Abstract: Gamow-Teller (GT) transitions are the most common weak interaction processes of spin-isospin (sigma tau) type in atomic nuclei. They are of interest not only in nuclear physics but also in astrophysics; they play an important role in supernovae explosions and nucleosynthesis. The direct study of weak decay processes, however, gives relatively limited information about GT transitions and the states excited via GT transitions (GT states); beta decay can only access states at excitation energies lower than the decay Q-value, and neutrino-induced reactions have very small cross-sections. However, one should note that beta decay has a direct access to the absolute GT transition strengths B(GT) from a study of half-lives, Q(beta)-values and branching ratios. They also provide information on GT transitions in nuclei far-from-stability. Studies of M1 gamma transitions provide similar information. In contrast, the complementary charge-exchange (CE) reactions, such as the (p, n) or ((3)He, t) reactions at intermediate beam energies and 0 degrees, can selectively excite GT states up to high excitation energies in the final nucleus. It has been found empirically that there is a close proportionality between the cross-sections at 0 degrees and the transition strengths B(GT) in these CE reactions. Therefore, CE reactions are useful tools to study the relative values of B(GT) strengths up to high excitation energies. In recent ((3)He, t) measurements, one order-of-magnitude improvement in the energy resolution has been achieved. This has made it possible to make one-to-one comparisons of GT transitions studied in CE reactions and beta decays. Thus GT strengths in ((3)He, t) reactions can be normalised by the beta-decay values. In addition, comparisons with closely related M1 transitions studied in gamma decay or electron inelastic scattering [(e, e')1, and furthermore with “spin” M I transitions that can be studied by proton inelastic scattering [(p, p')[ have now been made possible. In these comparisons, the isospin quantum number T and associated symmetry structure in the same mass A nuclei (isobars) play a key role. Isospin symmetry can extend our scope even to the structures of unstable nuclei that are far from reach at present unstable beam factories.

Abstract: The magnetic dipole moments (mu) of Tl-209(g)(N =128) and Tl-207(m)(N = 126) have been measured for the first time using the in -source laser resonance -ionization spectroscopy technique with the Laser Ion Source and Trap (LIST) at ISOLDE (CERN). The application of the LIST suppresses the usually overwhelming background of the isobaric francium isotopes and allows access to heavy thallium isotopes with >207. The self -consistent theory of finite Fermi systems based on the energy density functional by Fayans et al. well describes the N dependence of μfor 1/2(+) thallium ground states, as well as μfor the 11/2(-) isomeric states in europium, gold and thallium isotopes. The inclusion of particle-vibration coupling leads to a better agreement between the theory and experiment for mu(Tl-g , I-pi = 1/2(+)). It is shown that beyond mean-field contributions tocannot be neglected at least for thallium isotopes with I-pi = 1/2(+).

Abstract: This letter reports on the first observation of an octupole band in the neutron-deficient (N = Z + 2) nucleus Xe-110. The Xe-110 nuclei were produced via the Fe-54(Ni-58,2n) fusion-evaporation reaction. The emitted gamma rays were detected using the jurogam 3 gamma-ray spectrometer, while the fusion-evaporation residues were separated with the MARA separator at the Accelerator Laboratory of the University of Jyv & auml;skyl & auml;, Finland. The experimental observation of the low-lying 3(-) and 5(-) states and inter-band E1 transitions between the ground-state band and the octupole band proves the importance of octupole correlations in this region. These new experimental data combined with theoretical calculations using the symmetry-conserving configuration-mixing method, based on a Gogny energy density functional, have been interpreted as an evidence of enhanced octupole correlations in neutron-deficient xenon isotopes.

Abstract: A search for the pair-production of vector-like quarks optimized for decays into a Z boson and a third-generation Standard Model quark is presented, using the full Run 2 dataset corresponding to 139 fb-1 of pp collisions at & RADIC;s = 13 TeV, collected in 2015-2018 with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The targeted final state is characterized by the presence of a Z boson with high transverse momentum, reconstructed from a pair of same-flavour leptons with opposite-sign charges, as well as by the presence of b-tagged jets and high-transverse-momentum large-radius jets reconstructed from calibrated smaller-radius jets. Events with exactly two or at least three leptons are used, which are further categorized by the presence of boosted W, Z, and Higgs bosons and top quarks. The categorization is performed using a neural-network-based boosted object tagger to enhance the sensitivity to signal relative to the background. No significant excess above the background expectation is observed and exclusion limits at 95% confidence level are set on the masses of the vector-like partners T and B of the top and bottom quarks, respectively. The limits depend on the branching ratio configurations and, in the case of 100% branching ratio for T-+ Zt and 100% branching ratio for B-+ Zb, this search sets the most stringent limits to date, allowing mT > 1.60 TeV and mB > 1.42 TeV, respectively.

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.