Search

The previously-unknown nucleus 20Al has been observed for the first time by detecting its in-flight decays. Tracking trajectories of all decay products with silicon micro-strip detectors allowed for a conclusion that 20Al is unbound with respect to three-proton (3p) emission. The 3p-decay energy of 20Al ground state has been determined to be 1.93(+0.11,-0.09) MeV through a detailed study of angular correlations of its decay products, 17Ne+p+p+p. This value is much smaller in comparison with the predictions inferred from the isospin symmetry by using the known energy of its mirror nucleus 20N, which indicates a possible mirror symmetry violation in the structure of 3p emitters. Such an isospin symmetry breaking is supported by the calculations of the continuum embedded theoretical frameworks, describing the observed 20Al ground state as an 1p s-wave state with a spin-parity of 1-, which contradicts to the spin-parity (2-) of the 20N ground state. The 20Al ground state decays by sequential 1p-2p emission via intermediate ground state of 19Mg, which is the first observed case of daughter two-proton radioactivity following 1p decay of the parent state., Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, to be submitted to APS

We report on the observation of previously-unknown isotope $^{21}$Al, the first unbound aluminum isotope located beyond the proton dripline. The $^{21}$Al nucleus decays by one-proton (1p) emission, and its in-flight decays were detected by tracking trajectories of all decay products with micro-strip silicon detectors. The 1p-emission processes were studied by analyses of the measured angular correlations of decay products $^{20}$Mg+p. The 1p-decay energies of ground and low-lying excited states of $^{21}$Al, its mass excess and proton separation energy value $S_p$=$-1.1(1)$ MeV were determined., Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures

Search for the population of the low-energy continuum of a tetraneutron system was performed for reactions of the $^{8}$He beam on a deuterium target. These studies are based on the data [I.A. Muzalevskii \textit{et al.}, Phys.\ Rev.\ C \textbf{103}, 044313 (2021)], previously used for the studies of $^{7}$H and $^{6}$H in the $^2\text{H}(^8\text{He},{^3\text{He}})^{7}$H and $^2\text{H}(^8\text{He},{^4\text{He}})^{6}$H reactions. Evidence for a hump in the $^4$n continuum at $3.5 \pm 0.7$ and $3.2 \pm 0.8$ MeV was observed in the $^2$H($^8$He,$^6$Li)$^4$n and $^2$H($^8$He,$^3$He)$^7$H$\rightarrow ^3$H+$^4$n reactions, respectively. The observed statistics is quite low (6 events and up to 40 events) corresponding to very low cross sections of few microbarns or tens of microbarns. The background conditions for the $^2$H($^8$He,$^6$Li)$^4$n reaction are shown to be good, favoring the physical nature of the observed events. The $^2$H($^8$He,$^3$He)$^7$H$\rightarrow ^3$H+$^4$n process transforms to the $^2$H($^8$He,$^6$Li$^{\ast})^4n$ reaction in the limit of the highest $^7$H decay energies. The population of the low-energy region in the $^{4}$n spectrum is found to be perfectly correlated with the population of the lowest $^{6}$Li state in the $^{3}$He+$^{3}$H continuum with $E^*=18$ MeV. Theoretical calculations of $^{8}$He in a five-body $\alpha$+$4n$ and of $^{4}$n in a four-body hyperspherical models are presented. The $^{8}$He wave function is shown to contain strong specific correlations, which may give rise to very low-energy structures in tetraneutron continuum in extreme-peripheral reaction scenarios., Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures

Setup fitting the requirements for the detailed study of the five-body decay of the 7H nucleus obtained as a result of the proton transfer from the 8He projectiles to the deuterium target nuclei is being built at the radioactive beam line of ACCULINNA-2 separator in the G.N. Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions. Described here is the assembly of 100 BC-404 plastic scintillators, intended for neutron detection, the annular Si detector telescope for the 3He recoils, and the detector array providing the $\Delta E$-$E$-TOF registration of 3H nuclei emitted at the 7H decay. Results obtained by the Monte Carlo simulations made for the energy values and flight passes of all these particles are given together with the luminosity expected for the discussed experiments.

