Giant resonance decays in 20Ne, 22Ne and interference effects with quasifree scattering processes

The charged particle (c) decay from excited states up to the giant quadrupole resonance (GQR) in ²⁰Ne has been studied in a kinematically complete ²⁰Ne(α, α′ c) coincident experiment at E_α = 155 MeV. Angular correlation functions and branching ratios are extracted for the α₀, α₁ and p₀ decay channels. The (α, α′ α₀) angular correlation functions are analysed in PWBA in terms of coherent interference with the quasifree scattering process leading to the same final states. Good fits to the data are achieved over a large range of excitation energies. Branching ratios have been extracted and compared to results of Hauser-Feshbach calculations. Above E_x = 12.5 MeV excitation energy a discrepancy was found between the experimentally observed α₀ branching ratios and the HF predictions. These results yield evidence for a direct α₀ decay mechanism of the split isoscalar giant quadrupole resonance in ²⁰Ne. Some results are presented also for a ²²Ne(α, α′ c) coincidence experiment. Qualitative comparison has been made between the general decay behaviour of the two Ne isotopes.     

Alpha-decay study of188Pb and180,182Hg

Theα decay of mass-separated¹⁸⁸Pb and^180,182Hg has been studied at the GSI on-line mass separator. Alpha singles spectra as well asα-X-t andα-e-t coincidence events were collected. Fine structure in theα decay of¹⁸⁸Pb was measured for the first time, feeding the 2₁ ⁺ and 0₂ ⁺ states in¹⁸⁴Hg. Theα decay of^180,182Hg feeds low-lying states in^176?178Pt. One of these states could be identified as a 0⁺ state. The deexcitation pattern could be established. As a by-product an alpha-decay scheme of¹⁸⁰Au towards levels in¹⁷⁶Ir is given.     

Fine structure in the α decay of202Rn

The α decay of mass-separated²⁰²Rn is studied at the ISOLDE separator. Time sequential α-singles spectra together with α-X-t and α-e-t coincidence events are collected. Fine structure in the α decay is observed and feeding of a low-lying 0 ₂ ⁺ state at 816 keV in¹⁹⁸Po is evidenced. This 0⁺ state can be interpreted as the bandhead of an intruder-state based deformed band, coexisting with the spherical groundstate band. Mixing between normal and intruder states is discussed. A preliminary α-decay study of²⁰⁰Rn did not yet reveal any fine structure.     

(6Li,d) reactions on 24Mg and 26Mg at 73 MeV

The ^{24, 26}Mg(⁶Li, d)^{28, 30}Si reactions have been studied at 73 MeV bombarding energy. The angular distributions were analyzed with exact finite-range distorted wave Born approximation calculations assuming a direct α-cluster transfer. Extracted spectroscopic strengths leading to low-lying levels of ²⁸Si and relative spectroscopic strengths between transitions to ²⁸Si and ³⁰Si ground states are consistent with those previously obtained by several α-transfer reactions. Many strongly populated levels have been observed at E_x ? 10 MeV for ²⁸Si. A marked similarity was found between the deuteron spectrum and the ²⁴Mg(α, α)²⁴Mg excitation function in this excitation energy region. A brief comparison of the present α-transfer results with previous two-nucleon transfer data leading to ^28,30Si is also presented.     

Investigation of backward α-particle scattering in 24Mg and 28Si through α-γ angular correlations

Alpha-gamma angular correlations have been measured for the reaction ²⁴Mg(α, α'γ) in the energy range 15.50 to 17.00 MeV in steps of 300 keV and for ²⁸Si(α, α'γ) from 15.00 to 16.20 MeV in steps of 200 keV to provide energy averaged results. The scattered α-particles were detected for lab angles θ_α = 115°–178° in a multidetector arrangement. The coincident γ-rays were observed with a Ge(Li) detector placed at 90° in the reaction plane. Data were obtained for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd excited states of ²⁴Mg and for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th excited states of ²⁸Si. The absolute doubledifferential cross sections were analysed with Hauser-Feshbach calculations. The analyses show that compound nuclear processes are responsible for the rise of backward α-scattering in ²⁴Mg(α, α'γ)²⁴Mg and ²⁸Si(α, α'γ)²⁸Si at the energy studied.     

