Shell-model structure of exotic nuclei beyond <Superscript>132</Superscript>Sn

We report on a study of exotic nuclei around doubly magic ¹³²Sn in terms of the shell model employing a realistic effective interaction derived from the CD-Bonn nucleon-nucleon potential. The short-range repulsion of the bare potential is renormalized by constructing a smooth low-momentum potential, V_low-k, that is used directly as input for the calculation of the effective interaction. In this paper we focus attention on the nuclei ¹³⁴Sn and ¹³⁵Sb which, with an N/Z ratio of 1.68 and 1.65, respectively, are at present the most exotic nuclei beyond ¹³²Sn for which information exists on excited states. Comparison shows that the calculated results for both nuclei are in very good agreement with the experimental data. We present our predictions of the hitherto unknown spectrum of ¹³⁶Sn.     

M1 resonances in unstable magic nuclei

Within a microscopic approach which takes into account RPA configurations, the single-particle continuum and more complex 1p 1 h?phonon configurations isoscalar and isovector M1 excitations for the unstable nuclei^56,78Ni and^100,132Sn are calculated. For comparison, the experimentally known Ml excitations in⁴⁰Ca and²⁰⁸Pb have also been calculated. In the latter nuclei good agreement in the centroid energy, the total transition strength and the resonance width is obtained. With the same parameters we predict the magnetic excitations for the unstable nuclei. The strength is sufficiently concentrated to be measurable in radioactive beam experiments. New features are found for the very neutron rich nucleus⁷⁸Ni and the neutron deficient nucleus¹⁰⁰Sn.     

The soft Giant Monopole Resonance as a probe of the spin-orbit splitting

The isoscalar monopole response is studied in doubly magic ²⁰⁸Pb , ^{100, 132}Sn nuclei using the Skyrme HF+RPA model. A low-energy strength is predicted and corresponds to almost pure single-particle excitations. These pure single-particle excitations allow to analyse the splitting of the corresponding spin-orbit partners. A good agreement with the spin-orbit splitting data is found in the case of ²⁰⁸Pb . The experimental width of the giant monopole resonance may hinder the measurement of the soft monopole mode.     

Mass-surface predictions near the doubly magic nuclide 78Ni

The mass surface of nuclei close to the doubly magic nuclide ⁷⁸Ni is calculated by two methods. The first relies on the multiparticle shell model based on an effective interaction and a mean nuclear potential. The second employs the concept of so-called “magic crosses” and enables us to determine the masses of odd-odd nuclei close to ⁷⁸Ni by using similarity of the shell structure and neutron-proton interaction in the region of nuclei under consideration and in the region of heavy magic nuclides. The energies of the separation of one and two neutrons from nuclei close to ⁷⁸Ni and the energies of the β decay of these nuclei—recall that these quantities of astrophysical interest—are presented.     

Structural evolution along iso-chains of nuclei

The advent of radioactive nuclear beams (RNBs) has led to a rapid growth in the study of exotic nuclei. Already a number of major discoveries have been made. Examples are halo nuclei, mapping the bounds of nuclear existence, assessing the fragility of magicity, producing special nuclei such as ¹⁰⁰Sn and ⁴⁸Ni, and measuring key reaction rates of astrophysic interest. The growth in this field in the next decade will be enormous. With advanced RNB facilities being planned or under construction, more and more exotic nuclei will become accessible. One of the most interesting opportunities will be the study of the evolution of nuclear structure along extended iso-chains of nuclei. A prime example is Ni, where four magic numbers (20, 28, 40, and 50) and five major shells will be accessible. Structural evolution will be discussed from several standpoints, both theoretical and experimental, with emphasis on methods to obtain a maximum of information on new nuclei from the sparse data that will be available at the extremes of accessible N/Z ratios.     

Rotational bands in 169Re

Based on the systematic investigation of the data available for nuclei with A≥ 40, a Z ^1/3-dependence for the nuclear charge radii is shown to be superior to the generally accepted A ^1/3 law. A delicate scattering of data around R _c/Z ^1/3 is inferred as owing to the isospin effect and a linear dependence of R _c/Z ^1/3 on N/Z (or (N - Z)/2) is found. This inference is well supported by the microscopic Relativistic Continuum Hartree-Bogoliubov (RCHB) calculation conducted for the proton magic Ca, Ni, Zr, Sn and Pb isotopes including the exotic nuclei close to the neutron drip line. With the linear isospin dependence provided by the data and RCHB theory, a new isospin-dependent Z ^1/3 formula for the nuclear charge radii is proposed. Received: 23 September 2001 / Accepted: 21 January 2002     

Impact of the phonon coupling on the radiative neutron capture

Inclusion of the coupling of quasiparticle degrees of freedom with phonon degrees is a natural extention of the standard QRPA approach. The paper presents the quantitative impact of this phonon coupling on the dipole strength and radiative neutron capture for the stable ¹²⁴Sn and very exotic ¹⁵⁰Sn isotopes, as an illustration, using the self-consistent version of the Extended Theory of Finite Fermi Systems. It was found that the phonon contribution to the pygmy-dipole resonance and radiative neutron capture cross section is increased with the (N − Z) difference growth. The results show that the self-consistent nuclear structure calculations are important for unstable nuclei, where phenomenological approaches do not work.     

