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Testing ab initio nuclear structure in neutron-rich nuclei: Lifetime measurements of second 2+ state in C16 and O20

M. Ciemała et al.
Phys. Rev. C 101, 021303(R) – Published 27 February 2020

Abstract

To test the predictive power of ab initio nuclear structure theory, the lifetime of the second 2+ state in neutron-rich O20,τ(22+)=15030+80fs, and an estimate for the lifetime of the second 2+ state in C16 have been obtained for the first time. The results were achieved via a novel Monte Carlo technique that allowed us to measure nuclear state lifetimes in the tens-to-hundreds of femtoseconds range by analyzing the Doppler-shifted γ-transition line shapes of products of low-energy transfer and deep-inelastic processes in the reaction O18(7.0MeV/u)+Ta181. The requested sensitivity could only be reached owing to the excellent performances of the Advanced γ-Tracking Array AGATA, coupled to the PARIS scintillator array and to the VAMOS++ magnetic spectrometer. The experimental lifetimes agree with predictions of ab initio calculations using two- and three-nucleon interactions, obtained with the valence-space in-medium similarity renormalization group for O20 and with the no-core shell model for C16. The present measurement shows the power of electromagnetic observables, determined with high-precision γ spectroscopy, to assess the quality of first-principles nuclear structure calculations, complementing common benchmarks based on nuclear energies. The proposed experimental approach will be essential for short lifetime measurements in unexplored regions of the nuclear chart, including r-process nuclei, when intense beams, produced by Isotope Separation On-Line (ISOL) techniques, become available.

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  • Received 28 July 2019
  • Revised 30 October 2019
  • Accepted 24 January 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.101.021303

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Nuclear Physics

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Vol. 101, Iss. 2 — February 2020

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