Abstract: The Advanced GAmma Tracking Array (AGATA) is a European project to develop and operate the next generation gamma-ray spectrometer. AGATA is based on the technique of gamma-ray energy tracking in electrically segmented high-purity germanium crystals. This technique requires the accurate determination of the energy, time and position of every interaction as a gamma ray deposits its energy within the detector volume. Reconstruction of the full interaction path results in a detector with very high efficiency and excellent spectral response. The realisation of gamma-ray tracking and AGATA is a result of many technical advances. These include the development of encapsulated highly segmented germanium detectors assembled in a triple cluster detector cryostat, an electronics system with fast digital sampling and a data acquisition system to process the data at a high rate. The full characterisation of the crystals was measured and compared with detector-response simulations. This enabled pulse-shape analysis algorithms, to extract energy, time and position, to be employed. In addition, tracking algorithms for event reconstruction were developed. The first phase of AGATA is now complete and operational in its first physics campaign. In the future AGATA will be moved between laboratories in Europe and operated in a series of campaigns to take advantage of the different beams and facilities available to maximise its science output. The paper reviews all the achievements made in the AGATA project including all the necessary infrastructure to operate and support the spectrometer.

Abstract: Excited states in the neutron-deficient nucleus Tc-87 have been studied via the fusion-evaporation reaction 54Fe(36Ar, 2n1p) Tc-87 at 115 MeV beam energy. The AGATA gamma-ray spectrometer coupled to the DIAMANT, NEDA, and Neutron Wall detector arrays for light-particle detection was used to measure the prompt coincidence of gamma rays and light particles. Six transitions from the deexcitation of excited states belonging to a new band in Tc-87 were identified by comparing gamma-ray intensities in the spectra gated under different reaction channel selection conditions. The constructed level structure was compared with the shell model and total Routhian surface calculations. The results indicate that the new band structure in 87Tc is built on a spherical configuration, which is different from that assigned to the previously identified oblate yrast rotational band.

Abstract: Background: Neutron-rich nuclei with protons in the fp shell show an onset of collectivity around N=40. Spectroscopic information is required to understand the underlying mechanism and to determine the relevant terms of the nucleon-nucleon interaction that are responsible for the evolution of the shell structure in this mass region. Methods: We report on the lifetime measurement of the first 2+ and 4+ states in 70,72,74Zn and the first 6+ state in 72Zn using the recoil distance Doppler shift method. The experiment was carried out at the INFN Laboratory of Legnaro with the AGATA demonstrator, first phase of the Advanced Gamma Tracking Array of highly segmented, high-purity germanium detectors coupled to the PRISMA magnetic spectrometer. The excited states of the nuclei of interest were populated in the deep inelastic scattering of a 76Ge beam impinging on a 238U target. Results: The maximum of collectivity along the chain of Zn isotopes is observed for 72Zn at N=42. An unexpectedly long lifetime of 20−5.2+1.8 ps was measured for the 4+ state in 74Zn. Conclusions: Our results lead to small values of the B(E2;41+→21+)/B(E2;21+→01+) ratio for 72,74Zn, suggesting a significant noncollective contribution to these excitations. These experimental results are not reproduced by state-of-the-art microscopic models and call for lifetime measurements beyond the first 2+ state in heavy zinc and nickel isotopes.