Status of heavy element research using a gas-filled recoil separator at RIKEN

A gas-filled type of recoil separator for heavy element research was installed at an experimental hall of RIKEN Linear Accelerator facility to realize getting higher intensity of primary beam and long beam time. Performance of the separator was studied using target recoils and various nuclear reactions. The results show the high performance of the separator for heave element research. As an application of the GARIS, production and identification of an isotope of the 110th element ²⁷¹[110] have been performed using the ²⁰⁸Pb(⁶⁴Ni,1n)²⁷¹[110] reaction. Three decay chains coincide well both in decay times and energies with the ones reported by the group of SHIP experiment at GSI, Germany. Our results provide a confirmation of the synthesis of an isotope ²⁷¹[110] of element 110.     

Design and commissioning of a timestamp-based data acquisition system for the DRAGON recoil mass separator

The fission fragment mass distribution followed by neutron emission is studied for the ²³⁸U(¹⁸O,f) reaction using the asymmetric two-center shell model. Within the thermodynamic approach, excitation energy carried by the compound nucleus is dissipated in the emission of a pair of neutrons in several consecutive steps. Therefore, we have considered 2–12 (in step of 2) neutron emission channels in our formalism. The mass distribution corresponding to 8-neutron emission channel compares reasonably well with the experimental data. The observed fine structure dips corresponding to shell closure (Z = 50 and N = 82 of individual fission fragment arise mainly due to shell structure in the mass parameters. However, an exact location and magnitude of the dip at A = 124 in the mass distribution depends on how the temperature modifies masses and, also, on the precise information of pre- and post-neutron emission data. This suggests a possible importance of extending these calculations to get new insight into an understanding of the dynamical behaviour of fragment formation in the fission process.     

Gamma-ray spectroscopy of short-lived fission products using the recoil separator “Lohengrin”

γ-spectra and half-lives of⁹⁰Br,⁹⁵Rb,⁹⁶Rb,⁹⁶Sr,⁹⁶Y,¹³²Sb and¹³²Sn have been measured using the unslowed fission fragment separator “Lohengrin”. Preliminary decay schemes for⁹⁰Kr,⁹⁵Sr,⁹⁶Sr and⁹⁶Y are given.     

Isomeric and ground-state decay of 215 Bi

A new high-spin isomer in ²¹⁵Bi, with a half-life of 36.9(6) s, has been identified at the PSB-ISOLDE on-line mass separator using the pulsed-release technique combined with the element selective RILIS source. A decay scheme of Bi was constructed and complemented with the low-spinstructure observed in Bi decay. The population of a cascade on top of the level in ²¹⁵Poprovides evidence for Gamow-Teller -decay of the high-spin ²¹⁵Bi isomer.Received: 3 March 2003, Revised: 10 June 2003, Published online: 9 October 2003PACS: 23.20.Lv transitions and level energies - 27.80.+w - 29.30.Kv X- and -ray spectroscopyV. Fedoseyev: Present address: ISOLDE, CERN-PPE, CH-1211, Geneva 23, Switzerland.M. Górska: Present address: GSI, Darmstadt, D-64220, Germany.M. Huhta: Present address: Nokia, Tampere, Finland.     

The dubna gas-filled recoil separator: Software and algorithms

Experiments carried out on the gas-filled separator of recoil nuclei at the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, in the past several years have proved the hypothesis of the existence of a stability island of superheavy nuclei. The accelerator, beam diagnostics, and detector technologies underlay the success. It is the highly sensitive detecting system of the separator combined with the method of “active correlations” that allowed rare events of the decay of superheavy nuclei to be reliably detected under almost background-free conditions. In turn, to a large extent, this has been made possible owing to special algorithms and software developed for long-term experiments in the beam of ⁴⁸Ca ions.     

Isomeric decay studies around 204Pt and 148Tb

Relativistic energy projectile fragmentation of ²⁰⁸Pb has been used to produce a range of exotic nuclei. The nuclei of interest were studied by detecting delayed gamma rays following the decay of isomeric states. Experimental information on the excited states of the neutron-rich N=126 nucleus, ²⁰⁴Pt, following internal decay of two isomeric states, was obtained for the first time. In addition, decays from the previously reported isomeric I=27ħ and I=(49/2)ħ states in ¹⁴⁸Tb and ¹⁴⁷Gd, respectively, have been observed. These isomeric decays represent the highest spin discrete states observed to date following a projectile fragmentation reaction, and opens further the possibility of doing `high-spin physics' using this technique.     

Synthesis of superheavy elements at the Dubna gas-filled recoil separator

A survey of experiments at the Dubna gas-filled recoil separator (Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions, JINR, Dubna) aimed at the detection and study of the “island of stability” of superheavy nuclei produced in complete fusion reactions of ⁴⁸Са ions and ²³⁸U–²⁴⁹Cf target nuclei is given. The problems of synthesis of superheavy nuclei, methods for their identification, and investigation of their decay properties, including the results of recent experiments at other separators (SHIP, BGS, TASCA) and chemical setups, are discussed. The studied properties of the new nuclei, the isotopes of elements 112–118, as well as the properties of their decay products, indicate substantial growth of stability of the heaviest nuclei with increasing number of neutrons in the nucleus as the magic number of neutrons N = 184 is approached.     

