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Tain, J. L., Algora, A., Agramunt, J., Guadilla, V., Jordan, M. D., Montaner-Piza, A., et al. (2015). A decay total absorption spectrometer for DESPEC at FAIR. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 803, 36–46.
Abstract: This paper presents the design of a total absorption gamma-ray spectrometer for the determination of beta-decay intensity distributions of exotic nuclear species at the focal plane of the FAIR-NUSTAR Super Fragment Separator. The spectrometer is a key instrument in the DESPEC experiment and the proposed implementation follows extensive design studies and prototype tests. Two options were contemplated, based on Nal(TI) and LaBr3:Ce inorganic scintillation crystals respectively. Monte Carlo simulations and technical considerations determined the optimal configurations consisting of sixteen 15 x 15 x 25 cm(3) crystals for the Nal(Tl) option and one hundred and twenty-eight 5.5 x 5.5 x 11 cm(3) crystals for the LaBr3:Ce option. Minimization of dead material was crucial for maximizing the spectrometer full-energy peak efficiency. Module prototypes were build to verify constructional details and characterize their performance. The measured energy and timing resolution was found to agree rather well with estimates based on simulations of scintillation light transport and collection. The neutron sensitivity of the spectrometer, important when measuring beta-delayed neutron emitters, was investigated by means of Monte Carlo simulations.
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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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Guadilla, V. et al, Algora, A., Tain, J. L., Agramunt, J., Jordan, D., Monserrate, M., et al. (2017). Characterization of a cylindrical plastic beta-detector with Monte Carlo simulations of optical photons. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 854, 134–138.
Abstract: In this work we report on the Monte Carlo study performed to understand and reproduce experimental measurements of a new plastic beta-detector with cylindrical geometry. Since energy deposition simulations differ from the experimental measurements for such a geometry, we show how the simulation of production and transport of optical photons does allow one to obtain the shapes of the experimental spectra. Moreover, taking into account the computational effort associated with this kind of simulation, we develop a method to convert the simulations of energy deposited into light collected, depending only on the interaction point in the detector. This method represents a useful solution when extensive simulations have to be done, as in the case of the calculation of the response function of the spectrometer in a total absorption gamma-ray spectroscopy analysis.
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Taprogge, J. et al, Gadea, A., & Montaner-Piza, A. (2014). Identification of a millisecond isomeric state in Cd-129(81) via the detection of internal conversion and Compton electrons. Phys. Lett. B, 738, 223–227.
Abstract: The decay of an isomeric state in the neutron-rich nucleus Cd-129 has been observed via the detection of internal conversion and Compton electrons providing first experimental information on excited states in this nucleus. The isomer was populated in the projectile fission of a U-238 beam at the Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory at RIKEN. From the measured yields of gamma-rays and internal conversion electrons, a multipolarity of E3 was tentatively assigned to the isomeric transition. A half-life of T-1/2 = 3.6(2) ms was determined for the new state which was assigned a spin of (21/2(+)), based on a comparison to shell model calculations performed using state-of-the-art realistic effective interactions.
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Jungclaus, A. et al, Gadea, A., & Montaner-Piza, A. (2017). Observation of a gamma-decaying millisecond isomeric state in Cd-128(80). Phys. Lett. B, 772, 483–488.
Abstract: A new high-spin isomer in the neutron-rich nucleus Cd-128 was populated in the projectile fission of a U-238 beam at the Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory at RIKEN. A half-life of T-1/2 = 6.3(8) mswas measured for the new state which was tentatively assigned a spin/parity of (15(-)). The experimental results are compared to shell model calculations performed using state-of-the-art realistic effective interactions and to the neighbouring nucleus Cd-129. In the present experiment no evidence was found for the decay of a 18(+) E6 spin-trap isomer, based on the complete alignment of the two-neutron and two-proton holes in the 0h(11/2) and the 0g(9/2) orbit, respectively, which is predicted to exist by the shell model. (C) 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V.
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Guadilla, V. et al, Tain, J. L., Algora, A., Agramunt, J., Gelletly, W., Jordan, D., et al. (2018). Characterization and performance of the DTAS detector. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 910, 79–89.
