Physics Letters B 769 (2017) 339–344
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Physics Letters B
www.elsevier.com/locate/physletb
Isovector excitations in
100
Nb and their decays by neutron emission
studied via the
100
Mo(t,
3
He + n) reaction at 115 MeV/u
K. Miki
a,∗
, R.G.T. Zegers
a,b,c,∗
, Sam M. Austin
a,b
, D. Bazin
a
, B.A. Brown
a,b,c
,
A.C. Dombos
a,b,c
, R.K. Grzywacz
d
, M.N. Harakeh
e
, E. Kwan
a
, S.N. Liddick
a,f
,
S. Lipschutz
a,b,c
, E. Litvinova
g,a,b
, M. Madurga
d
, M.T. Mustonen
h
, W.J. Ong
a,b,c
,
S.V. Paulauskas
a
, G. Perdikakis
i,a,b
, J. Pereira
a,b
, W.A. Peters
j,d,k
, C. Robin
g,b
, M. Scott
a,b,c
,
A. Spyrou
a,b,c
, C. Sullivan
a,b,c
, R. Titus
a,b,c
a
National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
b
Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics, Center for the Evolution of the Elements, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
c
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
d
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA
e
Kernfysisch Versneller Instituut, Center for Advanced Radiation Technology, University of Groningen, Groningen, 9747 AA, Netherlands
f
Department of Chemistry, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
g
Department of Physics, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI 49008, USA
h
Center for Theoretical Physics, Sloane Physics Laboratory, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06502, USA
i
Department of Physics, Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant, MI 48859, USA
j
Oak Ridge Associated Universities, Oak Ridge, TN 37830, USA
k
Physics Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history:
Received
27 November 2016
Received
in revised form 15 March 2017
Accepted
4 April 2017
Available
online 7 April 2017
Editor:
D.F. Geesaman
Keywords:
Spin–isospin
excitations
Neutron
decay
Charge-exchange
reaction
Missing
mass spectroscopy
Spin–isospin excitations in
100
Nb were studied via the
100
Mo(t,
3
He) charge-exchange reaction at 115
MeV/u with the goal to constrain theoretical models used to describe the isovector spin response
of nuclei. The experiment was performed with a secondary beam of tritons, and
3
He particles were
analyzed in the S800 magnetic spectrometer. Decay by neutron emission from excited states in
100
Nb
was
observed by using plastic and liquid scintillator arrays. Differential cross sections were analyzed
and monopole excitations were revealed by using a multipole decomposition analysis. The Gamow–Teller
transition strength observed at low excitation energies, which is important for estimating the electron-
capture
rate in astrophysical scenarios, was strongly fragmented and reduced compared to single-particle
and spherical mean-field models. The consideration of deformation in the theoretical estimates was
found to be important to better describe the fragmentation and strengths. A strong excitation of the
isovector spin giant monopole resonance was observed, and well reproduced by the mean-field models.
Its presence makes the extraction of Gamow–Teller strengths at high excitation energies difficult. The
branches for statistical and direct decay by neutron emission were identified in the spectra. The upper
limit for the branching ratio by direct decay (integrated over all observed excitations) was determined
to be 20 ± 6%. Even though the statistical uncertainties in the neutron-coincident data were too large
to perform detailed studies of the decay by neutron emission from individual states and resonances, the
experiment demonstrates the feasibility of the method.
© 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Funded by SCOAP
3
.
1. Introduction
Studies of spin–isospin excitations in nuclei are important to
better understand the isovector spin response of nuclei in general,
*
Corresponding authors.
E-mail
addresses: miki@lambda.phys.tohoku.ac.jp (K. Miki), zegers@nscl.msu.edu
(R.G.T. Zegers).
with applications in astro- and neutrino physics [1–3]. In stellar
environments, interactions mediated by the weak nuclear force,
such as β-decays, electron captures (ECs), and neutrino-induced
reactions, play pivotal roles in the dynamical evolution of super-
novae [1] and
the crustal heating and cooling of neutron stars [4,5].
ECs are particularly important in these astrophysical environments.
They proceed predominantly through Gamow–Teller (GT) transi-
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2017.04.004
0370-2693/
© 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Funded by
SCOAP
3
.