Discovery of a new long-lived isomeric state in 125Ce

A new long-lived isomeric state in the near proton dripline nucleus ¹²⁵Ce has been identified with Schottky mass spectrometry at GSI. The excitation energy E ^* = 103(12)keV and the decay time of 193(1)s have been obtained from a single stored fully ionized ^125m Ce⁵⁸⁺ ion. The data implies an E3 transition and a 1/2⁺ assignment for the spin of the isomer.     

Direct mass measurements of neutron-deficient 152Sm projectile fragments at the FRS-ESR facility

The FRS-ESR facility at GSI provides one of the most efficient methods for direct mass measurements. In the present experiment, exotic nuclei were produced via fragmentation of ¹⁵²Sm projectiles in a thick beryllium target at 500-600 MeV/u, separated in-flight with the fragment separator FRS, and injected into the storage-cooler ring ESR. Time-resolved Schottky Mass Spectrometry was applied for mass measurements of stored and electron-cooled bare and few-electron ions. 373 different nuclides were identified by means of the spectra of their revolution frequencies. Masses for 18 nuclides (⁸⁴Zr, ⁹²Ru, ⁹⁴Rh, ^107,108,110Sb, ^111,112,114I, ¹¹⁸Ba, ^122,123La, ¹²⁴Ce, ¹²⁷Pr, ¹²⁹Nd, ¹³²Pm, ¹³⁴Sm, ¹³⁷Eu) have been determined for the first time. Masses for ^111,112I and ¹¹³Xe have been obtained via known α-decay energies. The experiment and first results will be presented.     

Improvements to air mass calculations for ground-based infrared measurements

High-resolution ground-based infrared solar spectra are routinely recorded at the Network for the Detection of Stratospheric Change (NDSC) stations. These data sets play a key role in providing a long-term record of atmospheric composition and their links to climate change. The analysis of observed infrared spectra involves comparison to a computer-modeled atmosphere where knowledge of the air mass distribution is an essential component. This note summarises improvements made to an existing and widely used computer code (FSCATM) to perform refractive ray-tracing and calculation of the air mass distribution. Changes were made towards higher vertical resolution in the troposphere and increased numerical precision. The revised FSCATM improves the analysis of infrared spectra mostly through the more accurate representation of the temperature profile. Air mass differences with respect to earlier versions are documented and are typically <0.7%, exceptions being extreme cases of inversion layers. The current version provides ray tracing and air mass calculations for any terrestrial observation site. The output files are reported in a format compatible with the SFIT and SFIT2 retrieval algorithms, which are widely used for NDSC infrared atmospheric studies. The improved computer code, documentation, reference profiles, and test cases are available electronically.