Study of the Gamow-Teller resonance in 90Nb and 208Bi

An approach is proposed for studying the spreading properties of the Gamow-Teller resonance (GTR) in heavy nuclei including the coupling to 2p2h configurations and the ground-state correlations beyond RPA. The GTR is generated by a proton p-neutron h (πp-νh) phonon within the renormalized RPA. The second-order configuration mixing beyond RPA is realized by constructing two-phonon configurations, in which one of two intermediate phonon states is a πp-νh phonon. The numerical calculations are performed in the parent nuclei ⁹⁰Zr and ²⁰⁸Pb making use of M3Y nucleon-nucleon interaction and the single-particle wave functions obtained in the standard harmonic oscillator potential. The single-particle energies around the Fermi surface are substituted with the empirical values or those given by a Woods-Saxon potential. The results obtained provide a reasonable account for recent experimental findings on the GTR in these nuclei. The extension of the present approach to highly excited (hot) nuclei is also provided. The GTR is found to be stable against temperatures up to T = 6 MeV.     

Microscopic description of collective states near the yrast line of nuclei with stable octupole deformation

Collective states near the yrast line in nuclei with stable octupole deformation are discussed in the framework of the random phase approximation (RPA) based on the cranking model. These vibrational states are characterized by the quantum number of generalized signature (eigenvalue of the operator S_x = PR_x^?1(π)). In the zero-octupole deformation limit the RPA equations of motion are reduced to the well-known ones characterized by both values of parity and signature, respectively. The connection of the translational and rotational symmetry of the model hamiltonian with the spurious solutions of the RPA equation of motion is discussed. Expressions for the reduced probabilities B(E1), B(E2) and B(E3) are obtained. These expressions confirm the conclusions of phenomenological models for the strong E1 and E3 intraband transitions in nuclei with stable octupole deformation.     

Probing the structure of exotic nuclei by transfer reactions

Low energy single nucleon transfer reactions are proposed as a tool to investigate the structure of nuclei far off stability. Experimental concepts and conditions are discussed, in particular high resolution γ-ray spectroscopy after single nucleon pickup reactions. Nuclear structure is described by Skyrme Hartree-Fock calculations including pairing. As representative examples, binding energies, radii and wave functions for Mg and Sn isotopes are calculated. In the neutron deficient Mg isotopes a proton skin is found. At the neutron driplines the Mg and Sn isotopes develop extended neutron skins. The nuclear structure results are used in DWBA and EFR-DWBA transfer calculations. Single nucleon transfer reactions of ^32,36Mg and exotic Sn beams on targets ranging from ²H to ²⁴Mg in inverse kinematics are explored. The one-nucleon transfer cross sections decrease strongly for high-Z targets. An impact parameter analysis shows that the transfer process is selective on the tails of the wave functions. The largest cross sections are obtained for ²H and ⁹Be targets at incident energies of E _lab = 2-5 MeV/u. The energy-momentum dependence is closely related to the special properties of wave functions of weakly bound states. Two-neutron (p,t) stripping reactions are studied for a ⁶He projectile. A strong competition of sequential and direct processes is found at low energies. Received: 1 October 1997 / Revised version: 25 November 1997     

Hartree-Fock-Bogolyubov description of nuclei near the neutron-drip line

We consider the Hartree-Fock-Bogolyubov theory of nuclei in the coordinate representation and derive and solve the HFB equation for the Skyrme effective interaction. Ground-state wave functions and energies of the tin isotopes with 100 ? A ? 176 have been determined and the results have been compared with the predictions of the HF+BCS and macroscopic-microscopic models. The lightest tin isotope which is unstable with respect to a neutron emission is predicted by the HFB method to be ¹⁵³Sn. In the region of nuclei where experimental data are not available the macroscopic-microscopic and self-consistent approximations give substantially different results.     

Measurements of fusion reactions induced by radioactive 132Sn on 64Ni

Evaporation residue and fission cross sections of radioactive ¹³²Sn on ⁶⁴Ni were measured. Statistical model calculations using parameters simultaneously fitting stable Sn+⁶⁴Ni data reproduce the ¹³²Sn induced reaction very well. A large sub-barrier fusion enhancement was observed. The enhancement can be accounted for by coupled-channels calculations including inelastic excitation of the projectile and target, and neutron transfer.     

Relativistic wave functions for single-proton resonant states

With the relativistic boundary condition, single-proton resonant states in spherical nuclei are studied by an analytic continuation in the coupling constant (ACCC) method within the framework of the self-consistent relativistic mean-field (RMF) theory. In this scheme, we investigate the wave functions for l≠ 0 proton resonant states close to the continuum threshold in the stable nuclide ¹²⁰Sn for the first time. Some hints for pseudospin symmetry in the resonant states of nuclei are mentioned as well.     

