In-Beam Gamma-Ray Spectroscopy Of Very Neutron-Rich Nuclei: Excited States In S-46 And Ar-48

We report on the first in-beam gamma-ray spectroscopy study of the very neutron-rich nucleus S-46. The N=30 isotones S-46 and Ar-48 were produced in a novel way in two steps that both necessarily involve nucleon exchange and neutron pickup reactions Be-9(Ca-48,K-48)X followed by Be-9(K-48,Ar-48+gamma)X at 85.7 MeV/u midtarget energy and Be-9(Ca-48,Cl-46)X followed by Be-9(Cl-46,S-46+gamma)X at 87.0 MeV/u midtarget energy, respectively. The results are compared to large-scale shell-model calculations in the sd-pf shell using the SDPF-NR effective interaction and Z-dependent modifications.