The proton and deuteron pickup reactions 2H(10Be,3He)9Li and 2H(10Be,4He)8Li radioactive beam produced by the new fragment separator ACCULINNA-2 at FLNR, JINR\@. These measurements were initially motivated as test reactions intended for the elucidation of results obtained in the study of the extremely neutron-rich 7H and 6H systems created in the 2H(10Be,3He)9Li and 2H(10Be,4He)8Li reactions using the same setup. In the 2H(10Be,3He)9Li reaction the 9Li ground-state ($3/2^-$) and its first excited state (2.69MeV, $1/2^-$) were identified in the low-energy region of its excitation spectrum. The differential cross sections for the 9Li g.~s.) population were extracted at forward center-of-mass angles ($3^\circ-13^\circ$) and compared with the FRESCO calculations. Spectroscopic factor of $\sim 1.7$, derived by a model for the 10Be$ = p +$9Li(g.s.) clustering was found in accord with the experimental data. The energy spectrum of 8Li populated in the 2H(10Be,4He)8Li reaction shows the strong peak which corresponds to excitation of the second excited state of 8Li (2.25 MeV, $3^+$). The fact that the ground and the first excited states of 8Li were not observed is fully consistent with Shell-Model calculations carried out for the 10Be g.\,s. and 8Li level structure applying momentum selection rules.

The extremely neutron-rich system $^{6}$H was studied in the direct $^2\text{H}(^8\text{He},{^4\text{He}})^{6}$H transfer reaction with a $26 A$ MeV secondary $^{8}$He beam. The measured missing mass spectrum shows a broad bump at $\sim 4-8$ MeV above the $^3$H+$3n$ decay threshold. This bump can be interpreted as a broad resonant state in $^{6}$H at $6.8(5)$ MeV. The population cross section of such a presumably $p$-wave state (or may be few overlapping states) in the energy range from 4 to 8 MeV is $d\sigma/d\Omega_{\text{c.m.}} \simeq 190^{+40}_{-80}$ $\mu$b/sr in the angular range $5^{\circ}<\theta_{\text{c.m.}}<16^{\circ}$. The obtained missing mass spectrum is practically free of the $^{6}$H events below 3.5 MeV ($d\sigma/d\Omega_{\text{c.m.}} \lesssim 5$ $\mu$b/sr in the same angular range). The steep rise of the $^{6}$H missing mass spectrum at $\sim 3$ MeV allows to derive the lower limit for the possible resonant-state energy in $^{6}$H to be $4.5(3)$ MeV. According to the paring energy estimates, such a $4.5(3)$ MeV resonance is a realistic candidate for the $^{6}$H ground state (g.s.). The obtained results confirm that the decay mechanism of the $^{7}$H g.s.\ (located at 2.2 MeV above the $^{3}$H+$4n$ threshold) is the "true" (or simultaneous) $4n$ emission. The resonance energy profiles and the momentum distributions of fragments of the sequential $^{6}$H$ \,\rightarrow \, ^5$H(g.s.)+$n\, \rightarrow \, ^3$H+$3n$ decay were analyzed by the theoretically-updated direct four-body-decay and sequential-emission mechanisms. The measured momentum distributions of the $^{3}$H fragments in the $^{6}$H rest frame indicate very strong "dineutron-type" correlations in the $^{5}$H ground state decay., Comment: 16 pages, 19 figures