Generalized hybrid derivative coupling model for finite nuclei

The generalized hybrid derivative coupling model has been applied to explore various ground state properties of different nuclei. In this work we have confined our calculation only to the model characterized by the hybridization parameter α = 1/4 which gives better results than the other models of the same class, as we have seen earlier, for nuclear matter calculations. The binding energy, single-particle energy spectra, density and charge radii of different doubly closed nuclei like ¹⁶O, ⁴⁰Ca, ⁴⁸Ca, ⁹⁰Zr, ¹³²Sn, ²⁰⁸Pb have been studied. The success of this model, in describing the doubly closed nuclei, motivates us to extend this calculation further in the case of open shell nuclei after incorporating the pairing interaction and using a BCS transformation. We have calculated the binding energy for such nuclei. We have also studied the isotopic shift for different Pb isotopes with respect to ²⁰⁸Pb. We have compared our results with the other standard theoretical results as well as with the experimental values. Received: 18 August 2000 / Accepted: 13 April 2001     

Core polarization effects on transition densities in medium-heavy nuclei

We propose a microscopic model to study the core-polarization effects of giant resonances on the transition densities of open-shell nuclei. We use the Hartree-Fock-RPA method for the calculation of the single-particle wave functions and the response function of the giant resonances. Particle-vibration coupling is applied to take into account the core polarization effect on the valence many-body wave functions. We apply our model to the quadrupole transitions in the several medium-heavy nuclei. Valence many-body wave functions are calculated with the generalized seniority scheme and with the shell model. Results for the proton and neutron effective charges and the Coulomb form factors for the N = 82 isotones and for ¹¹⁶Sn and ¹¹⁰Pd are presented and discussed. The effective coupling hamiltonian is determined by the Skyrme interaction SGII which is used also in the HF and RPA calculations. The calculated core polarization charges show some state dependences. The average theoretical values are δe_p = 0.4–0.5 and δe_n = 0.6–0.7 compared to typical empirical values of δe_p = 0.6 and δe_n = 1.2.     

Low-energy monopole and dipole response in nuclei at finite temperature

The multipole response of nuclei at temperatures T=0–2 MeV$T=0\text{–}2\text{MeV}$ is studied using a self-consistent finite-temperature RPA (random phase approximation) based on relativistic energy density functionals. Illustrative calculations are performed for the isoscalar monopole and isovector dipole modes and, in particular, the evolution of low-energy excitations with temperature is analyzed, including the modification of pygmy structures. Both for the monopole and dipole modes, in the temperature range T=1–2 MeV$T=1\text{–}2\text{MeV}$ additional transition strength appears at low energies due to thermal unblocking of single-particle orbitals close to the Fermi level. A concentration of dipole strength around 10 MeV excitation energy is predicted in ^60,62Ni. The principal effect of finite temperature on low-energy strength that is already present at zero temperature, e.g. in ⁶⁸Ni and ¹³²Sn, is the spreading of this structure to even lower energy and the appearance of states that correspond to thermally unblocked transitions.     

Present status and future aspects of nuclear structure close to 100Sn

The present status of experimental approach to ¹⁰⁰Sn in the spectroscopy of excited states is landmarked by the T_z=3/2 nuclei between ⁹⁵Pd and ¹⁰¹In and the T_z=1 nuclei ⁹⁴Pd and ⁹⁸Cd. The detection limits with Pre-EUROBALL γ-arrays and ancillary detectors are below the 10^?5 level of the total fusion- evaporation residue cross section. A large scale shell model analysis of the existing data reveals the shell structure at ¹⁰⁰Sn, which shows a remarkable similarity to ⁵⁶Ni. Evidence for an increasing proton-neutron interaction in approaching the N=Z line is deduced from high spin isomers and spherical yrast lines. The effective E2 operator for protons and neutrons and implications for a low lying particle-hole (ph) E2 excitation in ¹⁰⁰Sn are discussed.     

Decay of proton-rich nuclei between 39Ti and 49Ni

Decay studies of very neutron-deficient nuclei ranging from ³⁹Ti to ⁴⁹Ni have been performed during a projectile fragmentation experiment at the GANIL/LISE3 separator. For all nuclei studied in this work, ^{39, 40}Ti, ^{42, 43}Cr, ⁴⁶Mn, ^{45, 46, 47}Fe and ⁴⁹Ni, half-lives and decay spectra have been measured. In a few cases, γ coincidence measurements helped to successfully identify the initial and final states of transitions. In these cases, partial decay scheme are proposed. For the most exotic isotopes, ³⁹Ti, ⁴²Cr, ⁴⁵Fe and ⁴⁹Ni, which are candidates for two-proton radioactivity from the ground state, no clear evidence of this process is seen in our spectra and we conclude rather on a delayed particle decay. Received: 26 July 2000 / Accepted: 20 December 2000