Decays of new nuclides and isomers beyond the proton drip line — the influence of neutron configurations

Page, R. D. et al. (2008) Decays of new nuclides and isomers beyond the proton drip line — the influence of neutron configurations. AIP Conference Proceedings, 1072, pp. 172-178. (doi: 10.1063/1.3039824)

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Publisher's URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3039824

Abstract

The energy of the vh9/2 orbital in nuclei above N = 82 drops rapidly in energy relative to thevf7/2 orbital as the occupancy of the πh11/2 orbital increases. These two neutron orbitals become nearly degenerate as the proton drip line is approached. In this work, we have discovered the new nuclides 161Os and 157W, and studied the decays of the proton emitter160Re in detail. The 161Os and 160Re nuclei were produced in reactions of 290, 300 and 310 MeV 58Ni ions with an isotopically enriched 106Cd target, separated in‐flight using the RITU separator and implanted into the GREAT spectrometer. The 161Os α a decays populated the new nuclide 157W, which decayed by β‐particle emission. The β decay fed the known α‐decaying 1/2+ and 11/2− states in 157Ta, which is consistent with a vf7/2 ground state in 157W. The measured α‐decay energy and half‐life for 161Os correspond to a reduced α‐decay width that is compatible with s‐wave α‐particle emission, implying that its ground state is also a vf7/2 state. Over 7000 160Re nuclei were produced and the γ decays of a new isomeric state feeding the πd3/2 level in 160Re were discovered, but no evidence for the proton or a decay of the expected πh11/2 state could be found. The isomer decays offer a natural explanation for this non‐observation and provides a striking example of the influence of the near degeneracy of the vh9/2 and vf7/2 orbitals on the properties of nuclei in this region.

Item Type:Articles
Additional Information:International conference on nuclear physics and astrophysics: From stable beams to exotic nuclei; Cappadocia (Turkey); 25-30 Jun 2008
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:O'Donnell, Dr David
Authors: Page, R. D., Bianco, L., Darby, I. G., Joss, D. T., Simpson, J., Al-Khalili, J. S., Cannon, A. J., Cooper, R. J., Eeckhaudt, S., Ertürk, S., Gall, B., Grahn, T., Greenlees, P. T., Hadinia, B., Jones, P. M., Judson, D. S., Julin, R., Juutinen, S., Ketelhut, S., Labiche, M., Leino, M., Leppänen, A.-P., Nyman, M., O'Donnell, D., Rahkila, P., Sapple, P. J., Sarén, J., Scholey, C., Steer, A. N., Stevenson, P. D., Suckling, E. B., Thomson, J., Uusitalo, J., and Venhart, M.
College/School:College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy
Journal Name:AIP Conference Proceedings
Publisher:American Institute of Physics
ISSN:0094-243X

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