Mass measurements of the $^{69}$As, $^{70,71}$Se and $^{71}$Br isotopes, produced via fragmentation of a $^{124}$Xe primary beam at the FRS at GSI, have been performed with the multiple-reflection time-of-flight mass spectrometer (MR-TOF-MS) of the FRS Ion Catcher with an unprecedented mass resolving power of almost 1,000,000. For the $^{69}$As isotope, this is the first direct mass measurement. A mass uncertainty of 22 keV was achieved with only 10 events. For the $^{70}$Se isotope, a mass uncertainty of 2.6 keV was obtained, corresponding to a relative accuracy of $\delta$m/m = 4.0$\times 10^{-8}$, with less than 500 events. The masses of the $^{71}$Se and $^{71}$Br isotopes were measured with an uncertainty of 23 and 16 keV, respectively. Our results for the $^{70,71}$Se and $^{71}$Br isotopes agree with the 2016 Atomic Mass Evaluation, and our result for the $^{69}$As isotope resolves the discrepancy between previous indirect measurements. We measured also the mass of $^{14}$N$^{15}$N$^{40}$Ar (A=69) with a relative accuracy of $\delta$m/m = 1.7$\times 10^{-8}$, the highest yet achieved with a MR-TOF-MS. Our results show that the measured restrengthening of the proton-neutron interaction ($\delta$V$_{pn}$) for odd-odd nuclei at the N=Z line above Z=29 (recently extended to Z=37) is hardly evident at N-Z=2, and not evident at N-Z=4. Nevertheless, detailed structure of $\delta$V$_{pn}$ along the N-Z=2 and N-Z=4 lines, confirmed by our mass measurements, may provide a hint regarding the ongoing $\approx$500 keV discrepancy in the mass value of the $^{70}$Br isotope, which prevents including it in the world average of ${Ft}$-value for superallowed 0$^+\rightarrow$ 0$^+$ $\beta$ decays. The reported work sets the stage for mass measurements with the FRS Ion Catcher of nuclei at and beyond the N=Z line in the same region of the nuclear chart, including the $^{70}$Br isotope., Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication at Physical Review C

The extremely neutron-rich system $^{7}$H was studied in the direct $^2$H($^8$He,$^3$He)$^7$H transfer reaction with a 26 AMeV secondary $^{8}$He beam [Bezbakh et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 124 (2020) 022502]. The missing mass spectrum and center-of-mass (c.m.) angular distributions of $^{7}$H, as well as the momentum distribution of the $^{3}$H fragment in the $^{7}$H frame, were constructed. In addition to the investigation reported in Ref. [Bezbakh et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 124 (2020) 022502], we carried out another experiment with the same beam but a modified setup, which was cross-checked by the study of the $^2$H($^{10}$Be,$^3$He$)^{9}$Li reaction. A solid experimental evidence is provided that two resonant states of $^{7}$H are located in its spectrum at 2.2(5) and 5.5(3) MeV relative to the $^3$H+4$n$ decay threshold. Also, there are indications that the resonant states at 7.5(3) and 11.0(3) MeV are present in the measured $^{7}$H spectrum. Based on the energy and angular distributions, obtained for the studied $^2$H($^8$He,$^3$He)$^7$H reaction, the weakly populated 2.2(5) MeV peak is ascribed to the $^7$H ground state. It is highly plausible that the firmly ascertained 5.5(3) MeV state is the $5/2^+$ member of the $^7$H excitation $5/2^+$-$3/2^+$ doublet, built on the $2^+$ configuration of valence neutrons. The supposed 7.5 MeV state can be another member of this doublet, which could not be resolved in Ref. [Bezbakh et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 124 (2020) 022502]. Consequently, the two doublet members appeared in the spectrum of $^{7}$H in [Bezbakh et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 124 (2020) 022502] as a single broad 6.5 MeV peak., Comment: 16 pages, 15 figures

The method of asymptotic normalization coefficients is a standard approach for studies of two-body non-resonant radiative capture processes in nuclear astrophysics. This method suggests a fully analytical description of the radiative capture cross section in the low-energy region of the astrophysical interest. We demonstrate how this method can be generalized to the case of three-body $2p$ radiative captures. It was found that an essential feature of this process is the highly correlated nature of the capture. This reflects the complexity of three-body Coulomb continuum problem. Radiative capture $^{15}$O+$p$+$p \rightarrow ^{\,17}$Ne+$\gamma$ is considered as an illustration., Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures

