Recent experimental activity on heavy-ion induced reactions within the NUMEN project

F Cappuzzello ,Canel Eke,B B Santos Roberto,Salvatore Calabrese,Franck Delaunay,R Chávez Lomeli Efrain,A Guazzelli Da Silveira Marcilei,H Medina Nilberto,A Brischetto Giuseppe,A B Zagatto Vinicius,O Solakci Selçuk,M Cutuli ,G A Souliotis ,L Acosta ,F Pinna ,D Calvo ,A Hacisalihoglu ,L La Fauci ,A Pakou ,R Linares ,G Russo ,G Lanzalone ,O Sgouros ,I Ciraldo ,Raul Jose ,P Finocchiaro ,M Moralles ,S Firat ,F Iazzi ,A Spatafora ,S Tudisco ,P Amador-Valenzuela ,V Soukeras ,M Cavallaro ,A Yildirin ,I Boztosun ,L Pandola ,D Torresi ,C Altana ,H Petrascu ,D Carbone ,M Fisichella ,H Djapo ,V Capirossi ,C Agodi

doi:10.1051/epjconf/202125204001

Abstract

The possibility to use a special class of heavy-ion induced direct reactions, such as double charge exchange reactions, is discussed in view of their application to extract information that may be helpful to determinate the nuclear matrix elements entering in the expression of neutrinoless double beta decay half-life. The strategies adopted in the experimental campaigns performed at INFN - Laboratori Nazionali del Sud are briefly described, emphasizing the advantages of the multi-channel approach to nuclear reaction data analysis.

Highlights

Charge exchange (CE) reactions are nuclear processes in which the individual balance of neutrons and protons inside the projectile and the target is modified, while keeping the overall number of nucleons unchanged
Relevant aspects of single charge exchange (SCE) induced by light projectile have been discussed in several articles, among which excellent reviews are in ref. [1] [2] [3]
Particular interest has been given to double charge exchange (DCE) processes [5] [6] [7] as they can give access to the nuclear response to second order isospin operators, which promote double beta decays

Summary

Introduction

Charge exchange (CE) reactions are nuclear processes in which the individual balance of neutrons and protons inside the projectile and the target is modified, while keeping the overall number of nucleons unchanged. Beyond that, there is an even broader impact of such investigations because of their relevance for nuclear beta decay, connecting strong and weak interactions In this context, the NUMEN and NURE projects at INFNLNS laboratory in Catania [8] [9] aim at exploring heavyion induced single and double charge exchange (DCE). The main goal is to extract information on nuclear matrix elements for SCE and DCE processes and to identify the possible connections with double beta decay. Detailed information about these projects are found in recent articles, which we refer to [10] [11] [12] for both scientific and technological aspects. The global strategy and methodologies of the above mentioned programmes, the challenges of the experimental activities together with the status of the already performed experimental runs are briefly outlined

The motivation

Heavy-ion induced double charge exchange reactions

The experiments

Experiments with 18O beam

Conclusions