A candidate resonant tetraneutron state is found in the missing-mass spectrum obtained in the double-charge-exchange reaction ^{4}He(^{8}He,^{8}Be) at 186  MeV/u. The energy of the state is 0.83±0.65(stat)±1.25(syst)  MeV above the threshold of four-neutron decay with a significance level of 4.9σ. Utilizing the large positive Q value of the (^{8}He,^{8}Be) reaction, an almost recoilless condition of the four-neutron system was achieved so as to obtain a weakly interacting four-neutron system efficiently.

The cross section, the deuteron vector A(d)(y) and tensor analyzing powers A(ij), the polarization transfer coefficients K(y('))(ij), and the induced polarization P(y(')) were measured for the dp elastic scattering at 270 MeV. The cross section and A(d)(y) are well reproduced by Faddeev calculations with modern data-equivalent nucleon-nucleon forces plus the Tucson-Melbourne three-nucleon force. In contrast, A(ij), K(y('))(ij), or P(y(')) are not described by such calculations. These facts indicate the deficiencies in the spin dependence of the Tucson-Melbourne force and call for extended three-nucleon force models.

We perform the first direct mass measurements of neutron-rich calcium isotopes beyond neutron number 34 at the RIKEN Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory by using the time-of-flight magnetic-rigidity technique. The atomic mass excesses of ^{55-57}Ca are determined for the first time to be -18650(160), -13510(250), and -7370(990)  keV, respectively. We examine the emergence of neutron magicity at N=34 based on the new atomic masses. The new masses provide experimental evidence for the appearance of a sizable energy gap between the neutron 2p_{1/2} and 1f_{5/2} orbitals in ^{54}Ca, comparable to the gap between the neutron 2p_{3/2} and 2p_{1/2} orbitals in ^{52}Ca. For the ^{56}Ca nucleus, an open-shell property in neutrons is suggested.

No abstract

Double differential cross sections between 0 • -12 • were measured for the 90 Zr(n, p) reaction at 293 MeV over a wide excitation energy range of 0-70 MeV. A multipole decomposition technique was applied to the present data as well as the previously obtained 90 Zr(p, n) data to extract the Gamow-Teller (GT) component from the continuum. The GT quenching factor Q was derived by using the obtained total GT strengths. The result is Q = 0.88 ± 0.06, not including an overall normalization uncertainty in the GT unit cross section of 16%.The (p, n) reaction at intermediate energies (T p > 100 MeV) provides a highly selective probe of spin-isospin excitations in nuclei due to the energy dependence of the isovector part of nucleon-nucleon (NN ) t-matrices [1]. The

Vector analyzing power for the proton-6 He elastic scattering at 71 MeV/nucleon has been measured for the first time, with a newly developed polarized proton solid target working at low magnetic field of 0.09 T. The results are found to be incompatible with a t-matrix folding model prediction. Comparisons of the data with g-matrix folding analyses clearly show that the vector analyzing power is sensitive to the nuclear structure model used in the reaction analysis. The α-core distribution in 6 He is suggested to be a possible key to understand the nuclear structure sensitivity. PACS numbers: 24.70.+s, 29.25.Pj Spin observables in scattering experiments have been rich sources of our understanding of nuclear structure, reaction, and interactions. One of the good examples is spin asymmetry in proton-proton and proton-nucleus (p-A) scatterings which is a direct manifestation of spinorbit coupling in the system. The first spin asymmetry measurements carried out by use of a double scattering method [1,2] clearly demonstrated that the spin-orbit coupling in nuclei is an order of magnitude stronger than that due to the relativistic effect [3]. At present the spin-orbit coupling in p-A scattering is quantitatively established through numerous experiments using polarized proton beams for stable targets.It is interesting to use spin asymmetry measurements to study unstable nuclei. Nuclei locating near the neutron drip line occasionally show distinctive structure such as halos or skins. The neutron rich 6 He nucleus is one of the typical nuclides with an extended neutron distribution. Since the extended neutron distribution is prominent at the nuclear surface and the spin-orbit coupling is, in nature, a surface phenomenon, it is stimulating to see how the extended neutron distributions affect the spin asymmetry, i.e., vector analyzing power in proton elastic scattering.In this Letter, we report new results of vector analyzing power for the p-6 He elastic scattering at 71 MeV/nucleon, measured with a newly developed polarized proton target. The results are compared with microscopic folding model calculations.Although cross sections in proton elastic scattering from 6 He have been extensively measured over a wide range of energies [4][5][6][7][8][9], until recently there had been no measurement of vector analyzing power. Since unstable nuclei are produced as secondary beams, we need a polarized proton target, practically in the solid state, for the spin-asymmetry studies. In addition, the solid polarized proton target should work under a low magnetic field of B ∼ 0.1 T for detection of recoiled protons with magnetic rigidity as low as 0.3 Tm. The traditional dynamical nuclear polarization technique [10], demanding a magnetic field higher than a few Tesla, can not be applied therefore. Although this difficulty might be overcome by applying a "spin frozen" operation, efforts to do so have not been successful so far. An alternative approach to overcome the problem is to develop a polarized target based on a new principle which...

We study the double Gamow-Teller (DGT) strength distribution of ^{48}Ca with state-of-the-art large-scale nuclear shell model calculations. Our analysis shows that the centroid energy of the DGT giant resonance depends mostly on the isovector pairing interaction, while the resonance width is more sensitive to isoscalar pairing. Pairing correlations are also key in neutrinoless ββ (0νββ) decay. We find a simple relation between the centroid energy of the ^{48}Ca DGT giant resonance and the 0νββ decay nuclear matrix element. More generally, we observe a very good linear correlation between the DGT transition to the ground state of the final nucleus and the 0νββ decay matrix element. The correlation, which originates on the dominant short-range character of both transitions, extends to heavier systems including several ββ emitters and also holds in energy-density functional results. Our findings suggest that DGT experiments can be a very valuable tool to obtain information on the value of 0νββ decay nuclear matrix elements.

A new technique to measure (p,n) charge-exchange reactions in inverse kinematics at intermediate energies on unstable isotopes was successfully developed and used to study the (56)Ni(p,n) reaction at 110 MeV/u. Gamow-Teller transition strengths from (56)Ni leading to (56)Cu were obtained and compared with shell-model predictions in the pf shell using the KB3G and GXPF1A interactions. The calculations with the GXPF1A interaction reproduce the experimental strength distribution much better than the calculations that employed the KB3G interaction, indicating deficiencies in the spin-orbit and proton-neutron residual potentials for the latter. The results are important for improving the description of electron-capture rates on nuclei in the iron region, which are important for modeling the late evolution of core-collapse and thermonuclear supernovae.