The low-energy behavior of the strength function for the $1^-$ soft dipole excitation in $^{6}$He is studied theoretically. Use of very large basis sizes and well-grounded extrapolation procedures allows to move to energies as small as 1 keV, at which the low-energy asymptotic behavior of the E1 strength function seems to be achieved. It is found that the low-energy behavior of the strength function is well described in the effective three-body "dynamical dineutron model". The astrophysical rate for the $\alpha$+$n$+$n \rightarrow ^6$He+$\gamma$ is calculated. Comparison with the previous calculations is performed., Comment: 6 pages, 9 figures

The "soft dipole" E1 strength function is calculated for the transition from the $^{6}$He $0^+$ ground state to the $1^-$ continuum $^{4}$He+$n$+$n$. The calculations were performed within the hyperspherical harmonics formalism. The sensitivity of the results to the $^{6}$He ground state structure and to final state interactions, are analyzed. The large-basis calculations show the reliably converged results for soft dipole strength function and for momentum correlations of the $^{6}\mbox{He} \rightarrow \, ^{4}$He+$n$+$n$ dissociation products. Transition mechanisms are analyzed based on the momentum correlations. The comparison with experimental data is provided., Comment: 16 pages, 17 figures

Within the hyperspherical harmonics approach the three-body problem is reduced to a motion of one effective particle in a "strongly deformed" field, which is described in coupled-channel formalism. This method is especially suited to studies of phenomena characterized by genuine three-body dynamics, e.g. Borromean haloes and true three-body decays. The reduction of the hyperspherical equations set to a single-channel Schr\"odinger equation provides the basis for the use of the standard quasiclassical expression for calculations of widths for true three-body decays. We demonstrate that the quasiclassical approach by itself is quite precise in application to typical profiles of the three-body effective potentials. However, the reduction to single-channel formalism leads to significant overestimation of the two-proton width $\Gamma_{2p}$. This is demonstrated by the example of the $^{17}$Ne first excited $3/2^-$ state decay, questioning, however, the applicability of such an approximation in general., Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures

The $^7$H system was populated in the $^2$H($^8$He,$^3$He)$^7$H reaction with a 26 AMeV $^8$He beam. The $^{7}$H missing mass energy spectrum, the $^{3}$H energy and angular distributions in the $^7$H decay frame were reconstructed. The $^7$H missing mass spectrum shows a peak which can be interpreted either as unresolved $5/2^+$ and $3/2^+$ doublet or one of these states at 6.5(5) MeV. The data also provide indications on the $1/2^+$ ground state of $^7$H located at 2.0(5) MeV with quite a low population cross section of $\sim 10$ $\mu$b/sr within angular range $\theta_{\text{cm}} \simeq 6^{\circ} - 30^{\circ}$.

The most-remote from stability isotope $^{31}$K, which is located four atomic mass units beyond the proton drip line, has been observed. It is unbound in respect to three-proton (${3p}$) emission, and its decays have been detected in flight by measuring trajectories of all decay products using micro-strip detectors. The $3p$-emission processes have been studied by means of angular correlations $^{28}$S+3$p$ and the respective decay vertexes. The energies of the previously-unknown ground and excited states of $^{31}$K have been determined. This provides its $3p$ separation-energy value $S_{3p}$ of $-4.6(2)$ MeV. Upper half-life limits of 10 ps of the observed $^{31}$K states have been derived from distributions of the measured decay vertexes., Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures

Mechanism of simultaneous non-sequential four-neutron ($4n$) emission (or `true' $4n$-decay) has been considered in phenomenological five-body approach. This approach is analogous to the model of the direct decay to the continuum often applied to $2n$- and $2p$-decays. It is demonstrated that $4n$-decay fragments should have specific energy and angular correlations reflecting strong spatial correlations of `valence' nucleons orbiting in their $4n$-precursors. Due to the Pauli exclusion principle, the valence neutrons are pushed to the symmetry-allowed configurations in the $4n$-precursor structure, which causes a `Pauli focusing' effect. Prospects of the observation of the Pauli focusing have been considered for the $4n$-precursors $^7$H and $^{28}$O. Fingerprints of their nuclear structure or/and decay dynamics are predicted.

