We report here an empirical formalism for predicting the cross-sections of neutron-rich nuclei produced in fragmentation of relativistic \b{eta}-unstable neutron-rich projectiles in the mid-mass region. The formalism is based on the abrasion-ablation picture of the projectile fragmentation reaction. It has been shown that the formalism can accurately reproduce the experimental cross-section data for nuclei produced in the fragmentation of 132Sn. The formalism, it is shown, can also reproduce the experimental cross-sections of neutron-rich nuclei produced in the fragmentation of 129Xe fairly accurately. The formalism is used to bring out the advantage in the production cross-sections of neutron-rich isotopes, especially the more neutron-rich ones; that one can expect by using unstable doubly magic neutron-rich projectile 132Sn as compared to comparatively less neutron-rich unstable projectile 128Sn and also 124Sn, the isotope which is most neutron-rich among the stable isotopes of Sn (tin). The formalism is used to predict the cross-sections of neutron-rich nuclei produced in the fragmentation reaction of unstable 144Xe and 146Cs, which are expected to be produced with sufficient intensity in the upcoming RIB facilities and in the existing RIB facilities after beam intensity upgrade.
Producing rare isotopes through statistical multifragmentation is investigated using the Mekjian method for exact solutions of the canonical ensemble. Both the initial fragmentation and the the sequential decay are modeled in such a way as to avoid Monte Carlo and thus provide yields for arbitrarily scarce fragments. The importance of sequential decay, exact particle-number conservation and the sensitivities to parameters such as density and temperature are explored. Recent measurements of isotope ratios from the fragmentation of different Sn isotopes are interpreted within this picture.
Nuclear reactions in stars are difficult to measure directly in the laboratory at the small astrophysical energies. In recent years indirect methods with rare isotopes have been developed and applied to extract low-energy astrophysical cross sections.
The connection between neutrino physics, nucleosynthesis of elements in astrophysical sites, laboratory measurements with rare exotic nuclei and astronomical observations is discussed. The key role played by neutrinos is emphasized and the close connection between neutrino physics and nucleosynthesis is highlighted.
Nuclear physics facilities, like the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB), can potentially perform many nuclear mass measurements of exotic isotopes. Each measurement comes with a particular cost, both in time and money, and thus it is important to establish which mass measurements are the most informative. In this article, we show that one can use the Kullback-Leibler divergence to determine the information gained by a mass measurement. We model the information gain obtained by nuclear mass measurements from two perspectives: first from the perspective of theoretical nuclear mass models, an…
In this paper, beta-decay properties of even-even neutron-rich isotopes in the rare-earth mass region are studied within a microscopic theoretical approach based on a proton-neutron quasiparticle random-phase approximation. The underlying mean field is constructed selfconsistently from a deformed Hartree-Fock calculation with Skyrme interactions and pairing correlations to which particle-hole and particle-particle residual interactions are added. Nuclei in this mass region participate in the astrophysical rapid neutron capture process and are directly involved in the generation of the rare-ear…
The instability of the $^{26}$O nucleus with respect to decay through the two-neutron channel is investigated. It is shown that this isotope, unobserved in the fragmentation experiments, can exist as a narrow resonance in the system $^{24}$O+2n. A role of deformation in formation of the neutron-drip line in the region $N\sim 20$ is discussed.
We study the presence of entangled states of nucleon pairs from nuclear decays and in reactions with exotic nuclei, e.g., 11Li, or 6He. It is shown that the fingerprints of entangled states in these subsystems are visible in correlation measurements and can be accessed with present experimental techniques. This shows that not only atomic and optical systems, but also nuclear systems serve as important tools to obtain dichotomic outcomes for tests of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox.
We show the possibility of extracting important information on the symmetry term of the Equation of State ($EOS$) directly from multifragmentation reactions using stable isotopes with different charge asymmetries. We study n-rich and n-poor $Sn + Sn$ collisions at $50AMeV$ using a new stochastic transport approach with all isospin effects suitably accounted for. For central collisions a chemical component in the spinodal instabilities is clearly seen. This effect is reduced in the neck fragmentation observed for semiperipheral collisions, pointing to a different nature of the instability. In s…
The close connection between neutrino physics and the physics explored at rare isotope facilities is explored. The duality between the Hamiltonian describing the self-interacting neutrino gas near the proto-neutron star in a core-collapse supernova and the BCS theory of pairing is elucidated. This many neutrino system is unique as it is the only many-body system driven by weak interactions. Its symmetries are discussed.
