Nuclear fragments in projectile fragmentation reactions

Abstract

Theoretical prediction shows that about 9000 nuclei could be bounded, of which the properties will be hot topics in the new nuclear physics era opened by the new third generation of radioactive nuclear beam (RNB) facilities. Projectile fragmentation reactions are important to produce rare nuclei with extreme large N/Z asymmetry even to the drip lines. Variety of key questions in nuclear physics, for example, the nuclear Equation of State, the extreme of nuclides at drip lines, the shell evolution, etc, are hoped to be answered. A review is presented on the topic related to projectile fragmentation reactions, including the historical review of RNB facilities, the characteristics of modern RNB facilities, the particle identification techniques for searching rare isotopes in RNB experiments and benchmark projectile fragmentation reactions. Furthermore, the theory reviews for fragment production predictions are also made, which include the empirical formula, transport models, statistical models, machine learning methods, etc. Some important probes to nuclear properties have also been presented, which are the temperature/thermometer, the isoscaling, the isobaric ratio difference scaling, the neutron-skin thickness, etc.