Coulomb and nuclear dissociation of $^{17}$Ne on light and heavy targets are studied theoretically. The dipole E1 strength function is determined in a broad energy range including energies of astrophysical interest. Dependence of the strength function on different parameters of the $^{17}$Ne ground state structure and continuum dynamics is analyzed in a three-body model. The discovered dependence plays an important role for studies of the strength functions for the three-body E1 dissociation and radiative capture. The constraints on the $[s^2]/[d^2]$ configuration mixing in $^{17}$Ne and on $p$-wave interaction in the $^{15}$O+$p$ channel are imposed based on experimental data for $^{17}$Ne Coulomb dissociation on heavy target., Comment: 12 pages, 13 figures

Prospects of experimental studies of argon and chlorine isotopes located far beyond the proton dripline are studied by using systematics and cluster models. The deviations from the widespread systematics observed in $^{28,29}$Cl and $^{29,30}$Ar have been theoretically substantiated, and analogous deviations predicted for the lighter chlorine and argon isotopes. The limits of nuclear structure existence are predicted for Ar and Cl isotopic chains, with $^{26}$Ar and $^{25}$Cl found to be the lightest sufficiently long-living nuclear systems. By simultaneous measurements of protons and $\gamma$-rays following decays of such systems as well as their $\beta$-delayed emission, an interesting synergy effect may be achieved, which is demonstrated by the example of $^{30}$Cl and $^{31}$Ar ground state studies. Such synergy effect may be provided by the new EXPERT setup (EXotic Particle Emission and Radioactivity by Tracking), being operated inside the fragment separator and spectrometer facility at GSI, Darmstadt., Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures. Chapter added, language and some figures corrected

The proton-unbound argon and chlorine isotopes have been studied by measuring trajectories of their decay-in-flight products by using a tracking technique with micro-strip detectors. The proton ($1p$) and two-proton ($2p$) emission processes have been detected in the measured angular correlations "heavy-fragment"+$p$ and "heavy-fragment"+$p$+$p$, respectively. The ground states of the previously unknown isotopes $^{30}$Cl and $^{28}$Cl have been observed for the first time, providing the $1p$-separation energies $S_p$ of $-0.48(2)$ and $-1.60(8)$ MeV, respectively. The relevant systematics of $1p$ and $2p$ separations energies have been studied theoretically in the core+$p$ and core+$p$+$p$ cluster models. The first-time observed excited states of $^{31}$Ar allow to infer the $2p$-separation energy $S_{2p}$ of 6(34) keV for its ground state. The first-time observed state in $^{29}$Ar with $S_{2p} = -5.50(18)$ MeV can be identified either as a ground or an excited state according to different systematics., Comment: 13 pages, 14 figures. Name changed, some affiliations changed and figures corrections added

The $^{6}$Be continuum states were populated in the charge-exchange reaction $^1$H($^{6}$Li,$^{6}$Be)$n$ collecting very high statistics data ($\sim 5 \times 10^6$ events) on the three-body $\alpha$+$p$+$p$ correlations. The $^{6}$Be excitation energy region below $\sim 3$ MeV is considered, where the data are dominated by contributions from the $0^+$ and $2^+$ states. It is demonstrated how the high-statistics few-body correlation data can be used to extract detailed information on the reaction mechanism. Such a derivation is based on the fact that highly spin-aligned states are typically populated in the direct reactions., Comment: submitted to Physical Review C

