Luo, X. L. et al, Agramunt, J., Egea, F. J., Gadea, A., & Huyuk, T. (2018). Pulse pile-up identification and reconstruction for liquid scintillator based neutron detectors. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 897, 59–65.
Abstract: The issue of pulse pile-up is frequently encountered in nuclear experiments involving high counting rates, which will distort the pulse shapes and the energy spectra. A digital method of off-line processing of pile-up pulses is presented. The pile-up pulses were firstly identified by detecting the downward-going zero-crossings in the first-order derivative of the original signal, and then the constituent pulses were reconstructed based on comparing the pile-up pulse with four models that are generated by combining pairs of neutron and.. standard pulses together with a controllable time interval. The accuracy of this method in resolving the pile-up events was investigated as a function of the time interval between two pulses constituting a pile-up event. The obtained results show that the method is capable of disentangling two pulses with a time interval among them down to 20 ns, as well as classifying them as neutrons or gamma rays. Furthermore, the error of reconstructing pile-up pulses could be kept below 6% when successive peaks were separated by more than 50 ns. By applying the method in a high counting rate of pile-up events measurement of the NEutron Detector Array (NEDA), it was empirically found that this method can reconstruct the pile-up pulses and perform neutron-gamma discrimination quite accurately. It can also significantly correct the distorted pulse height spectrum due to pile-up events.
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AGATA Collaboration(Kaya, L. et al), & Gadea, A. (2018). High-spin structure in the transitional nucleus Xe-131: Competitive neutron and proton alignment in the vicinity of the N=82 shell closure. Phys. Rev. C, 98(1), 014309–19pp.
Abstract: The transitional nucleus Xe-131 is investigated after multinucleon transfer in the Xe-136 + Pb-208 and Xe-136 +U-238 reactions employing the high-resolution Advanced gamma-Tracking Array (AGATA) coupled to the magnetic spectrometer PRISMA at the Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro, Italy, and as an elusive reaction product in the fusion-evaporation reaction Sn-124(B-11) ,p3n)Xe-131 employing the High-efficiency Observatory for gamma-Ray Unique Spectroscopy (HORUS) gamma-ray array coupled to a double-sided silicon strip detector at the University of Cologne, Germany. The level scheme of Xe-131 is extended to 5 MeV. A pronounced backbending is observed at (h) over bar omega approximate to 0.4 MeV along the negative-parity one-quasiparticle vh(11/12)(alpha = -1/2) band. The results are compared to the high-spin systematics of the Z = 54 isotopes and the N = 77 isotones. Large-scale shell-model calculations employing the PQM130, SN100PN, GCN50:82, SN100-KTH, and a realistic effective interaction reproduce the experimental findings and provide guidance to elucidate the structure of the high-spin states. Further calculations in Xe129-132 provide insight into the changing nuclear structure along the Xe chain towards the N = 82 shell closure. Proton occupancy in the pi 0h(11/2) orbital is found to be decisive for the description of the observed backbending phenomenon.
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Valiente-Dobon, J. J., Poves, A., Gadea, A., & Fernandez-Dominguez, B. (2018). Broken mirror symmetry in S-36 and Ca-36. Phys. Rev. C, 98(1), 011302–5pp.
Abstract: Shape coexistence is a ubiquitous phenomenon in the neutron-rich nuclei belonging to (or sitting at the shores of) the N = 20 island of inversion (IoI). Exact isospin symmetry predicts the same behavior for their mirrors and the existence of a proton-rich IoI around Z = 20, centered in the (surely unbound) nucleus Ca-32. In this article we show that in Ca-36 and S-36, Coulomb effects break dramatically the mirror symmetry in the excitation energies due to the different structures of the intruder and normal states. The mirror energy difference (MED) of their 2(+) states is known to be very large at – 246 keV. We reproduce this value and predict the first excited state in Ca-36 to be a 0(+) at 2.7 MeV, 250 keV below the first 2(+). In its mirror S-36 the 0(+) lies at 55keV above the 2(+) measured at 3.291 MeV. Our calculations predict a huge MED of -720 keV, that we dub the “colossal” mirror energy difference. A possible reaction mechanism to access the O-2(+) in Ca-36 will be discussed. In addition, we theoretically address the MEDs of the A = 34, T = 3 and A = 32, T = 4 mirrors.
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Boso, A. et al, Gadea, A., & Huyuk, T. (2018). Neutron Skin Effects in Mirror Energy Differences: The Case of Mg-23-Na-23. Phys. Rev. Lett., 121(3), 032502–5pp.
Abstract: Energy differences between analogue states in the T = 1/2 Mg-23-Na-23 mirror nuclei have been measured along the rotational yrast bands. This allows us to search for effects arising from isospin-symmetrybreaking interactions (ISB) and/or shape changes. Data are interpreted in the shell model framework following the method successfully applied to nuclei in the f(7/2) shell. It is shown that the introduction of a schematic ISB interaction of the same type of that used in the f(7/2) shell is needed to reproduce the data. An alternative novel description, applied here for the first time, relies on the use of an effective interaction deduced from a realistic charge-dependent chiral nucleon-nucleon potential. This analysis provides two important results: (i) The mirror energy differences give direct insight into the nuclear skin; (ii) the skin changes along the rotational bands are strongly correlated with the difference between the neutron and proton occupations of the s(1/2) “halo” orbit.
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Ertoprak, A. et al, Algora, A., Gadea, A., & Huyuk, T. (2018). M1 and E2 transition rates from core-excited states in semi-magic Ru-94. Eur. Phys. J. A, 54(9), 145–9pp.
Abstract: Lifetimes of high-spin states have been measured in the semi-magic (N = 50) nucleus Ru-94. Excited states in Ru-94 were populated in the Ni-58(Ca-40, 4p)Ru-94* fusion-evaporation reaction at the Grand Accelerateur National d'Ions Lourds (GANIL) accelerator complex. DSAM lifetime analysis was performed on the Doppler broadened line shapes in energy spectra obtained from gamma-rays emitted while the residual nuclei were slowing down in a thick 6 mg/cm(2) metallic Ni-58 target. In total eight excited-state lifetimes in the angular momentum range I = (13-20)h have been measured, five of which were determined for the first time. The corresponding B(M1) and B(E2) reduced transition strengths are discussed within the framework of large-scale shell model calculations to study the contribution of different particle-hole configurations, in particular for analyzing contributions from core-excited configurations.
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