Two new negative-parity bands have been identified in the odd-odd 104Rh nucleus. According to their experimentally observed properties, they have the same π(1g9/2)−1⊗ν(1h11/2)1 high-j configuration as the previously known negative-parity chiral doublet bands. This observation raises the possibility of the existence of multiple chiral doublet bands, MχD, in this nucleus. Comparing the properties of the observed bands with results of detailed theoretical calculations, one can conclude that the lower energy parts of bands 1 and 2 are chiral partner bands with the π(1g9/2)−1⊗ν(1h11/2)1 two-quasiparticle configuration, while bands 3 and 4 are chiral partner bands with the π(1g9/2)−1⊗ν(1g7/2)−2(1h11/2)1 four-quasiparticle configuration. Thus, MχD based on different configurations is observed in 104Rh.

We present the first measurement of the ^{47}K(d,pγ)^{48}K transfer reaction, performed in inverse kinematics using a reaccelerated beam of ^{47}K. The level scheme of ^{48}K has been greatly extended, with nine new bound excited states identified and spectroscopic factors deduced. Uniquely, the ^{47}K(d,p) reaction gives access to nuclear states that are sensitive to the interaction of protons and neutrons in the widely spaced 1s and fp orbitals, respectively. Detailed comparisons with SDPF-U and SDPF-MU shell-model calculations reveal a number of discrepancies between theory and experiment. Intriguingly, a systematic overestimation of spectroscopic factors and a poor reproduction of the energies for 1^{-} states suggests that the mixing between the πs_{1/2}^{1}d_{3/2}^{4} and πs_{1/2}^{2}d_{3/2}^{3} proton configurations in ^{48}K is not correctly described using current interactions, challenging our description of light nuclei around the N=28 island of inversion.

The neutron-rich unbound fluorine isotope ^{30}F_{21} has been observed for the first time by measuring its neutron decay at the SAMURAI spectrometer (RIBF, RIKEN) in the quasifree proton knockout reaction of ^{31}Ne nuclei at 235  MeV/nucleon. The mass and thus one-neutron-separation energy of ^{30}F has been determined to be S_{n}=-472±58(stat)±33(sys)  keV from the measurement of its invariant-mass spectrum. The absence of a sharp drop in S_{n}(^{30}F) shows that the "magic" N=20 shell gap is not restored close to ^{28}O, which is in agreement with our shell-model calculations that predict a near degeneracy between the neutron d and fp orbitals, with the 1p_{3/2} and 1p_{1/2} orbitals becoming more bound than the 0f_{7/2} one. This degeneracy and reordering of orbitals has two potential consequences: ^{28}O behaves like a strongly superfluid nucleus with neutron pairs scattering across shells, and both ^{29,31}F appear to be good two-neutron halo-nucleus candidates.

The N = 34 isotope Sc-55 has been investigated using in-beam gamma-ray spectroscopy at the RIKEN Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory. Spectra from the direct (p, pn) reaction as well as indirect reaction channels have been investigated. gamma rays with energies 496(10), 570(12), 682(14), 1510(30), 1780(36), 2345(57) and 2470(50) keV have been observed. A level scheme was constructed based on gamma gamma coincidence analysis and relative intensities. The results have been compared to the level scheme already reported in literature, as well as to large-scale shell model calculations in the sd - pf model space. A new level at 1510keV, decaying directly to the ground state, has been proposed and spin-parity J(pi) = 7/2(-) was tentatively assigned. The effect of including the nu g(9/2) orbital is discussed. It can be concluded that the main low-energy properties of Sc-55 seem to be included in the original sd - pf model space.

The DIAMANT 4 pi light-charged-particle detector array has been recently commissioned at the Heavy Ion Laboratory, University of Warsaw, and began a physics campaign there, for the first time coupled to NEEDLE: EAGLE (central European Array for Gamma Levels Evaluations) and NEDA (NEutron Detector Array) detector systems. Properties of this experimental setup and its performance during commissioning are discussed.

The shell closure at N = 32 has been investigated by a first spectroscopy of the N = 31 nucleus 49Ar at the Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory. Using the 50Ar(p, pn) reaction channel in inverse kinematics, 50Ar projectiles at 217 MeV/nucleon impinged on a 150 mm long liquid hydrogen target, part of the MINOS device. Prompt deexcitation gamma rays were measured with the NaI(Tl) array DALI2+. Reaction products were analyzed with the SAMURAI spectrometer, which allowed the measurement of the momentum distributions and angular momentum transfer. Data were compared to state-of-the-art theoretical predictions, including shell -model, energy -density functional, and ab initio calculations. An onset of collectivity is suggested besides the spherical configuration typical of a closed shell nucleus, such as for 52Ca.

