Nuclear spectroscopy with fast exotic beams

Abstract

The often surprising properties of neutron-rich nuclei have prompted extensive experimental and theoretical studies aimed at identifying the driving forces behind the dramatic changes encountered in the exotic regime. Challenging discovery experiments that search for new isotopes in the quest to delineate the limits of nuclear existence provide fundamental benchmarks for nuclear theory, addressing the question what combinations of protons and neutrons can be made into nuclei. As will be discussed here, the existence of certain nuclear species and their production cross sections can provide a first glimpse at nuclear structure effects in the most exotic regime. Striving for more detail on the evolution of nuclear structure, in-beam nuclear spectroscopy with fast beams and thick reaction targets—where γ-ray spectroscopy is used to tag the final state—provides information on the single-particle structure as well as on collective degrees of freedom in nuclei that are available for experiments at beam rates of only a few ions/s. This article will outline—with the example of shell evolution along the N = 40 isotone line—how in-beam experiments measure complementary observables, starting from the nuclear existence and production cross sections to the collective and single-particle properties of the lowest-lying excited states in the vicinity of the very neutron-rich Ti, Cr and Fe N = 40 isotones. The interplay of experimental results and theory will be emphasized at the intersection of nuclear structure and reactions in the joined quest of unraveling the driving forces of shell evolution.