Pion energy spectra are presented for central collisions of neutron-rich 132Sn+124Sn and neutron-deficient 108Sn+112Sn systems using simulations with Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck transport model. These calculations, which incorporate isospin-dependent mean field potentials for relevant baryons and mesons, display a sensitivity to the pion spectra that could allow significant constraints on the density dependence of the symmetry energy and its mean field potential at supra-saturation densities. The predicted sensitivity increases with the isospin asymmetry of the total system and decreases with …
Rare isotopes are most often studied through nuclear reactions. Nuclear reactions can be used to obtain detailed structure information but also in connection to astrophysics to determine specific capture rates. In order to extract the desired information it is crucial to have a reliable framework that describes the reaction process accurately. A few recent developments for transfer and breakup reactions will be presented. These include recent studies on the reliability of existing theories as well as effort to reduce the ambiguities in the predicted observables.
A systematic study of the ground-state properties of even-even rare earth nuclei has been performed in the framework of the Relativistic Mean-Field (RMF) theory using the parameter set NL-SH. Nuclear radii, isotope shifts and deformation properties of the heavier rare-earth nuclei have been obtained, which encompass atomic numbers ranging from Z=60 to Z=70 and include a large range of isospin. It is shown that RMF theory is able to provide a good and comprehensive description of the empirical binding energies of the isotopic chains. At the same time the quadrupole deformations $β_{2}$ obtained…
Taking into account more accurately the isospin dependence of nucleon-nucleon interactions in the in-medium many-body force term of the Gogny effective interaction, new expressions for the single nucleon potential and the symmetry energy are derived. Effects of both the spin(isospin) and the density dependence of nuclear effective interactions on the symmetry potential and the symmetry energy are examined. It is shown that they both play a crucial role in determining the symmetry potential and the symmetry energy at supra-saturation densities. The improved single nucleon potential will be usef…
The isotopic dependence of the complete fusion (capture) cross section is analyzed in the reactions $^{130,132,134,136,138,140,142,144,146,148,150}$Xe+$^{48}$Ca with stable and radioactive beams. It is shown for the first time that the very neutron-rich nuclei $^{186-191}$W can be reached with relatively large cross sections by complete fusion reactions with radioactive ion beams at incident energies near the Coulomb barrier. A comparison between the complete fusion and fragmentation reactions for the production of neutron-rich W and neutron-deficient Rn isotopes is performed.
Within the framework of the dinuclear system model, the reaction mechanisms for synthesizing target-like isotopes from Bk to compound nuclei Lv are thoroughly investigated in complete and incomplete fusion reaction of $^{48}$Ca +$^{248}$Cm around Coulomb barrier energies. Production cross-section of $^{292,293}$Lv as a function of excitation energy in fusion-evaporation reactions and target-like isotopic yields in multinucleon transfer reactions are evaluated, in which a statistical approach is used to describe the decay process of excited nuclei. The available experimental data can be reprodu…
Reactions are an important tool to study nuclear structure and for extracting reactions relevant for astrophysics. In this paper we focus on deuteron induced reactions which can provide information on neutron shell evolution as well as neutron capture cross sections. We review recent work on the systematic comparison of the continuum discretized coupled channel method, the adiabatic wave approximation and the Faddeev momentum-space approach. We also explore other aspects of the reaction mechanism and discuss in detail difficulties encountered in the calculations.