The neutron-rich unbound fluorine isotope ^{30}F_{21} has been observed for the first time by measuring its neutron decay at the SAMURAI spectrometer (RIBF, RIKEN) in the quasifree proton knockout reaction of ^{31}Ne nuclei at 235 MeV/nucleon. The mass and thus one-neutron-separation energy of ^{30}F has been determined to be S_{n}=-472±58(stat)±33(sys) keV from the measurement of its invariant-mass spectrum. The absence of a sharp drop in S_{n}(^{30}F) shows that the "magic" N=20 shell gap is not restored close to ^{28}O, which is in agreement with our shell-model calculations that predict a near degeneracy between the neutron d and fp orbitals, with the 1p_{3/2} and 1p_{1/2} orbitals becoming more bound than the 0f_{7/2} one. This degeneracy and reordering of orbitals has two potential consequences: ^{28}O behaves like a strongly superfluid nucleus with neutron pairs scattering across shells, and both ^{29,31}F appear to be good two-neutron halo-nucleus candidates.

The first systematic experimental study of the neutron-rich Br isotopes with two complementary state-of-the-art techniques is presented. These isotopes have been populated in the fission process at two different facilities, GANIL and ILL. New spectroscopic information has been obtained for odd-even $^{87-93}$Br isotopes and the experimental results have been compared with state-of-the-art Large-Scale Shell-Model and DNO Shell-Model calculations. As a result of such theoretical approaches, a transition from prolate ($^{87,89}$Br) to oblate ($^{91,93}$Br) shapes is obtained from the subtle balance between proton and neutron quadrupole deformations, as a clear signature of pseudo-SU3 quadrupole regime.

In the last two decades, several unique phenomena in triaxially deformed nuclei, such as chiral doublet bands and wobbling motion have been revealed. Up to now, there are still many open questions which require further experimental and theoretical studies. To explore the collective motion in 131Ba, an experiment was performed using the XTU Tandem accelerator in the Legnaro laboratory, Italy. High-spin states of 131Ba have been populated via the heavy-ion fusion-evaporation 122Sn(13C, 4n) reaction. γ-rays, charged particles and neutrons emitted from the residues were detected by the GALILEO array, EUCLIDES silicon ball, and the Neutron Wall, respectively. A total of 1.2\begin{document}$ \times $\end{document}109 triple- or higher-fold events were collected by the GALILEO data acquisition system. The γ-γ-γ coincidence events were sorted into a three-dimensional histogram (cube) and the analysis was carried out with the RADWARE and GASPWARE software packages.Through analysis of the coincidences between γ-rays, the most comprehensive level schemes of 131Ba to date was deduced from the present work. The extended level-scheme consists of 15 rotational bands, and newly observed transitions are marked in red. Three nearly degenerate pairs of doublet bands (Band 3–8) are identified in 131Ba. Two pairs of chiral doublets (Band 3–6) with configuration \begin{document}$ {\textit{\pi}}h_{11/2}(g_{7/2},d_{5/2}){\otimes}{\nu}h_{11/2} $\end{document} are interpreted as a set of pseudospin-chiral quartet bands. The quartet bands are fed by another pair of chiral doublet bands (Band 7–8) built on a \begin{document}$ {\textit{\pi}}h^2_{11/2}{\otimes}{\nu}h_{11/2} $\end{document} configuration via a series of enhanced E1 transitions. We extracted the energy displacement δE and the B(E1)/B(E2) branching ratios between the positive-parity band 3 and the negative-parity band 7 in 131Ba and in comparison with those in 124Ba, 224Th, 133Ce and 135Nd. The energy displacement δE and the B(E1)/B(E2) branching ratios in 131Ba are comparable with those in 124Ba but deviate appreciably from those in 224Th which has been reported to have stable octupole deformation. The results indicate the existence of octupole correlations in 131Ba without stable octupole deformation. A new rotational band (Band 10) discovered in the low-spin region exhibits a level structure similar to a wobbling band. Assuming it as a wobbling band, the wobbling frequency was extracted and compared with other reported wobbling bands in the neighboring nuclei. The wobbling frequency of this band decreases with increasing angular momentum, and even exhibits negative value at the highest spin. Considering that the wobbling phonon should contribute a positive amount to the excitation energy, this band is unlikely to be explained by this mechanism. The band may originate from other collective excitation mechanisms such as γ vibration. The newly identified rotational band (Band 9) composed of M1 transitions is tentatively assigned as a magnetic rotational band through a systematic analysis of the level structure. Finally, the configurations of other 4 bands, Band 12-15, are also suggested based on previous researches and the extracted quasiparticle alignments.

