Production cross-sections of residual nuclides from Zr + at 27 MeV/nucleon

Hwang, J.*; Chillery, T.*; Dozono, Masanori*; Imai, Nobuaki*; Michimasa, Shinichiro*; Sumikama, Toshiyuki*; Chiga, Nobuyuki*; Ota, Shinsuke*; Nakayama, Shinsuke; 49 of others*

Progress of Theoretical and Experimental Physics (Internet), 2024(9), p.093D03_1 - 093D03_12, 2024/09

https://doi.org/10.1093/ptep/ptae139

Nuclear transmutation emerges as a promising approach for reprocessing high-level waste, specifically treating long-lived nuclides like Zr from spent fuel. It is essential to accumulate reaction data for these nuclei to advance this prominent treatment and to build a comprehensive understanding of reaction mechanisms. In this study, the residual production cross-sections resulting from proton-induced reactions on Zr were measured at 27 MeV/nucleon in inverse kinematics. At the RIKEN-RIBF facility the OEDO beamline was used to deduce production cross-sections for isotopes, Nb, Zr, and Y. Comparing the results from this study and prior research with calculated excitation functions, a moderate agreement is found with theoretical predictions derived from TALYS and CCONE. Despite the potential limitations of low-energy proton-induced reactions for Zr transmutation, the measured cross-sections offer valuable insights for future considerations in nuclear-waste treatment facilities. This is particularly relevant for facilities exploring innovative methods, such as accelerator-driven systems.

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.

Enhancement of element production by incomplete fusion reaction with weakly bound deuteron

Wang, H.*; Otsu, Hideaki*; Chiga, Nobuyuki*; Kawase, Shoichiro*; Takeuchi, Satoshi*; Sumikama, Toshiyuki*; Koyama, Shumpei*; Sakurai, Hiroyoshi*; Watanabe, Yukinobu*; Nakayama, Shinsuke; et al.

Communications Physics (Internet), 2(1), p.78_1 - 78_6, 2019/07

https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-019-0165-1

Searching for effective pathways for the production of proton- and neutron-rich isotopes through an optimal combination of reaction mechanism and energy is one of the main driving forces behind experimental and theoretical nuclear reaction studies as well as for practical applications in nuclear transmutation of radioactive waste. We report on a study on incomplete fusion induced by deuteron, which contains one proton and one neutron with a weak binding energy and is easily broken up. This reaction study was achieved by measuring directly the cross sections for both proton and deuteron for Pd at 50 MeV/u via inverse kinematics technique. The results provide direct experimental evidence for the onset of a cross-section enhancement at high energy, indicating the potential of incomplete fusion induced by loosely-bound nuclei for creating proton-rich isotopes and nuclear transmutation of radioactive waste.

Nuclear structure of Ni from the (,) reaction

Elekes, Z.*; Kripk, *; Sohler, D.*; Sieja, K.*; Ogata, Kazuyuki*; Yoshida, Kazuki; Doornenbal, P.*; Obertelli, A.*; Authelet, G.*; Baba, Hidetada*; et al.

Physical Review C, 99(1), p.014312_1 - 014312_7, 2019/01

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.99.014312

The nuclear structure of the Ni nucleus was investigated by (,) reaction using a NaI(Tl) array to detect the deexciting prompt rays. A new transition with an energy of 2227 keV was identified by and coincidences. Our shell-model calculations using the Lenzi, Nowacki, Poves, and Sieja interaction produced good candidates for the experimental proton hole states in the observed energy region, and the theoretical cross sections showed good agreement with the experimental values. Although we could not assign all the experimental states to the theoretical ones unambiguously, the results are consistent with a reasonably large Z = 28 shell gap for nickel isotopes in accordance with previous studies.

Shell evolution beyond =28 and =50; Spectroscopy of Zn

Shand, C. M.*; Podolyk, Zs.*; Grska, M.*; Doornenbal, P.*; Obertelli, A.*; Nowacki, F.*; Otsuka, T.*; Sieja, K.*; Tostevin, J. A.*; Tsunoda, T.*; et al.

Physics Letters B, 773, p.492 - 497, 2017/10

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2017.09.001

Type II shell evolution in isobars from the island of inversion

Morales, A. I.*; Benzoni, G.*; Watanabe, H.*; Tsunoda, Yusuke*; Otsuka, T.*; Nishimura, Shunji*; Browne, F.*; Daido, R.*; Doornenbal, P.*; Fang, Y.*; et al.

Physics Letters B, 765, p.328 - 333, 2017/02

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2016.12.025

First observation of rays emitted from excited states south-east of Sn; The g multiplet of In

Jungclaus, A.*; Gargano, A.*; Grawe, H.*; Taprogge, J.*; Nishimura, Shunji*; Doornenbal, P.*; Lorusso, G.*; Shimizu, Y.*; Simpson, G. S.*; Sderstrm, P.-A.*; et al.

Physical Review C, 93(4), p.041301_1 - 041301_6, 2016/04

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.93.041301

Decay properties of Mn; Probing collectivity up to N=44 in Fe isotopic chain

Benzoni, G.*; Morales, A. I.*; Watanabe, H.*; Nishimura, Shunji*; Coraggio, L.*; Itaco, N.*; Gargano, A.*; Browne, F.*; Daido, R.*; Doornenbal, P.*; et al.

Physics Letters B, 751, p.107 - 112, 2015/12

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2015.10.025

Low-lying structure of Ar and the =32 subshell closure

Steppenbeck, D.*; Takeuchi, Satoshi*; Aoi, Nori*; Doornenbal, P.*; Matsushita, Masafumi*; Wang, H.*; Utsuno, Yutaka; Baba, Hidetada*; Go, Shintaro*; Lee, J.*; et al.

Physical Review Letters, 114(25), p.252501_1 - 252501_6, 2015/06

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.252501

The neutron-rich nucleus Ar is produced by the fragmentation reactions of Ca, Sc, and Ti at the RIBF facility in RIKEN, and its deexcited rays are observed for the first time. The first level in Ar is identified to lie at 1178(18)keV from the most intense -ray spectra. This experimental data, together with the systematics of the levels for surrounding nuclei, is analyzed with large-scale shell-model calculations. Consequently, the sub-shell gap in Ar is equivalent to that of Ca, thus making the level in Ar higher than that of Ar. The shell-model calculation also predicts that the sub-shell gap enhances in going from Ca to Ar, which will be verified by forthcoming experiments for Ar.

-decay half-lives of 110 neutron-rich nuclei across the =82 shell gap; Implications for the mechanism and universality of the astrophysical process

Lorusso, G.*; Nishimura, Shunji*; Xu, Z. Y.*; Jungclaus, A.*; Shimizu, Y.*; Simpson, G. S.*; Sderstrm, P.-A.*; Watanabe, H.*; Browne, F.*; Doornenbal, P.*; et al.

Physical Review Letters, 114(19), p.192501_1 - 192501_7, 2015/05

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.192501