The question of how the scattering cross section changes when the spectra of the colliding nuclei have low-excitation particle-emitting resonances is explored using a multi-channel algebraic scattering (MCAS) method. As a test case, the light-mass nuclear target 8Be, being particle-unstable, has been considered. Nucleon-nucleus scattering cross sections, as well as the spectra of the compound nuclei formed, have been determined from calculations that do, and do not, consider particle emission widths of the target nuclear states. The resonant character of the unstable excited states introduces …
A novel pathway for the formation of multi-particle-multi-hole (np-mh) excited states in rare isotopes is reported from highly energy- and momentum-dissipative inelastic-scattering events measured in reactions of an intermediate-energy beam of 38Ca on a Be target. The negative-parity,complex-structure final states in 38Ca were observed following the in-beam gamma-ray spectroscopy of events in the 9Be(38Ca,38Ca+gamma)X reaction in which the scattered projectile lost longitudinal momentum of order p = 700 MeV/c. The characteristics of the observed final states are discussed and found to be consi…
Using an isospin- and momentum-dependent transport model we study near-threshold pion production in heavy-ion collisions induced by radioactive beams at the planned Rare Isotope Accelerator (RIA). We revisit the question of probing the high density behavior of nuclear symmetry energy $E_{sym}(ρ)$ using the $π^-/π^+$ ratio. It is found that both the total and differential $π^-/π^+$ ratios remain sensitive to the $E_{sym}(ρ)$ when the momentum-dependence of both the isoscalar and isovector potentials are consistently taken into account. Moreover, the multiplicity and spectrum of $π^-$ mesons are…
Quantifying uncertainty in physics-based predictions of rare-isotope production cross sections via Bayesian-inspired model averaging across nuclear mass tables
Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, Michigan State University（稀有同位素束流设施，密歇根州立大学）
In this review article we discuss the present status of direct nuclear reactions and the nuclear structure aspects one can study with them. We discuss the spectroscopic information we can assess in experiments involving transfer reactions, heavy-ion-induced knockout reactions and quasifree scattering with (p,2p), (p,pn), and (e,e'p) reactions. In particular, we focus on the proton-to-neutron asymmetry of the quenching of the spectroscopic strength.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory（劳伦斯伯克利国家实验室）；Florida State University（佛罗里达州立大学）；Argonne National Laboratory（阿贡国家实验室）；North Carolina State University（北卡罗来纳州立大学）；Michigan State University（密歇根州立大学）；Facility for Rare Isotope Beams（稀有同位素束流装置）
Nuclear energy released by splitting Uranium and Thorium isotopes into two, three, four, up to eight fragments with nearly equal size are studied. We found that the energy released come from equally splitting the $^{235,238}$U and $^{230,232}$Th nuclei into to three fragments is largest. The statistical multifragmentation model is employed to calculate the probability of different breakup channels for the excited nuclei. Weighing the the probability distributions of fragments multiplicity at different excitation energies for the $^{238}$U nucleus, we found that an excitation energy between 1.2…
We calculate the cross sections of the elastic and inelastic breakup modes for the inclusive breakup reaction $^{28}$Si($^8$B,$^7$Be) at beam energies between 10 - 40 MeV/nucleon within a direct fragmentation model formulated in the framework of the post form distorted-wave Born-approximation. In contrast to the case of the stable isotopes, the inelastic breakup mode is found to contribute only upto 30% to the total breakup cross section, which is in agreement with the recently measured experimental data. However, the high energy tail of the energy spectra of $^7$Be fragment is dominated by th…
A systematic study of isotope chains in the rare--earth region is presented. For the chains (144-154)Nd, (146-160)Sm, (148-162)Gd, and (150-166)Dy, energy levels, E2 transition rates, and two--neutron separation energies are described by using the most general (up to two--body terms) IBM Hamiltonian. For each isotope chain a general fit is performed in such a way that all parameters but one are kept fixed to describe the whole chain. In this region nuclei evolve from spherical to deformed shapes and a method based on catastrophe theory, in combination with a coherent state analysis to generate…
The properties of recently predicted thermally fissile Th and U isotopes are studied within the framework of relativistic mean field (RMF) approach using axially deformed basis. We calculated the ground, first intrinsic excited state and matter density for highly neutron-rich thorium and uranium isotopes. The possible modes of decay like $α$-decay and $β$-decay are analyzed. We found that the neutron-rich isotopes are stable against $α$-decay, however they are very much unstable against $β$-decay. The life time of these nuclei predicted to be tens of second against $β$-decay. If these nuclei u…
We investigate the possibilities of producing neutron-rich nuclides in projectile fission of heavy beams in the energy range of 20 MeV/nucleon expected from low-energy facilities. We report our efforts to theoretically describe the reaction mechanism of projectile fission following a multinucleon transfer collision at this energy range. Our calculations are mainly based on a two-step approach: the dynamical stage of the collision is described with either the phenomenological Deep-Inelastic Transfer model (DIT), or with the microscopic Constrained Molecular Dynamics model (CoMD). The deexcitati…
The Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) will be a world-leading laboratory for the study of nuclear structure, reactions and astrophysics. Experiments with intense beams of rare isotopes produced at FRIB will guide us toward a comprehensive description of nuclei, elucidate the origin of the elements in the cosmos, help provide an understanding of matter in neutron stars, and establish the scientific foundation for innovative applications of nuclear science to society. FRIB will be essential for gaining access to key regions of the nuclear chart, where the measured nuclear properties will ch…
The role of the tensor part of the nuclear interaction is actively investigated in recent years due to experimental advancement yielding new data in nuclei far from the $β$-stability line. In this article we study the effect of this part of the nuclear interaction on deformed neutron magic numbers in the rare-earth region within the Skyrme energy-density functional for various TIJ \cite{lesinski:2007} parametrizations. Two quantities signaling magic numbers are considered: two-neutron separation energies and single-particle energies. They are calculated in isotopic series involving well-deform…
The spectral statistics of even-even rare-earth nuclei are investigated by using all the available empirical data for Ba, Ce, Nd, Sm, Gd, Dy, Er, Yb and Hf isotopes. The Berry- Robnik distribution and Maximum Likelihood estimation technique are used for analyses. An obvious deviation from GOE is observed for considered nuclei and there are some suggestions about the effect due to mass, deformation parameter and shell model configurations.
By considering momentum transfer in the Fermi constraint procedure, the stability of the initial nuclei and fragments produced in heavy-ion collisions can be further improved in the quantum molecular dynamics simulations. The case of the phase space occupation probability larger than one is effectively reduced with the proposed procedure. Simultaneously, the energy conservation can be better described for both individual nuclei and heavy-ion reactions. With the revised version of the improved quantum molecular dynamics (ImQMD) model, the fusion excitation functions of $^{16}$O+$^{186}$W and th…
Effect of ground-state deformation on the Isoscalar Giant Monopole Resonance and the first observation of overtones of the Isoscalar Giant Quadrupole Resonance in rare-earth Nd isotopes
We present our recent study of cross sections and angular distributions of projectile fragments from heavy-ion reactions at beam energy of 15 MeV/nucleon. We studied the production cross sections and the angular distributions of neutron-rich nuclides from collisions of a 86 Kr (15 MeV/nucleon) beam with heavy targets ( 64 Ni, 124 Sn and 238 U). Experimental data from our previous work at Texas A & M were compared with model calculations. Our calculations were based on a two-step approach: the dynamical stage of the collision was described with, first, the phenomenological Deep-Inelastic Transf…
A systematic study of the temperature dependence of the shapes and pairing gaps of some isotopes in the rare-earth region is made in the relativistic Hartree-BCS theory. Thermal response to these nuclei is always found to lead to a phase transition from the superfluid to the normal phase at a temperature $T_Δ\sim 0.4 - 0.8$ MeV and a shape transition from prolate to spherical shapes at $T_c\sim 1.0 - 2.5$ MeV. These shape transition temperatures are appreciably higher than the corresponding ones calculated in the non-relativistic framework with the pairing plus quadrupole interaction. Study of…
The East Lansing Model: a Bayesian uncertainty quantified optical potential for rare isotopes
Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, Michigan State University（稀有同位素束设施，密歇根州立大学）；Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University（物理与天文学系，密歇根州立大学）
The phase transition of nuclei to increasing angular momentum (or spin) and excitation energy is one of the most fundamental topics of nuclear structure research. The odd-N nuclei with A equal 160 are widely considered belonging to the well-deformed region, and their excitation spectra are energetically favored to exhibit the rotational characteristics. In the present work, however, there is evidence indicating that the nuclei can evolve from rotation to vibration along the yrast lines while increasing spin. The simple method, named as E-Gamma Over Spin (E-GOS) curves, would be used to discern…
The cross sections for the $Z=$ 10 -- 19 with isotopes $T_{z}=-3/2$ to $-5$ in the 140$A$ MeV $^{40}$Ca + $^{9}$Be projectile fragmentation reaction have been predicted. An empirical formula based on the correlation between the cross section and average binding energy of isotope has been adopted to predict the cross section. The binding energies in the AME16, WS4, and the theoretical prediction by the spherical relativistic continuum Hartree$-$Bogoliubov theory have been used. Meanwhile, the {\sc fracs} parametrization and the modified statistical abrasion-ablation model are also used to predi…
Low-energy multinucleon transfer reactions are shown to be very effective tool for the production and spectroscopic study of light exotic nuclei. The corresponding cross sections are found to be significantly larger as compared with high energy fragmentation reactions. Several optimal reactions for the production of extremely neutron rich isotopes of elements with Z=6-14 are proposed.