The calcium isotopes are an ideal system to investigate the evolution of shell structure and magic numbers. Although the properties of surface nucleons in calcium have been well studied, probing the structure of deeply bound nucleons remains a challenge. Here, we report on the first measurement of unbound states in 53Ca and 55Ca, populated from 54,56Ca(p,pn) reactions at a beam energy of around 216 MeV/nucleon at the RIKEN Radioactive Isotopes Beam Factory. The resonance properties, partial cross sections, and momentum distributions of these unbound states were analyzed. Orbital angular momentum l assignments were extracted from momentum distributions based on calculations using the distorted wave impulse approximation (DWIA) reaction model. The resonances at excitation energies of 5516(41)keV in 53Ca and 6000(250)keV in 55Ca indicate a significant l =3 component, providing the first experimental evidence for the ν0f7/2 single-particle strength of unbound hole states in the neutron-rich Ca isotopes. The observed excitation energies and cross-sections point towards extremely localized and well separated strength distributions, with some fragmentation for the ν0f7/2 orbital in 55Ca. These results are in good agreement with predictions from shell-model calculations using the effective GXPF1Bs interaction and ab initio calculations and diverge markedly from the experimental distributions in the nickel isotones at Z=28.

The neutron-rich unbound fluorine isotope30F21has been observed for the first time by measuring itsneutron decay at the SAMURAI spectrometer (RIBF, RIKEN) in the quasifree proton knockout reactionof31Ne nuclei at235MeV=nucleon. The mass and thus one-neutron-separation energy of30F has been determined to beSn 1/4 -47258 & eth;stat & THORN;33 & eth;sys & THORN;keV from the measurement of its invariant-massspectrum. The absence of a sharp drop inSn & eth;30F & THORN;shows that the"magic"N 1/4 20shell gap is not restoredclose to28O, which is in agreement with our shell-model calculations that predict a near degeneracybetween the neutrondandfporbitals, with the1p3=2and1p1=2orbitals becoming more bound than the0f7=2one. This degeneracy and reordering of orbitals has two potential consequences:28O behaves like astrongly superfluid nucleus with neutron pairs scattering across shells, and both29;31F appear to be goodtwo-neutron halo-nucleus candidates

The excited states of unstable ^{20}O were investigated via γ-ray spectroscopy following the ^{19}O(d,p)^{20}O reaction at 8  AMeV. By exploiting the Doppler shift attenuation method, the lifetimes of the 2_{2}^{+} and 3_{1}^{+} states were firmly established. From the γ-ray branching and E2/M1 mixing ratios for transitions deexciting the 2_{2}^{+} and 3_{1}^{+} states, the B(E2) and B(M1) were determined. Various chiral effective field theory Hamiltonians, describing the nuclear properties beyond ground states, along with a standard USDB interaction, were compared with the experimentally obtained data. Such a comparison for a large set of γ-ray transition probabilities with the valence space in medium similarity renormalization group ab initio calculations was performed for the first time in a nucleus far from stability. It was shown that the ab initio approaches using chiral effective field theory forces are challenged by detailed high-precision spectroscopic properties of nuclei. The reduced transition probabilities were found to be a very constraining test of the performance of the ab initio models.

Background: The Xe isotopic chain with four valence protons above the Z = 50 shell closure is an ideal laboratory for the study of the evolution of nuclear deformation. At the N = 82 shell closure, 136Xe presents all characteristics of a doubly closed shell nucleus with a spherical shape. In the very neutron-deficient isotopes close to N = 50, the alpha-decay chain of Xe was investigated to probe the radioactive decay properties near the drip-line and the magicity of 100Sn. Additionally, the Xe isotopes present higher order symmetries in the nuclear deformation such as the octupole degree of freedom near N = 60 and N = 90 or O(6) symmetry in stable isotopes.Purpose: The relevance of the O(6) symmetry has been investigated by measuring the spectroscopic quadrupole moment of the first excited states in 124Xe. In the O(6) symmetry limit, the spectroscopic quadrupole moment of collective states is expected to be null.Method: A stable 124Xe beam with energies of 4.03A MeV and 4.11A MeV was used to bombard a natW target at the GANIL facility. Excited states were populated via the safe Coulomb excitation reaction. The collision of the heavy ions with a large Z at low energy make this reaction sensitive to the diagonal E2 matrix element of the excited states. The recoils were detected in the VAMOS++ magnetic spectrometer and the gamma rays in the AGATA tracking array. The least squares fitting code GOSIA was used for the analysis to extract both E2 and M1 transitional and E2 diagonal matrix elements.Results: The rotational ground state band was populated up to the 8+1 state as well as the 2+2 and 4+2 states. Using high precision spectroscopic data to constrain the GOSIA fit, the spectroscopic quadrupole moments of the 2+1 , 4+1 , and 6+1 states were determined for the first time. Conclusions: The spectroscopic quadrupole moments were found to be negative, large, and constant in the ground state band underlining the prolate axially deformed ground state band of 124Xe. The present experimental data confirm that the is broken in 124Xe.

