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Watanabe, H. et al, & Montaner-Piza, A. (2013). Isomers in Pd-128 and Pd-126: Evidence for a Robust Shell Closure at the Neutron Magic Number 82 in Exotic Palladium Isotopes. Phys. Rev. Lett., 111(15), 152501–5pp.
Abstract: The level structures of the very neutron-rich nuclei Pd-128 and Pd-126 have been investigated for the first time. In the r-process waiting-point nucleus Pd-128, a new isomer with a half-life of 5.8(8) μs is proposed to have a spin and parity of 8(+) and is associated with a maximally aligned configuration arising from the g(9/2) proton subshell with seniority v = 2. For Pd-126, two new isomers have been identified with half-lives of 0.33(4) and 0.44(3) μs. The yrast 2(+) energy is much higher in Pd-128 than in Pd-126, while the level sequence below the 8(+) isomer in Pd-128 is similar to that in the N = 82 isotone Cd-130. The electric quadrupole transition that depopulates the 8(+) isomer in Pd-128 is more hindered than the corresponding transition in Cd-130, as expected in the seniority scheme for a semimagic, spherical nucleus. These experimental findings indicate that the shell closure at the neutron number N = 82 is fairly robust in the neutron-rich Pd isotopes.
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Watanabe, H. et al, & Montaner-Piza, A. (2014). Monopole-Driven Shell Evolution below the Doubly Magic Nucleus Sn-132 Explored with the Long-Lived Isomer in Pd-126. Phys. Rev. Lett., 113(4), 042502–6pp.
Abstract: A new isomer with a half-life of 23.0(8) ms has been identified at 2406 keV in Pd-126 and is proposed to have a spin and parity of 10(+) with a maximally aligned configuration comprising two neutron holes in the 1h(11/2) orbit. In addition to an internal-decay branch through a hindered electric octupole transition, beta decay from the long-lived isomer was observed to populate excited states at high spins in Ag-126. The smaller energy difference between the 10(+) and 7(-) isomers in Pd-126 than in the heavier N = 80 isotones can be interpreted as being ascribed to the monopole shift of the 1h(11/2) neutron orbit. The effects of the monopole interaction on the evolution of single-neutron energies below Sn-132 are discussed in terms of the central and tensor forces.
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Watanabe, H. et al, & Montaner-Piza, A. (2019). New isomers in (125)Pd(79)( )and Pd-127(81): Competing proton and neutron excitations in neutron-rich palladium nuclides towards the N=82 shell closure. Phys. Lett. B, 792, 263–268.
Abstract: The neutron-rich isotopes of palladium have attracted considerable interest in terms of the evolution of the N = 82 neutron shell closure and its influence on the r-process nucleosynthesis. In this Letter, we present the first spectroscopic information on the excited states in Pd-125(79) and Pd-127(81) studied using the EURICA gamma-ray spectrometer, following production via in-flight fission of a high-intensity U-238 beam at the RIBF facility. New isomeric states with half-lives of 144(4) ns and 39(6) μs have been assigned spins and parities of (23/2(+)) and (19/2(+)) in Pd-125 and Pd-127, respectively. The observed level properties are compared to a shell-model calculation, suggesting the competition between proton excitations and neutron excitations in the proton-hole and neutron-hole systems in the vicinity of the doubly magic nucleus Sn-132.
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Watanabe, H. et al, & Montaner-Piza, A. (2021). Impact of shell evolution on Gamow-Teller beta decay from a high-spin long-lived isomer in Ag-127. Phys. Lett. B, 823, 136766–6pp.
Abstract: The change of the shell structure in atomic nuclei, so-called “nuclear shell evolution”, occurs due to changes of major configurations through particle-hole excitations inside one nucleus, as well as due to variation of the number of constituent protons or neutrons. We have investigated how the shell evolution affects Gamow-Teller (GT) transitions that dominate the beta decay in the region below Sn-132 using the newly obtained experimental data on a long-lived isomer in Ag-127. The T-1/2 = 67.5(9) ms isomer has been identified with a spin and parity of (27/2(+)) at an excitation energy of 1942(-20)(+14) keV, and found to decay via an internal transition of an E3 character, which competes with the dominant beta-decay branches towards the high-spin states in Cd-127. The underlying mechanism of a strong GT transition from the Ag-127 isomer is discussed in terms of configuration-dependent optimization of the effective single-particle energies in the framework of a shell-model approach.
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