New measurements and reaction model calculations are reported for single neutron pickup reactions onto a fast \nuc{22}{Mg} secondary beam at 84 MeV per nucleon. Measurements were made on both carbon and beryllium targets, having very different structures, allowing a first investigation of the likely nature of the pickup reaction mechanism. The measurements involve thick reaction targets and $γ$-ray spectroscopy of the projectile-like reaction residue for final-state resolution, that permit experiments with low incident beam rates compared to traditional low-energy transfer reactions. From meas…
The relativistic mean-field effective interaction with density-dependent meson-nucleon couplings DD-ME1 is tested in the calculation of deformed nuclei. Ground-state properties of six isotopic chains ($60\le Z \le 70$) in the region of rare-earth nuclei are calculated by using the relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov (RHB) model with the DD-ME1 mean-field interaction, and with the Gogny D1S force for the pairing interaction. Results of fully self-consistent RHB calculations for the total binding energies, charge isotope shifts and quadrupole deformation parameters are compared with the available em…
We have studied the fragment yields emitted from the fragmentation of excited projectile nuclei in peripheral collisions of 136Xe+Pb at 1 GeV/nucleon, and measured with the high-resolution magnetic spectrometer, the Fragment Separator (FRS) of GSI. The mass, charge and isotope distributions of nuclear fragments formed in the reactions were calculated within a statistical ensemble approach and compared to the experimental data. The ensemble of excited projectilelike source nuclei were created in the framework of a previous analysis of similar reactions performed at 600 MeV/nucleon (ALADIN-exper…
The rare-earth peak in the $r$-process abundance pattern depends sensitively on both the astrophysical conditions and subtle changes in nuclear structure in the region. This work takes an important step elucidating the nuclear structure and reducing the uncertainties in $r$-process calculations via precise atomic mass measurements at the JYFLTRAP double Penning trap. $^{158}$Nd, $^{160}$Pm, $^{162}$Sm, and $^{164-166}$Gd have been measured for the first time and the precisions for $^{156}$Nd, $^{158}$Pm, $^{162,163}$Eu, $^{163}$Gd, and $^{164}$Tb have been improved considerably. Nuclear struct…
The multinucleon transfer reaction in the collisions of $^{40}$Ca+$^{124}$Sn at $E_{\textrm{c.m.}}=128.5$ MeV is investigated by using the improved quantum molecular dynamics model. The measured angular distributions and isotopic distributions of the products are reproduced reasonably well by the calculations. The multinucleon transfer reactions of $^{40}$Ca+$^{112}$Sn, $^{58}$Ni+$^{112}$Sn, $^{106}$Cd+$^{112}$Sn, and $^{48}$Ca+$^{112}$Sn are also studied. It shows that the combinations of neutron-deficient projectile and target are advantageous to produce the exotic neutron-deficient nuclei n…
Producing and Studying Rare Isotopes in $e+A$ Collisions at the Electron-Ion Collider
Texas Southern University（德克萨斯南方大学）；Michigan State University（密歇根州立大学）；Stony Brook University（石溪大学）；Brookhaven National Laboratory（布鲁克海文国家实验室）；Mississippi State University（密西西比州立大学）；University of South Carolina（南卡罗来纳大学）；Morgan State University（摩根州立大学）
The anatomy of neck configuration in the fission decay of Uranium and Thorium isotopes is investigated in a microscopic study using Relativistic mean field theory. The study includes $^{236}U$ and $^{232}Th$ in the valley of stability and exotic neutron rich isotopes $^{250}U$, $^{256}U$, $^{260}U$, $^{240}Th$, $^{250}Th$, $^{256}Th$ likely to play important role in the r-process nucleosynthesis in stellar evolution. Following the static fission path, the neck configurations are generated and their composition in terms of the number of neutrons and protons are obtained showing the progressive …