Nuclei in the vicinity of 78Ni are important benchmarks for nuclear structure, which can reveal changes in the shell structure far from stability. Spectroscopy of the odd-odd isotope 78Cu was performed for the first time in an experiment with the EURICA setup at the Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory at RIKEN Nishina Center. Excited states in the neutron-rich isotope were populated following the beta decay of 78Ni produced by in-flight fission and

The Zirconium (Z = 40) isotopic chain has attracted interest for more than four decades. The abrupt lowering of the energy of the first 2^+ state and the increase in the transition strength B(E2; 2^+_1→ 0^+_1) going from ^98 Zr to ^100 Zr has been the first example of “quantum phase transition” in nuclear shapes, which has few equivalents in the nuclear chart. Although a multitude of experiments have been performed to measure nuclear properties related to nuclear shapes and collectivity in the region, none of the measured lifetimes were obtained using the Recoil Distance Doppler Shift method in the γγ -coincidence mode where a gate on the direct feeding transition of the state of interest allows a strict control of systematical errors. This work reports the results of lifetime measurements for the first yrast excited states in ^98-104 Zr carried out to extract reduced transition probabilities. The new lifetime values in γγ -coincidence and γ -single mode are compared with the results of former experiments. Recent predictions of the Interacting Boson Model with Configuration Mixing, the Symmetry Conserving Configuration Mixing model based on the Hartree–Fock–Bogoliubov approach and the Monte Carlo Shell Model are presented and compared with the experimental data.

Excited states in Cu-78 were observed for the first time following the ss decay of Ni-78 created by in-flight fission of U-238. Based on the coincidence relationships between the observed gamma-ray transitions, it was possible to construct a level scheme comprising eight excited states with tentative spin assignments for 5 of them. In addition to the gamma-decaying states, an isomeric state with a lifetime of 3.8(4) ms was found to decay by internal conversion.

Detailed γ-ray spectroscopy of the exotic neon isotope ^28Ne has been performed for the first time using the one-neutron removal reaction from ^29Ne on a liquid hydrogen target at 240 MeV/nucleon. Based on an analysis of parallel momentum distributions, a level scheme with spin-parity assignments has been constructed for ^28Ne and the negative-parity states are identified for the first time. The measured partial cross sections and momentum distributions reveal a significant intruder p-wave strength providing evidence of the breakdown of the N=20 and N=28 shell gaps. Only a weak, possible f-wave strength was observed to bound final states. Large-scale shell-model calculations with different effective interactions do not reproduce the large p-wave and small f-wave strength observed experimentally, indicating an ongoing challenge for a complete theoretical description of the transition into the island of inversion along the Ne isotopic chain.

Gamma decays were observed in ^56Ca and ^58Ca following quasi-free one-proton knockout reactions from ^57,59Sc beams at ≈ 200 MeV/nucleon. For ^56Ca, a γ ray transition was measured to be 1456(12) keV, while for ^58Ca an indication for a transition was observed at 1115(34) keV. Both transitions were tentatively assigned as the 2^+_1 → 0^+_gs decays, and were compared to results from ab initio and conventional shell-model approaches. A shell-model calculation in a wide model space with a marginally modified effective nucleon-nucleon interaction depicts excellent agreement with experiment for 2^+_1 level energies, two-neutron separation energies, and reaction cross sections, corroborating the formation of a new nuclear shell above the N = 34 shell. Its constituents, the 0f_5/2 and 0g_9/2 orbitals, are almost degenerate. This degeneracy precludes the possibility for a doubly magic ^60Ca and potentially drives the dripline of Ca isotopes to ^70Ca or even beyond.