Investigation of the mechanism of inelastic alpha-particle scattering on 28Si nuclei by the method of angular αγ correlations at E α = 30.3 MeV

The angular dependence of the differential cross sections for alpha-particle scattering on ²⁸Si nuclei and double-differential cross sections for the reaction ²⁸Si(α, αγ)²⁸Si at E _α = 30.3 MeV is measured for the case of alpha-particle emission angle between 20° and 160° and the excitation of low-lying states of the ²⁸Si nucleus (0⁺, ground state; 2⁺ state at 1.78 MeV; 4⁺ state at 4.62 MeV; 0⁺ state at 4.96 MeV; and 3^? + 4⁺, 6.88 MeV + 6.89 MeV). The spin-tensor components of the density matrix for the 2⁺ state at 1.78 MeV and the 4⁺ state at 4.62 MeV in the ²⁸Si* nucleus are reconstructed in a modelindependent way. Seven rank-6 components are reconstructed for the 3^? state at 6.88 MeV. Orientation features of ²⁸Si* are determined. The experimental data in question are compared with the results of the calculations performed under the assumption of the collective-excitation mechanism and by the coupled-channel method.     

Alpha-heavy-ion angular correlations from 28Si + 12C

Alpha particles have been measured in coincidence with heavy recoil nuclei from the ²⁸Si + ¹²C reaction. At E_lab = 87 MeV angular correlations for alphas between 15° and 55° and heavy ions at angles ?9°, ?12° and ?15° have been taken. An excitation function of coincidence events with θ_α = 30° and θ_HI = ?12° has been measured for 84 MeV < E_lab < 91.5 MeV. The results are well described by a statistical-model calculation for compound nucleus decay. No evidence is found for additional processes.     

Dominance of α decay from the isoscalar giant quadrupole resonance in 16O

The charged particle (c) decay of the isoscalar giant quadrupole resonance in a ¹⁶O has been studied in a ¹⁶O(α,α'c) coincidence experiment at E_α=155 MeV. The J=2 character of this resonance was established by angular correaltion measurements. Its dominant decay proceeds through the α₁ channel which contains about 40% of the E2 energy weighted sum rule. This explains difficulties of capture reactions to locate the GQR.     

Level structure of the 89-neutron nucleus 153Gd: (I). Levels and gamma-transitions in 153Gd excited in the decay of 153Tb

Investigations of the properties of ¹⁵³Gd excited states populated in ¹⁵³Tb decay were continued. The following measurements were performed: coincidence spectra e^?γ with L41, K93 + L52, K110, K129 + L87 + L88 and K195 + L152 keV conversion electron lines, angular correlations of high energy γ-cascades going through the 109.7 keV level, delayed e^?γ and e^?e^? coincidence spectra to determine the half-lives of 41.5, 93.3, 109.7, 129.1,183.5, 212.0 and 216.1 keV states, R(135°, ± B) parameters of IPAC for the 102–110 and 83–129 keV cascades using ¹⁵³Tb sources implanted into Fe foil.A decay scheme of ¹⁵³Tb containing 50 excited levels is proposed. Their spins, parities, $\text{log}\text{?t}$ and, for low-lying levels, also the mean half-lives have been determined. An estimation of the g-factors of the 109.7 and 129.1 keV levels has been given. On the basis of half-lives of investigated states absolute values of reduced γ-transition probabilities for these states have been calculated. The structure of the ground state of ¹⁵³Gd is discussed.     

Investigation of 28Si levels with the (α, γ) and (p, γ) reactions

Particle energies have been measured for resonances in the ²⁷Al(p, γ)²⁸Si and ²⁴Mg(α, γ)²⁸Si reactions with an accuracy of 0.5 × 10^?4 and 1 × 10^?4, respectively. The E_p = 991.88 ± 0.04 keV²⁷Al(p, γ)²⁸Si resonance served as calibration point. From these data the Q-value of the reaction ²⁷Al(p, α)²⁴Mg has been determined as 1600.14 ± 0.21 keV. Excitation energies of ²⁸Si levels have been measured with the ²⁷Al(p, γ)²⁸Si reaction; the reaction energy is Q = 11584.5 ± 0.4 keV.Of 33 resonances observed in the ²⁴Mg(α, γ)²⁸Si reaction (E_α = 1.5–3.8 MeV), energies, strengths and γ-ray decay have been measured; five of these resonances had not been reported previously. The γ-ray angular distribution measurements at three resonances yield the resonance J^π values and the mixing ratios of the strongest transitions involved in the decay. The 10.38 MeV level has J^π = 3⁺, T = 1. The arguments on which T-assignments can be based are critically reviewed. These arguments are used to assign T = 1 character to ¹⁹ states of ²⁸Si.     

