DWBA) method has been applied to analyse the angular distributions of cross-sections of the ⁴⁰Ca(⁶Li, d) ⁴⁴Ti reaction at 28 MeV incident energy for the 22 transitions involving both the bound and unbound states of ⁴⁴Ti by using the normal optical, Michel and molecular potentials. The extracted spectroscopic factors for the three optical potentials are compared with those of some previous studies of zero-range (ZR) calculations of the ⁴⁰Ca(⁶Li, d) ⁴⁴Ti reaction using the normal optical potential. The χ² values of all the levels are obtained for the three optical potentials to estimate the quality of the fits. Molecular and Michel potentials have been used for the first time to analyse the four-nucleon transfer reaction and it seems that the molecular potential fits the experimental data more satisfactorily for some of the states than the normal optical and Michel potentials.     

Double-beta decay of <Superscript>100</Superscript>Mo to 0<Superscript>+</Superscript> excited states in <Superscript>100</Superscript>Ru

A brief review on the 2νββ decay of ¹⁰⁰Mo to the 0⁺ excited state in ¹⁰⁰Ru is performed. A weighted-average half-life value for the decay has been obtained, T_1/2 = (6.8 ± 1.2) × 10²⁰ yr. The corresponding average value for the nuclear matrix element was extracted, 0.095 ± 0.009.     

Low-spin states in <Superscript>182</Superscript>Os and K<Superscript>π</Superscript> = 0<Superscript>+</Superscript>, 2<Superscript>+</Superscript> excited bands

Excited states in ¹⁸²Os were populated by the β⁺/EC decay of ¹⁸²Ir following mass separation. Gamma-ray and conversion electron spectroscopy techniques were employed. Monopole (E0) contributions were determined in transitions populating the ground-state band. A systematic study of the low-spin structures in the Os isotopes is presented and a detailed analysis in the framework of a microscopic configuration mixing approach is performed.     

Structure of 2<Subscript>1,2</Subscript> <Superscript>+</Superscript> states in <Superscript>132,134,136</Superscript>Te

Starting fromthe Skyrme interaction f_ together with the volume pairing interaction, we study the g factors for the 2_1,2⁺ excitations of ^132,134,136Te. The coupling between one- and two-phonon terms in the wave functions of excited states is taken into account within the finite-rank separable approximation. Using the same set of parameters we describe the available experimental data and give the prediction for ¹³⁶Te, g(2₁⁺) = ?0.18 in comparison to +0.32 in the case of ¹³²Te.     

Alpha-cluster states in <Superscript>18</Superscript>O

The excitation function of elastic α-particle scattering on ¹⁴C has been measured in the laboratory energy range 16.3–19.2 MeV using a backscattering technique with a thick target. These data were analyzed together with the old low-energy data of G.L. Morgan et al. in the framework of the R-matrix formalism. Spin-parity assignments were made for 32 states in ¹⁸O in the excitation range 9–20 MeV. The estimates of the widths of the states are also presented. The 0⁺ and 0^?α-cluster bands appeared to be well separated by 5.6 MeV (as in ¹⁶O and ²⁰Ne). We have not found a confirmation of existence of the negative-parity molecular states proposed by M. Gai et al. We observed an effect of a doubling of α-cluster levels in ¹⁸O similar to that found in ²²Ne.     

Neutron single-particle structure of <Superscript>48</Superscript>Ca, <Superscript>50</Superscript>Ti, <Superscript>52</Superscript>Cr, <Superscript>54</Superscript>Fe,and <Superscript>56</Superscript>Ni nuclei

The change in the neutron single-particle structure of (1f?2p)-shell magic nuclei near the Fermi energy with an increase in the number of protons in the 1f _7/2 subshell from 0 for ⁴⁸Ca to 8 for ⁵⁶Ni has been investigated. Good agreement of the experimental and estimated values of the single-particle energies E _nlj of the bound states of neutrons in these nuclei with the results of calculations within the dispersive optical model is obtained.     

