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 neutron-rich (66,68)Ni have been produced at GANIL via interactions of a 65.9A MeV 70Zn beam with a 58Ni target. Their reduced transition probability B(E2;0(+)(1)-->2+) has been measured for the first time by Coulomb excitation in a (208)Pb target at intermediate energy. The B(E2) value for (68)Ni(40) is unexpectedly small. An analysis in terms of large scale shell model calculations stresses the importance of proton core excitations to reproduce the B(E2) values and indicates the erosion of the N = 40 harmonic-oscillator subshell by neutron-pair scattering.

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The 119-126 Sn nuclei have been produced as fission fragments in two reactions induced by heavy ions: 12 C + 238 U at a bombarding energy of 90 MeV and 18 O + 208 Pb at 85 MeV. Their level schemes have been built from γ rays detected using the Euroball array. High-spin states located above the long-lived isomeric states of the evenand odd-A 120-126 Sn nuclei have been identified. Moreover, isomeric states lying around 4.5 MeV have been established in 120,122,124,126 Sn from the delayed coincidences between the fission fragment detector SAPhIR and the Euroball array. The states located above 3 MeV excitation energy are ascribed to several broken pairs of neutrons occupying the νh 11/2 orbit. The maximum value of angular momentum available in such a high-j shell, i.e., for midoccupation and the breaking of the three neutron pairs, has been identified. This process is observed for the first time in spherical nuclei.