High spin selectivity in α-particle induced reactions

Distinct maxima have been observed in the spectra of protons emitted from the ²⁴Mg(α, p)²⁷Al reaction in the region of the excitation energies of ²⁷Al between 5 and 15 MeV, where continuous spectra are expected according to the statistical model. To investigate the reaction mechanism responsible for the selective excitation of several states of ²⁷Al, angular distributions of protons in the angular range from 20° to 170° in the lab system were measured at the α-particles energies E_lab = 25.4 25.8 and 26.2 MeV. Thirteen out of thirty levels observed in proton spectra, exhibit symmetry of their angular distributions around 90° the c.m. system, when averaged over energy. The contribution of preequilibrium emission was calculated and found to be negligible. A Hauser-Feshbach analysis was carried out to determine spins of states of ²⁷Al whose angular distributions were symmetric around 90° in the c.m. system. Results of this analysis indicated high spin selectivity in the ²⁴Mg(α, p)²⁷Al reaction.     

Alpha-like four nucleon correlations in superfluid phases of atomic nuclei

α-like four-nucleon correlations are included in the structure of superfluid ground and low-lying excited states of atomic nuclei within a BCS-like approach. New metastable superfluid and normal states are predicted. These states could be associated with some of the recently discovered I^π = 0⁺ states in different regions of atomic nuclei. A new type of elementary excitations may be constructed on these metastable states in the same way as those constructed on the BCS superfluid ground states. The region of superfluid cold nuclei is enlarged due to the fact that the neutron and proton superfluidity can mutually be induced via the α-like four-nucleon ineractions. This type of correlations lead to a further enhancement of the probabilities of the favoured α-clusterization processes (such as α-decay or α-transfer reactions), two-nucleon transfer reactions and other clusterization processes such as e.g. the heavy cluster decay.     

Spectroscopy of intermediate 16F states with the reaction 14N(3He,np)15O

Excited states of ¹⁶F have been investigated with the reaction ¹⁴N(³He, np)¹⁵O at E = 10.5 and 12 MeV in kinematically complete experiments. Proton groups corresponding to the decays of intermediate ¹⁶F states were observed at various angles with counter telescopes in time coincidence with the associated neutrons detected at θ_n^lab = 0° with a time-of-flight spectrometer. Excitation energies and decay widths Γ_p0 of these states have been extracted from the proton spectra. Lower limits for the orbital angular momentum in the decay channel and for the spin of the states have been deduced from the obtained angular correlations. By comparison with the reaction ¹⁴N(³He, pp)¹⁵N measured at E = 13 MeV, pairs of $\text{T = 1}{}^{16}\text{F}$ parent/¹⁶O analog states have been identified. J^π assignments and shell-model configurations are discussed on the basis of the selectivity of the reactions measured.     

Etude du noyau 63Cu par la reaction 60Ni(α, pγ)63Cu

The level structure and the decay properties of low-lying levels in ⁶³Cu have been investigated via the ⁶⁰Ni(α, pγ)⁶³Cu reaction at E_α = 11.7MeV. Using a Ge(Li) detector, the correlations of twenty-five primary γ-rays in coincidence with protons, stopped in an annular detector at approximatively 180° with respect to the beam direction, were measured. From these measurements, branching ratios, γ-ray mixing ratios and spin assignments have been obtained for most of the levels up to 2.4 MeV excitation.     

Gamma-ray spectroscopy of61Zn

The⁶¹Zn decay scheme and level properties have been investigated up to the 2,269.6 keV level by the⁵⁸Ni(α, n γ)⁶¹Zn reaction using enriched targets. Excitation functions,γ ray spectra andn-γ coincidence spectra have been measured as well as angular distributions and angular correlations in Litherland II geometry. Gamma ray energies, excited state spins andγ ray branching ratios have been determined.     

Pre-equilibrium alpha emission accompanying deep-inelastic16O+58Ni collisions

α particles were measured in coincidence with projectile-like reaction products (oxygen and carbon) produced in deep-inelastic¹⁶O+⁵⁸Ni collisions at about 6 MeV/N bombarding energy. The kinematic analysis of the HI andα energies measured as a function ofΘ _α gives strong evidence for a sequential process: the target-like fragments are excited by the deep-inelastic collision and undergo subsequentα decay. In contrast, the angular correlations show a pronounced forward peak, indicative of direct or pre-equilibriumα emission. The emission time for the latter is estimated to be of the order of 2×10^?21 s. To resolve this conflict of co-existing statistical and direct features of the pre-equilibrium emission, the concept of a hot spot is proposed. From the angular correlation and from theα multiplicities, a local temperature ofT?3.5 MeV is deduced which agrees well with the temperature derived from the shape of theα spectra. The spot size is estimated to be 1/5 of the sphere.     