Emission of two neutrons or two protons in reactions and decays is often discussed in terms of "dineutron" or "diproton" emission. The discussion often leans intuitively on something described by Migdal-Watson approximation. In this work we propose a way to formalize situations of dineutron emission. It is demonstrated that properly formally defined dineutron emission may reveal properties which are drastically different from those traditionally expected, and properties which are actually observed in three-body decays., Comment: 11 pages, 11 Figures

Several states of proton-unbound isotopes $^{30}$Ar and $^{29}$Cl were investigated by measuring their in-flight decay products, $^{28}$S+proton+proton and $^{28}$S+proton, respectively. A refined analysis of $^{28}$S-proton angular correlations indicates that the ground state of $^{30}$Ar is located at $2.45^{+0.05}_{-0.10}$ MeV above the two-proton emission threshold. The theoretical investigation of the $^{30}$Ar ground state decay demonstrates that its mechanism has the transition dynamics with a surprisingly strong sensitivity of the correlation patterns of the decay products to the two-proton decay energy of the $^{30}$Ar ground state and the one-proton decay energy as well as the one-proton decay width of the $^{29}$Cl ground state. The comparison of the experimental $^{28}$S-proton angular correlations with those resulting from Monte Carlo simulations of the detector response illustrates that other observed $^{30}$Ar excited states decay by sequential emission of protons via intermediate resonances in $^{29}$Cl. Based on the findings, the decay schemes of the observed states in $^{30}$Ar and $^{29}$Cl were constructed. For calibration purposes and for checking the performance of the experimental setup, decays of the previously-known states of a two-proton emitter $^{19}$Mg were remeasured. Evidences for one new excited state in $^{19}$Mg and two unknown states in $^{18}$Na were found., Comment: 17 pages, 16 figures

The lifetime of the recently discovered $2p$ emitter $^{67}$Kr was recently found considerably below the lower limit predicted theoretically. This communication addresses this issue.Different separation energy systematics are analyzed and different mechanisms for $2p$ emission are evaluated. It is found that the most plausible reason for this disagreement is a decay mechanism of $^{67}$Kr, which is not "true $2p$" emission, but "transition dynamics" on the borderline between true $2p$ and sequential $2p$ decay mechanisms. If this is true, this imposes stringent limits $E_r=1.35-1.42$ MeV on the ground state energy of $^{66}$Br relative to the $^{65}$Se-$p$ threshold., Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures

Two-proton decay of the $^{17}$Ne low-lying states populated in the $^1$H($^{18}$Ne,$d$)$^{17}$Ne transfer reaction was studied. The two-proton width $\Gamma_{2p}$ of the $^{17}$Ne first excited $3/2^-$ state at $E^*=1.288$ MeV is of importance for the two-proton radioactivity theory and nuclear-astrophysics applications. A dedicated search for the two-proton emission of this state was performed leading to the new upper limit obtained for the width ratio $\Gamma_{2p}/\Gamma_{\gamma} < 1.6(3) \times 10^{-4}$. A novel, "combined mass" method is suggested and tested capable to improve the resolution of the experiment which is a prime significance for the study of nuclear states with extremely small particle-to-gamma width ratios $\Gamma_{\mathrm{part}}/\Gamma_{\gamma}$. The condition $\Gamma_{\mathrm{part}} \ll \Gamma_{\gamma}$ is quite common for the states of astrophysical interest which makes the proposed approach promising in this field.