Abstract: DTAS is a segmented total absorption y-ray spectrometer developed for the DESPEC experiment at FAIR. It is composed of up to eighteen NaI(Tl) crystals. In this work we study the performance of this detector with laboratory sources and also under real experimental conditions. We present a procedure to reconstruct offline the sum of the energy deposited in all the crystals of the spectrometer, which is complicated by the effect of NaI(Tl) light-yield non-proportionality. The use of a system to correct for time variations of the gain in individual detector modules, based on a light pulse generator, is demonstrated. We describe also an event-based method to evaluate the summing-pileup electronic distortion in segmented spectrometers. All of this allows a careful characterization of the detector with Monte Carlo simulations that is needed to calculate the response function for the analysis of total absorption gamma-ray spectroscopy data. Special attention was paid to the interaction of neutrons with the spectrometer, since they are a source of contamination in studies of beta-delayed neutron emitting nuclei.
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Vitez-Sveiczer, A. et al, Algora, A., Morales, A. I., Rubio, B., Agramunt, J., Guadilla, V., et al. (2022). The beta-decay of Kr-70 into Br-70: Restoration of the pseudo-SU(4) symmetry. Phys. Lett. B, 830, 137123–8pp.
Abstract: The beta-decay of the even-even nucleus Kr-70 with Z=N+2, has been investigated at the Radioactive Ion Beam Factory (RIBF) of the RIKEN Nishina Center using the BigRIPS fragment separator, the ZeroDegree Spectrometer, the WAS3ABI implantation station and the EURICA HPGe cluster array. Fifteen gamma-rays associated with the beta-decay of( 70)Kr into Br-70 have been identified for the first time, defining ten populated states below E-exc=3300 keV. The half-life of Kr-70 was derived with increased precision and found to be t(1/2)=45.19 +/- 0.14 ms. The beta-delayed proton emission probability has also been determined as epsilon(p)=0.545(23)%. An increase in the beta-strength to the yrast 1(+) state in comparison with the heaviest Z=N+2 system studied so far (Ge-62 decay) is observed that may indicate increased np correlations in the T=0 channel. The beta-decay strength deduced from the results is interpreted in terms of the proton-neutron quasiparticle random-phase approximation (pnQRPA) and also with a schematic model that includes isoscalar and isovector pairing in addition to quadrupole deformation. The application of this last model indicates an approximate realization of pseudo-SU(4) symmetry in this system.
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Soderstrom, P. A. et al, & Montaner-Piza, A. (2013). Shape evolution in Ru-116,Ru-118: Triaxiality and transition between the O(6) and U(5) dynamical symmetries. Phys. Rev. C, 88(2), 024301–10pp.
Abstract: Ru-116 and Ru-118 have been studied via beta-delayed gamma-ray spectroscopy of nuclei produced in fragmentation reactions at the Radioactive Ion-Beam Factory (RIBF) facility. Level schemes with positive-parity states up to spin J = 6 have been constructed. The results have been discussed in terms of the interacting boson model, the algebraic collective model, and total Routhian surfaces. We conclude that the very neutron-rich nuclei still show many features associated with triaxial gamma-soft nuclei, represented by the O(6) symmetry, but are approaching a spherical structure, the U(5) symmetry, with increasing neutron number towards the N = 82 shell closure. In Ru-118, hints of a shape transition in the ground state have been observed.
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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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Taprogge, J. et al, Gadea, A., & Montaner-Piza, A. (2014). 1p(3/2) Proton-Hole State in Sn-132 and the Shell Structure Along N=82. Phys. Rev. Lett., 112(13), 132501–6pp.
Abstract: A low-lying state in In-131(82), the one-proton hole nucleus with respect to double magic Sn-132, was observed by its gamma decay to the I-pi 1/2(-) beta-emitting isomer. We identify the new state at an excitation energy of E-x = 1353 keV, which was populated both in the beta decay of Cd-131(83) and after beta-delayed neutron emission from Cd-132(84), as the previously unknown pi p(3/2) single-hole state with respect to the Sn-132 core. Exploiting this crucial new experimental information, shell-model calculations were performed to study the structure of experimentally inaccessible N = 82 isotones below Sn-132. The results evidence a surprising absence of proton subshell closures along the chain of N = 82 isotones. The consequences of this finding for the evolution of the N = 82 shell gap along the r-process path are discussed.
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