Isomeric decay of 67Fe --Evidence for deformation

Decay-spectroscopy study of the ^67mFe isomer has been performed at GANIL. This isomer is found to have an energy of 387 keV and a half-life of 75(21) μs. An intermediate excited state is introduced at 367 keV. The results are interpreted in terms of various nuclear models, and a deformed shape is inferred for ⁶⁷Fe. Received: 12 August 2002 / Accepted: 12 September 2002 / Published online: 17 January 2003 RID="a" ID="a"e-mail: sawicka@ganil.fr and sawicka@zsjlin.igf.fuw. edu.pl Communicated by W. Henning     

Nuclear recoil effect on the magnetic-dipole decay rates of atomic levels

The effect of finite nuclear mass on the magnetic-dipole transition probabilities between fine-structure levels of the same term is investigated. Based on a rigorous QED approach a nonrelativistic formula for the recoil correction to first order in m_e/M is derived. Numerical results for transitions of experimental interest are presented.     

Optimizing Higgs factories by modifying the recoil mass

It is difficult to measure the WW-fusion Higgs production process(e~+e~-→νh)at a lepton collider with a center of mass energy of 240-250 Ge V due to its small rate and the large background from the Higgsstrahlung process with an invisible Z(e~+e~-→h Z,Z→ν).We construct a modified recoil mass variable,m~p_(recoil),defined using only the 3-momentum of the reconstructed Higgs particle,and show that it can separate the WW-fusion and Higgsstrahlung events better than the original recoil mass variable m_(recoil).Consequently,the m~p_(recoil)variable can be used to improve the overall precisions of the extracted Higgs couplings,in both the conventional framework and the effective-field-theory framework.We also explore the application of the m~p_(recoil)variable in the inclusive cross section measurements of the Higgsstrahlung process,while a quantitive analysis is left for future studies.     

Perpendicularev mass fromW decay

We point out properties of the “perpendicularev mass”, defined in terms of transverse momentap _t byM _T ² (ev)=2|p _eT | |p _vT |?2p _eT ·p _vT , that make it particularly well suited toW mass and width determinations. We give an analytic expression for its distribution inW production and subsequentW→ev decay a \(\bar pp\) colliders, accurate to order 〈p _WT ² /M _W ² 〉≈1%. A maximum likelihood fit of this formula to the five UA1 events givesM _W=80.3 _?3 ⁺⁶ GeV.     

Delayed autoionization of recoil ions by the decay of high-spin isomeric states

The time dependence of the ionization for isotopically different heavy ion fusion recoil ions has been observed. Delayed nuclear-induced autoionization of recoil ions caused by the decay of high-spin nuclear isomeric states by internal conversion was established. Internal conversion in isolated recoil atoms results in a drastic rearrangement in the atomic cloud with a loss of a great number of orbital electrons. Possibilities for the use of the observed phenomena in atomic and nuclear physics are discussed.     

Double-beta decay and neutrino mass

Recent achievements in the study of double-beta (ββ) decay are presented. We discuss the potential of this process to search, beyond Standard Model physics, for the QRPA-based methods used for the calculation of the relevant nuclear matrix elements and the derivation of the neutrino mass from both ββ-decay calculations and neutrino oscillation and cosmological data. The key position of the ββ-decay experiments in resolving the neutrino absolute mass is highlighted.     

Measurements ofβ-endpoint-energies using a magnetic electron separator

Beta endpoint energies of the short-lived neutron rich fission products^{90,91,92,93,94,95,96,97,98},Rb have been measured using a newly constructed achromatic magnetic electron-separator that eliminates low energy electrons. Thus only electrons in the neighbourhood of theβ-endpoint are recorded in a low background environment.     

Channeling patterns recorded using radioactive recoil atoms

Differences in the penetration of Rn-220 recoil atoms injected from a Ra-224 point source into single crystals of Si, SiO₂ and KCl were used to record patterns showing directions and planes along which the recoil atoms channeled deeper into the crystal.     

On the decay of61Zn and60Zn using mass separated sources

The γ-ray spectrum of⁶¹Zn and⁶⁰Zn was studied with a 75 cm³ Ge(Li) detector using mass separated sources. For the half-lives we foundT _1/2(⁶¹Zn)=89.1 ± 0.2 sec andT _1/2(⁶⁰Zn)=2.33 ±0.05 min, together with the valuesT _1/2(⁶¹Cu)=3.26± 0.05 hr andT _1/2(⁶⁰Cu)=24.0 ± 0.3 min for the half-lives of the daughter activities.