Pathway for the Production of Neutron-Rich Isotopes around the $N=126$ Shell Closure

Pathway for the Production of Neutron-Rich Isotopes around the $N = 126$ Shell Closure

Y. X. Watanabe, Y. H. Kim, S. C. Jeong, Y. Hirayama, N. Imai, H. Ishiyama, H. S. Jung, H. Miyatake, S. Choi, J. S. Song, E. Clement, G. de France, A. Navin, M. Rejmund, C. Schmitt, G. Pollarolo, L. Corradi, E. Fioretto, D. Montanari, M. Niikura, D. Suzuki, H. Nishibata, and J. Takatsu

Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 172503 – Published 23 October 2015

Abstract

Absolute cross sections for isotopically identified products formed in multinucleon transfer in the ${}^{136}{Xe} + {}^{198}{Pt}$ system at $\sim 8 MeV / nucleon$ are reported. The isotopic distributions obtained using a large acceptance spectrometer demonstrated the production of the “hard-to-reach” neutron-rich isotopes for $Z < 78$ around the $N = 126$ shell closure far from stability. The main contribution to the formation of these exotic nuclei is shown to arise in collisions with a small kinetic energy dissipation. The present experimental finding corroborates for the first time recent predictions that multinucleon transfer reactions would be the optimum method to populate and characterize neutron-rich isotopes around $N = 126$ which are crucial for understanding both astrophysically relevant processes and the evolution of “magic” numbers far from stability.

Received 26 June 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.172503

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Transfer reactions

90 ≤ A ≤ 149

Nuclear Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Y. X. Watanabe^1,*, Y. H. Kim^2,3,†, S. C. Jeong^1,‡, Y. Hirayama¹, N. Imai^1,§, H. Ishiyama^1,‡, H. S. Jung¹, H. Miyatake¹, S. Choi^2,3, J. S. Song^2,3,4, E. Clement⁵, G. de France⁵, A. Navin^5,∥, M. Rejmund⁵, C. Schmitt⁵, G. Pollarolo⁶, L. Corradi⁷, E. Fioretto⁷, D. Montanari⁸, M. Niikura^9,¶, D. Suzuki^9,**, H. Nishibata¹⁰, and J. Takatsu¹⁰

¹Institute of Particle and Nuclear Studies, High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0801, Japan
²Department of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea
³Institute for Nuclear and Particle Astrophysics, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea
⁴Institute for Basic Science, Daejeon 34047, Korea
⁵Grand Accélérateur National d’Ions Lourds (GANIL), F-14076 Caen Cedex 5, France
⁶Dipartimento di Fisica Teorica, Università di Torino, and Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, I-10125 Torino, Italy
⁷Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro, I-35020 Legnaro, Italy
⁸Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Padova, and Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, I-35131 Padova, Italy
⁹Institut de Physique Nucléaire (IPN), IN2P3-CNRS, F-91406 Orsay Cedex, France
¹⁰Department of Physics, Osaka University, Osaka 560-0043, Japan

^*yutaka.watanabe@kek.jp
^†Present address: Grand Accélérateur National d’Ions Lourds (GANIL), F-14076 Caen Cedex 5, France.
^‡Present address: Institute for Basic Science, Daejeon 34047, Korea.
^§Present address: Center for Nuclear Study, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
^∥navin@ganil.fr
^¶Present address: Department of Physics, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
^**Present address: RIKEN Nishina Center, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan.

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Vol. 115, Iss. 17 — 23 October 2015

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