High-lying excited states in <Superscript>10</Superscript>Be from the <Superscript>9</Superscript>Be(<Superscript>9</Superscript>Be,<Superscript>10</Superscript>Be)<Superscript>8</Superscript>Be reaction

A transfer-reaction experiment of ⁹Be(⁹Be, ¹⁰Be)⁸Be was performed at a beam energy of 45 MeV. Excited states in ¹⁰Be up to 18.80 MeV are produced using missing mass and invariant mass methods. Most of the observed high-lying resonant states, reconstructed from the α + ⁶He and t + ⁷Li decay channels, agree with the previously reported results. In addition, two new resonances at 15.6 and 18.8 MeV are identified from the present measurement. The 18.55 MeV state is found to decay into both the t + ⁷Li_g.s. and t + ⁷Li* (0.478 MeV) channels, with a relative branching ratio of 0.93 ± 0.33. Further theoretical investigations are encouraged to interpret this new information on cluster structure in neutron-rich light nuclei.     

Structure of excited states of <Superscript>123</Superscript>Te

The β decay of ¹²³I has been calculated within the dynamic collective model developed by the authors earlier. The expression for the reduced matrix element of the weak-interaction Hamiltonian has been used for the partial β decay. The influence of the vacuum fluctuations and creation or annihilation of one or two phonons on the reduced β-decay probabilities is taken into account.     

Neutron transition densities for the 2<Superscript> + </Superscript>-8<Superscript> + </Superscript> multiplet of states in <Superscript>90</Superscript>Zr

Neutron transition densities for the 2 ⁺ -8 ⁺ levels in ⁹⁰Zr were extracted in the process of analyzing scattering at 400 MeV. They were compared with the calculated neutron transition densities and with the experimental proton transition densities. Radial distributions of the experimental neutron and proton transition densities for each state were found to be different.Received: 9 January 2004, Revised: 4 April 2004, Published online: 14 September 2004PACS: 25.40.Ep Inelastic proton scattering - 21.10.-k Properties of nuclei; nuclear energy levels     

Three-body structure of low-lying <Superscript>18</Superscript>Ne states

We investigate to what extent ¹⁸Ne can be descibed as a three-body system made of an inert ¹⁶O core and two protons. We compare to experimental data and occasionally to shell model results. We obtain three-body wave functions with the hyperspherical adiabatic expansion method. We study the spectrum of ¹⁸Ne , the structure of the different states and the predominant transition strengths. Two 0⁺, two 2⁺, and one 4⁺ bound states are found where they are all known experimentally. Also one 3⁺ close to threshold is found and several negative-parity states, 1^-, 3^-, 0^-, 2^-, most of them bound with respect to the ¹⁶O excited 3^- state. The structures are extracted as partial-wave components, as spatial sizes of matter and charge, and as probability distributions. Electromagnetic decay rates are calculated for these states. The dominating decay mode for the bound states is E2 and occasionally also M1 .     

Decay of quasimolecular states in <Superscript>26</Superscript>Mg

A resonance-like structure in the excitation function for elastic and inelastic ¹⁴C + ¹²C interactions is investigated. Angular distributions for the ¹⁴C(¹²C,¹⁰Be)¹⁶O reaction at center-of-mass energies of 21.1, 23.5, and 24.6 MeV are obtained. It is shown that the angular distribution at the maximum cross section corresponds to the 12⁺ resonance and the ¹⁰Be + ¹⁶O structure. The position of the level with an angular momentum of 10⁺ is predicted.     

High-spin states in the <Superscript>97</Superscript>Tc nucleus

High-spin states in the ⁹⁷Tc nucleus have been studied by in-beam γ-ray spectroscopy with the reaction ⁸²Se(¹⁹F,4nγ) at 68 MeV incident energy. Excited states have been observed up to about 8 MeV excitation and spin 43/2. The observed level scheme is compared with results of shell model calculations. Received: 22 November 2002 / Accepted: 23 December 2002 / Published online: 18 March 2003 RID="a" ID="a"e-mail: bucurescu@tandem.nipne.ro RID="b" ID="b"Present address: INFN, Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro, Legnaro, Italy. RID="b" ID="b"Present address: INFN, Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro, Legnaro, Italy. RID="b" ID="b"Present address: INFN, Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro, Legnaro, Italy. RID="c" ID="c"Present address: Università di Padova, Padova, Italy. Communicated by C. Signorini     

Concerning positive-parity collective states in <Superscript>18</Superscript>O

I discuss collective positive-parity states in ¹⁸O in light of two recent experiments. Single-particle widths have been calculated and used to extract spectroscopic factors. Special attention is given to 4p -2h and 6p -4h cluster bands.