A rotational band of nineteen transitions with a moment of inertia 3$ nA of 84£ 2 MeV" 1 has been observed in 152 Dy. The band feeds into the oblate yrast states between 19" and 25" and it is proposed that the lowest member of the band has a spin of 22 + and thus the band extends up to 6Qfr. It is identified as the yrast superdeformed band and its intensity accounts for the whole of the ridge structure seen previously in continuum E y -E r correlations.PACS numbers: 21.10. Re, 23.20.Lv, 27.70.+q The nucleusDy has been extensively studied and three different structures have been identified. The low-spin yrast levels have a pseudovibrational structure 1 which develops into a low-deformation (fi = 0.15) prolate rotational band 2 extending up to 40fr. This band, in the spin region between SR and 38£, lies between 0.5 and 1.5 MeV above the yrast states which have a weak oblate structure formed by particles in equatorial orbits. 3 " 5 At higher spins the y-ray continuum is dominated by a collective E2 bump. 6 Part of this bump has been shown to arise from superdeformed (/J^O^) bands from the existence of ridges with a moment of inertia3 (2) = (85 ±2)H 2 MeV" 1 in E y 'Ey correlation spectra. 7,8 In this Letter we present data showing a discrete-line rotational band extending over nineteen transitions from 602 to 1449 keV with an almost constant energy separation of 47 keV which corresponds to the superdeformed moment of inertia. The major -y-ray decay deexciting the band feeds into the yrast oblate structure between the 19"" and 25"" states and then proceeds via the 60-ns 17 + isomer. Additionally 25% of the decay intensity bypasses this isomer. We propose that the decay process from the bottom of the band is essentially statistical, involving several transitions, and we assign the spin at the bottom of the band to be 22£, thus establishing the spin at the top of the band to be 60fr. This is the first observation of a discrete-line superdeformed band and it extends the spin at which discrete states have been seen from about 46* (e.g., 158 Er, Tj0m etaL 9 ) to 60T.The experiment was carried out on the tandem accelerator at the Daresbury Laboratory using the TES-SAS spectrometer, which consists of a 50-element bismuth germanate (BGO) crystal ball similar to that used in TESSA2 10 with twelve escape-suppressed germanium detectors. 11 The states in 152 Dy were populated by the reaction 108 Pd( 48 Ca,4>7) at 205 MeV with a target consisting of two 500-/ig-cm~2 self-supporting foils isotopically enriched at 95% in 108 Pd. A 15-mgcm" 2 gold catcher foil was positioned 5 cm downstream of the targets such that it was outside the focus of the germanium detectors but within the full detection efficiency of the BGO ball. A total of over 150 million double (Ge-Ge) coincidences were recorded together with the sum energy and number of hits (fold) in the BGO ball. The time difference between the BGO ball and the second-coincidence germanium detector was recorded and enabled most of the neutron-induced events in the germanium detec...

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The Advanced GAmma Tracking Array (AGATA) is a European project to develop and operate the next generation γ-ray spectrometer. AGATA is based on the technique of γ-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 γ 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 γ-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

The NEMO collaboration is looking to measure neutrinoless double beta decay. The search for the effective neutrino mass will approach a lower limit of 0.1 eV. The NEMO 3 detector is now operating in the Frejus Underground Laboratory. The fundamental design of the detector is reviewed and the performances detailed. Finally, a summary of the data collected in the first runs which involve energy and time calibration and study of the background are presented.

The nucleus is a unique laboratory in physics — a quantum many-body system comprising two types of fermion, the neutron and proton, differing in charge but otherwise essentially identical in their behaviour. The fact that the strong interaction between these fermions is largely independent of charge results in striking symmetries in nuclei. This neutron–proton exchange invariance is encompassed in the elegant concept and formalism of Wigner's isotopic spin — or isospin. The impact of isospin symmetry is maximal near the N=Z line where nuclei have equal numbers of neutrons and protons, and studies involving isospin effects have undergone a resurgence in recent years as such nuclei become more readily accessible. In this review we discuss three isospin-related phenomena: the elegant isospin symmetry of excited analogue states in nuclei, the origin of the extra binding for nuclei with equal numbers of neutrons and protons and the exotic phenomenon of neutron–proton pairing. These three topics, all of considerable current interest, demonstrate the power, simplicity and modern relevance of the isospin concept

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