We utilize the Shell Model Monte Carlo (SMMC) method to study the structure of rare earth nuclei. This work demonstrates the first systematic ``full oscillator shell plus intruder'' calculations in such heavy nuclei. Exact solutions of a pairing plus quadrupole hamiltonian are compared with mean field and SPA approximations in several Dysprosium isotopes from A=152-162, including the odd mass A=153. Basic properties of these nuclei at various temperatures and spin are explored. These include energy, deformation, moments of inertia, pairing channel strengths, band crossing, and evolution of she…
Background: The quasiparticle random phase approximation (QRPA), within the framework of the nuclear density functional theory (DFT), has been a standard tool to access the collective excitations of the atomic nuclei. Recently, finite amplitude method (FAM) has been developed, in order to perform the QRPA calculations efficiently without any truncation on the two-quasiparticle model space. Purpose: We discuss the nuclear giant dipole resonance (GDR) in heavy rare-earth isotopes, for which the conventional matrix diagonalization of the QRPA is numerically demanding. A role of the Thomas-Reiche-…
Inspired by the newly discovered isomeric states in the rare-earth neutron-rich nuclei, high-$K$ isomeric states in neutron-rich samarium and gadolinium isotopes are investigated within the framework of the cranked shell model (CSM) with pairing correlation treated by a particle-number-conserving (PNC) method. The experimental multi-particle state energies and moments of inertia are reproduced quite well by the PNC-CSM calculations. A remarkable effect from the high-order deformation $\varepsilon_{6}$ is demonstrated. Based on the occupation probabilities, the configurations are assigned to th…
Isotope production cross sections from 112Sn + 112Sn and 124Sn + 124Sn reactions at 1 GeV/nucleon, which were measured recently at GSI using the heavy-ion accelerator SIS18 and the Fragment Separator (FRS), have been analyzed with the latest Los Alamos Monte-Carlo transport code MCNP6 using the LAQGSM03.03 event generator. MCNP6 reproduces reasonably well all the measured cross sections. Comparison of the MCNP6 results with the measured data and with calculations by a modification of the Los Alamos version of the Quark-Gluon String Model allowing for multifragmentation processes in the framewo…
This is an exciting time for the study of r-process nucleosynthesis. Recently, a neutron star merger GW170817 was observed in extraordinary detail with gravitational waves and electromagnetic radiation from radio to gamma rays. The very red color of the associated kilonova suggests that neutron star mergers are an important r-process site. Astrophysical simulations of neutron star mergers and core collapse supernovae are making rapid progress. Detection of both, electron neutrinos and antineutrinos from the next galactic supernova will constrain the composition of neutrino-driven winds and pro…
Background: The $γ$ vibrational mode of excitation is an acknowledged collective mode in deformed nuclei. The collectivity depends on the details of the shell structure around the Fermi levels, in particular the presence of the orbitals that have the enhanced transition matrix elements of the non-axial quadrupole excitation. Quite recently, a sudden decrease in the excitation energy of the $γ$ vibration was observed at RIKEN RIBF for the neutron-rich Dy isotopes at $N=106$. Purpose: In the present work, by studying systematically the microscopic structure of the $γ$ vibration in the neutron-ri…
The collisions in four different reaction systems using $^{40,48}$Ca and $^{58,64}$Ni isotope beams and a Be target have been simulated using the Heavy Ion Phase Space Exploration and the Antisymmetrized Molecular Dynamics models. The present study mainly focuses on the model predictions for the excitation energies of the hot fragments and the cross sections of the final fragments produced in these reactions. The effects of various factors influencing the final fragment cross sections, such as the choice of the statistical decay code and its parameters have been explored. The predicted fragmen…
