Level structures of Ca cast doubt on a doubly magic Ca

Chen, S.*; Browne, F.*; Doornenbal, P.*; Lee, J.*; Obertelli, A.*; Tsunoda, Yusuke*; Otsuka, Takaharu*; Chazono, Yoshiki*; Hagen, G.*; Holt, J. D.*; et al.

Physics Letters B, 843, p.138025_1 - 138025_7, 2023/08

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2023.138025

Gamma decays were observed in Ca and Ca following quasi-free one-proton knockout reactions from Sc. For Ca, a ray transition was measured to be 1456(12) keV, while for Ca an indication for a transition was observed at 1115(34) keV. Both transitions were tentatively assigned as the decays. A shell-model calculation in a wide model space with a marginally modified effective nucleon-nucleon interaction depicts excellent agreement with experiment for 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 and orbitals, are almost degenerate. This degeneracy precludes the possibility for a doubly magic Ca and potentially drives the dripline of Ca isotopes to Ca or even beyond.

High-density nanoprecipitates and phase reversion via maraging enable ultrastrong yet strain-hardenable medium-entropy alloy

Kwon, H.*; Sathiyamoorthi, P.*; Gangaraju, M. K.*; Zargaran, A.*; Wang, J.*; Heo, Y.-U.*; Harjo, S.; Gong, W.; Lee, B.-J.*; Kim, H. S.*

Acta Materialia, 248, p.118810_1 - 118810_12, 2023/04

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2023.118810

Competitive strengthening between dislocation slip and twinning in cast-wrought and additively manufactured CrCoNi medium entropy alloys

Woo, W.*; Kim, Y. S.*; Chae, H. B.*; Lee, S. Y.*; Jeong, J. S.*; Lee, C. M.*; Won, J. W.*; Na, Y. S.*; Kawasaki, Takuro; Harjo, S.; et al.

Acta Materialia, 246, p.118699_1 - 118699_13, 2023/03

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2023.118699

Extended neutron orbital and the shell closure in Ca

Enciu, M.*; Liu, H. N.*; Obertelli, A.*; Doornenbal, P.*; Nowacki, F.*; Ogata, Kazuyuki*; Poves, A.*; Yoshida, Kazuki; Achouri, N. L.*; Baba, Hidetada*; et al.

Physical Review Letters, 129(26), p.262501_1 - 262501_7, 2022/12

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.129.262501

The one-neutron knockout from Ca was performed at 230 MeV/nucleon combined with prompt spectroscopy. The momentum distributions corresponding to the removal of and neutrons were measured. The cross sections are consistent with a shell closure at the neutron number , found as strong as at and in Ca isotopes from the same observables. The analysis of the momentum distributions leads to a difference of the root-mean-square radii of the neutron and orbitals of 0.61(23) fm, in agreement with the modified-shell-model prediction of 0.7 fm suggesting that the large root-mean-square radius of the orbital in neutron-rich Ca isotopes is responsible for the unexpected linear increase of the charge radius with the neutron number.

CSNI leak-before-break benchmark; Summary of phase 1

Tregoning, R.*; Wallace, J.*; Bouydo, A.*; Costa-Garrido, O.*; Dillstrm, P.*; Duan, X.*; Heckmann, K.*; Kim, Y.-B.*; Kim, Y.*; Kurth-Twombly, E.*; et al.

Transactions of 26th International Conference on Structural Mechanics in Reactor Technology (SMiRT-26) (Internet), 11 Pages, 2022/07

Fourteen organizations, representing eleven countries, participated in a leak-before-break (LBB) benchmark exercise that compared results from analyses among participating countries and identified the effects of weld residual stress (WRS) and crack morphology on crack opening displacement (COD), critical bending moment (CBM), and leak rate (LR) results. The participants determined whether the initial problem would meet their country's LBB acceptance criteria and then evaluated the effects of crack morphology and WRS for a prescribed crack size, geometry and loading. Six out of fourteen participants indicated that the initial problem met their LBB requirements. In the follow-on tasks, differences among the participant's CBM predictions were principally due to the material properties used in the analysis while the type of failure model chosen contributed much less. Most of the differences in the LR predictions were directly attributable to differences among the COD models, but a portion was attributable to the treatment of crack face pressure (CFP). The benchmark identified several aspects of an LBB analysis that could support a more realistic evaluation.

Determination of Cs/Cs isotopic ratio in soil collected near Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station through mass spectrometry

Shimada, Asako; Tsukahara, Takehiko*; Nomura, Masao*; Kim, M. S.*; Shimada, Taro; Takeda, Seiji; Yamaguchi, Tetsuji

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 58(11), p.1184 - 1194, 2021/11