The decay of isoscalar giant resonances in 24Mg and 40Ca

In this paper we present data on the charged-particle decay of the isoscalar 2⁺ strength between 10 and 20 MeV excitation energy (E_x) in ²⁴Mg and ⁴⁰Ca. The isoscalar strength was excited by inelastic scattering of 120MeV α-particles at 14° and 12.5° for ²⁴Mg and ⁴⁰Ca, respectively. The charged particles originating from the decay were detected in coincidence with the α′ particles at several angles in the scattering plane. J^π assignments of the decaying states were made on the basis of the angular correlation pattern of the α₀ decay to the ground state of ²⁰Ne and ³⁶Ar, respectively, using a DWBA calculation for the m-state population of the decaying state.For ⁴⁰Ca, about 40% of the E2 EWSR is found to be located in the interval E_x = 13.5 ± 1.5 MeV, which is similar to what has been found from previous inelastic scattering experiments at E_x = 18 ± 2 MeV, but much more than such experiments located in the region E_x = 12–15 MeV. The difference for the region E_x < 16 MeV is due to the fact that from our α₀ angular correlation pattern we conclude that virtually no continuum is excited in the (α, α′) process up to E_x = 16 MeV while all previous inelastic hadron scattering experiments assumed such a continuum to be present. The E2 strength distribution for ⁴⁰Ca thus obtained is very different from what previous theoretical calculations predict. For ²⁴Mg about 30% of the E2 EWSR is present in the interval 12.5 ? E_x ? experiments. 16.5 MeV which again is about twice as much as deduced from previous inelastic scattering The observed branching ratios are compared with calculated ones assuming statistical decay. Reasonable agreement was obtained for ⁴⁰Ca, but for ²⁴Mg especially the α₀-decay branch and to a lesser extent also the p₁ one are much stronger than the statistical calculations predict, indicating that especially the α₀ decay occurs mainly in a non-statistical way.A similar conclusion can be drawn from the behaviour of the forward-backward asymmetry in the angular correlations of the decay particles as a function of the excitation energy FBA(E_x). For ⁴⁰Ca, FBA(E_x) for all decay channels increases smoothly on the average once E_x is above a well-defined threshold, which is due to the onset of knock-out processes. For ²⁴Mg, however, the FBA(E_x) for the α₀ shows a large fluctuation as a function of E_x, indicating an interference process between semi-direct decay and knock-out processes.     

Low-lying states of the 16F nucleus

Low-lying proton-emitting states of ¹⁶F have been investigated through the sequential particle decay reactions ¹⁴N(³He, n)¹⁶F(p)¹⁵O. Excitation energies were determined by measuring outgoing proton energies. Estimations of proton decay widths and spin limitations were made from proton spectra and angular correlation data which were obtained by detecting the protons in time coincidence with the associated neutrons at θ_n = 0°. To date, the ground-state spin of ¹⁶F has been considered to be J = 0; however, the present work suggests J = 1 to be preferable.     

Collective mass parameters and linear response techniques in three-dimensional grids

The²⁴Mg(α,γ ₀)²⁸Si capture reaction has been studied for bombarding energies 4.4 ≦E _α ≦9.6 MeV. Through angular distributions taken in steps of 60 keV the groundstate yield has been decomposed into its contributingE1 andE2 components. Excitation energies and widths of several narrow 1^? and 2⁺ levels were determined. Significant deviations of the phase factor cosδ from the statistical expectation value were analysed in terms of a two-state interfering process and yielded as much as (40 ±10)% semidirect contributions to the α-capture reaction.     

A study of excited states of5He by the7Li (d, α)5He-reaction

The interactions of deuterons with⁷Li, in which two α-particles and a neutron are produced in the final state are studied atE _d =1.2 MeV. The dual parameter α-α coincidence spectrum was analyzed with a search program. The results indicate two excited states of⁵He: One at excitation energy 2.9±0.1 MeV and with a reduced width of γ²=1.1±0.4 MeV, and the other at 4.8±0.4 MeV, with γ²=0.9±0.4 MeV. No contributions of sequential decay through the 4⁺ state in⁸Be or direct three body decay was observed.