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2021.1931520

Determining the completeness of nuclear reactor decommissioning is an important step in safely utilizing nuclear power. For example, Cs from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS) accident can be treated as background radioactivity, so determining the origin of Cs is essential. To accomplish this, measuring the Cs/Cs isotope ratio can be useful, so this study optimized a solvent extraction method, with calix[4]arene-bis(t-octylbenzo-crown-6) [BOBCalixC6] in 1-octanol, to purify radioactive Cs, radiocesium, from a solution of major environmental soil elements and mass spectrometry interference elements. This optimized method was applied to Cs purification in soil samples (40 g), and the final solutions contained a total of 10g/ml of the major soil elements and ng/ml concentrations at most of interfering elements. Soil samples collected near the FDNPS were then purified, and the Cs/Cs isotope ratios were measured, using both thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS) and triple quadrupole induced coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-QQQ). The results of each of these measurements were compared, and we found that Cs isotope ratios obtained by TIMS were more precise, by an order of magnitude, while the ICP-QQQ results possessed good abundance sensitivities. A slightly higher Cs/Cs ratio in the northwest area of the FDNPS was observed, while other areas exhibited similar values, all within the measurement error range, which indicated different origins of radiocesium. These results agreed with previously reported Cs/Cs activity distributions, suggesting that this ratio may be useful in identifying radiocesium origins for evaluating future nuclear reactor decommissions.

Pairing forces govern population of doubly magic Ca from direct reactions

Browne, F.*; Chen, S.*; Doornenbal, P.*; Obertelli, A.*; Ogata, Kazuyuki*; Utsuno, Yutaka; Yoshida, Kazuki; Achouri, N. L.*; Baba, Hidetada*; Calvet, D.*; et al.

Physical Review Letters, 126(25), p.252501_1 - 252501_7, 2021/06

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.252501

Direct proton-knockout reactions of Sc were studied at the RIKEN Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory. Populated states of Ca were investigated through -ray and invariant-mass spectroscopy. Level energies were calculated from the nuclear shell model employing a phenomenological inter-nucleon interaction. Theoretical cross sections to states were calculated from distorted-wave impulse approximation estimates multiplied by the shell model spectroscopic factors. Despite the calculations showing a significant amplitude of excited neutron configurations in the ground-state of Sc, valence proton removals populated predominantly the ground-state of Ca. This counter-intuitive result is attributed to pairing effects leading to a dominance of the ground-state spectroscopic factor. Owing to the ubiquity of the pairing interaction, this argument should be generally applicable to direct knockout reactions from odd-even to even-even nuclei.

First spectroscopic study of Ar by the (,2) reaction

Juhsz, M. M.*; Elekes, Z.*; Sohler, D.*; Utsuno, Yutaka; Yoshida, Kazuki; Otsuka, Takaharu*; Ogata, Kazuyuki*; Doornenbal, P.*; Obertelli, A.*; Baba, Hidetada*; et al.

Physics Letters B, 814, p.136108_1 - 136108_8, 2021/03

AA2020-0747.pdf:0.83MB

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2021.136108

The nuclear structure of Ar was studied by the (,2) reaction using -ray spectroscopy for the bound and unbound states. Comparing the results to our shell-model calculations, two bound and six unbound states were established. The low cross sections populating the two bound states of Ar could be interpreted as a clear signature for the presence of significant sub-shell closures at neutron numbers 32 and 34 in argon isotopes.

Quasifree neutron knockout reaction reveals a small -Orbital component in the Borromean nucleus B

Yang, Z. H.*; Kubota, Yuki*; Corsi, A.*; Yoshida, Kazuki; Sun, X.-X.*; Li, J. G.*; Kimura, Masaaki*; Michel, N.*; Ogata, Kazuyuki*; Yuan, C. X.*; et al.

Physical Review Letters, 126(8), p.082501_1 - 082501_8, 2021/02

AA2020-0819.pdf:1.29MB

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.082501

A quasifree (,) experiment was performed to study the structure of the Borromean nucleus B, which had long been considered to have a neutron halo. By analyzing the momentum distributions and exclusive cross sections, we obtained the spectroscopic factors for and orbitals, and a surprisingly small percentage of 9(2)% was determined for . Our finding of such a small component and the halo features reported in prior experiments can be explained by the deformed relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov theory in continuum, revealing a definite but not dominant neutron halo in B. The present work gives the smallest - or -orbital component among known nuclei exhibiting halo features and implies that the dominant occupation of or orbitals is not a prerequisite for the occurrence of a neutron halo.

= 32 shell closure below calcium; Low-lying structure of Ar

Corts, M. L.*; Rodriguez, W.*; Doornenbal, P.*; Obertelli, A.*; Holt, J. D.*; Menndez, J.*; Ogata, Kazuyuki*; Schwenk, A.*; Shimizu, Noritaka*; Simonis, J.*; et al.

Physical Review C, 102(6), p.064320_1 - 064320_9, 2020/12

AA2020-0748.pdf:0.75MB

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.102.064320

Low-lying excited states in the = 32 isotope Ar were investigated by in-beam -ray spectroscopy following proton- and neutron-knockout, multinucleon removal, and proton inelastic scattering at the RIKEN Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory. The energies of the two previously reported transitions have been confirmed, and five additional states are presented for the first time, including a candidate for a 3 state. The level scheme built using coincidences was compared to shell-model calculations in the model space and to predictions based on chiral two- and three-nucleon interactions. Theoretical proton- and neutron-knockout cross sections suggest that two of the new transitions correspond to 2 states, while the previously proposed 4 state could also correspond to a 2 state.