Fragment separator ACCULINNA-2 has been built in the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear reactions (JINR, Dubna). It is timely now to choose meaningful and challenging objectives for experiments dedicated to the study of light drip-line nuclei. Considerable interest makes the search for the minor $2p$-decay branch of the first excited state of $^{17}$Ne. The knowledge on the $\Gamma_{2p}/\Gamma_{\gamma}$ width ratio for this excited state is of considerable interest because the reverse process of simultaneous two-proton radiative capture could be a bypass for the $^{15}$O "waiting point" occurring in the rp-process of nucleosynthesis. Accumulation of high-statistics data for the $^{10}$He excitation spectrum populated in the $^2$H($^8$He,$p$)$^9$He and $^3$H($^8$He,$p$)$^{10}$He reactions, as well as the study of cross-check reactions made with the $^{11}$Li and $^{14}$Be beams, will make an effective way to clarify the succession of $^{10}$He excited states. A hot topic beyond the neutron drip line makes the observation of results capable to elucidate the low-energy resonance states anticipated for the $4n$ decay of $^{7}$H. The RIB beams provided by ACCULINNA-2 will allow one to perform experiments where luminosity coming to a level of more than $2 \times 10^{26}$ cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ will be achievable in experiments aimed study of the $^2$H($^8$He,$^3$He)$^7$H and $^2$H($^{11}$Li,$^6$Li)$^7$H reactions., Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Proceedings of Int. Symp. on Exotic Nuclei, EXON-2016, 4-10 September 2016, Kazan, Russia

Transitions among different mechanisms of two-proton decay are studied in general. The introduced improved direct-decay model generalizes the semi-analytical models used before and provides flawless phenomenological description of three-body correlations in $2p$ decays. This is demonstrated by examples of the low-lying $^{16}$Ne state decays. Different forms of transition dynamic are shown to be highly probable beyond the proton dripline for the $s$-$d$ shell nuclei. It is demonstrated that transition dynamic of $2p$ emitters can provide means for extraction of a width of the ground-state resonance of a core+$p$ subsystem of the core+$2p$ system. Practical applicability of the method is demonstrated by properties of the $^{14}$F ground state derived from the $^{15}\mbox{Ne}\rightarrow ^{\,13\!\!}\mbox{O}+2p$ decay data and of the $^{29}$Cl ground state derived from the $^{30}\mbox{Ar}\rightarrow ^{\,28\!\!}\mbox{S}+2p$ decay data., Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures

The structure and decay dynamics for $0^+$ and $2^+$ continuum excitations of $^{26}$O are investigated in a three-body $^{24}$O+$n$+$n$ model. The validity of a simple approximation for the cross section profile for long-lived $2n$ emission is demonstrated. A sequence of three $0^+$ monopole ("breathing mode" type) excited states is predicted. These states could probably be interpreted as analogues of Efimov states pushed in the continuum due to insufficient binding. The calculated energies of the $2^+$ states are related to the excitation spectrum of $^{25}$O. We discuss the correlation between the predicted $^{26}$O spectrum and experimental observations., Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures

The dynamic mechanism of the Thomas-Ehrman shift is studied in three-cluster systems by example of $^{16}$Ne and $^{16}$C isobaric mirror partners. We predict configuration mixings for $0^+$ and $2^+$ states in $^{16}$Ne and $^{16}$C. Large isospin symmetry breaking on the level of wave function component weights is demonstrated for these states and discussed as three-body mechanism of Thomas-Ehrman shift. It is shown that the description of the Coulomb displacement energies requires a consistency among three parameters: the $^{16}$Ne decay energy $E_T$, the $^{15}$F ground state energy $E_r$, and the configuration mixing parameters for the $^{16}$Ne/$^{16}$C $0^+$ and $2^+$ states. Basing on this analysis we infer the $^{15}$F $1/2^+$ ground state energy to be $E_r=1.39-1.42$ MeV., Comment: 10 pages 8 figures

The interaction of an $E/A$=57.6-MeV $^{17}$Ne beam with a Be target was used to populate levels in $^{16}$Ne following neutron knockout reactions. The decay of $^{16}$Ne states into the three-body $^{14}$O+$p$+$p$ continuum was observed in the High Resolution Array (HiRA). For the first time for a 2p emitter, correlations between the momenta of the three decay products were measured with sufficient resolution and statistics to allow for an unambiguous demonstration of their dependence on the long-range nature of the Coulomb interaction. Contrary to previous experiments, the intrinsic decay width of the $^{16}$Ne ground state was found to be narrow ($\Gamma<60$~keV), consistent with theoretical estimates., Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures

Structure with the lowest energy observed in the $^{10}$He spectrum populated in the proton knockout reaction with $^{11}$Li beam has a peak at $1.2-1.5$ MeV. This peak is usually interpreted as a resonant $0^+$ ground state of $^{10}$He. Our theoretical calculations indicate that this peak is likely to be a pileup of $1^-$, $0^+$, and $2^+$ excitations with very similar shapes. %We predict a very specific nature of the $1^-$ excitation in $^{10}$He. Moreover, the ``soft'' $1^-$ excitation appears to be the lowest one in energy. Such an anomalous continuum response is traced to the halo structure of $^{11}$Li providing extreme low energy shift to all the expected continuum excitations. Competitions of the initial state structure (ISS) and the final state interaction (FSI) effects on the spectrum and three-body correlations in $^{10}$He are discussed. Analogous effect of the extreme low-energy shift could also be expected in other cases of $2n$ emitters populated in reactions with halo nuclei. Simplified example of the $^{10}$He spectrum in $\alpha$ knockout from $^{14}$Be, is given. We also discuss limits on the properties of $^{9}$He stemming from the observed $^{10}$He spectrum., Comment: 10 pages, 13 figures

The nucleosynthesis of elements beyond iron is dominated by neutron captures in the s and r processes. However, 32 stable, proton-rich isotopes cannot be formed during those processes, because they are shielded from the s-process flow and r-process beta-decay chains. These nuclei are attributed to the p and rp process. For all those processes, current research in nuclear astrophysics addresses the need for more precise reaction data involving radioactive isotopes. Depending on the particular reaction, direct or inverse kinematics, forward or time-reversed direction are investigated to determine or at least to constrain the desired reaction cross sections. The Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) will offer unique, unprecedented opportunities to investigate many of the important reactions. The high yield of radioactive isotopes, even far away from the valley of stability, allows the investigation of isotopes involved in processes as exotic as the r or rp processes., Comment: Invited Talk given at the Conference Nuclear Physice in Astrophysics VI (NPA6), Lisbon, Portugal, May 19-24 2013. To appear in the NPA6 Proceedings in Journal of Physics: Conference Series (JPCS)

The structure and decay of $^{26}$O are investigated in a three-body $^{24}$O+$n+n$ model suitable for studies of the long-lived (including radioactivity timescale) states. We have found extremely strong effect of the subbarrier configuration mixing on the decay width of true $2n$ emitters due to core recoil and neutron-neutron final state interaction. This effect is far exceeding analogous effect in the true $2p$ emitters. Our calculations provide reasonably narrow boundaries for the lifetime vs.\ decay energy dependence for the true $2n$ emission. An upper limit of $\sim 1$ keV for the decay energy of the unbound $^{26}$O is inferred based on the recent experimental lifetime value., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures

The influence of the initial-state structure and the reaction mechanism on three-body decays is investigated by example of the 6Be continuum populated in neutron-knockout reactions on 7Be. The sensitivity of the 6Be excitation spectrum and the three-body correlations to the different components of the model is demonstrated. It is shown that the spin composition of the initial state may have an overwhelming effect on the three-body continuum. The characteristics and structure of the second $0^+_2$ and $2^+_2$ states in 6Be are predicted for the first time and the conditions for their reliable observations are formulated. The effects of interference and the alignment of three-body states on the three-body correlations are demonstrated., Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures

The interaction of an E/A=70 - MeV 7Be beam with a Be target was used to populate levels in 6Be following neutron knockout reactions. The three-body decay of the ground and first excited states into the alpha+p+p exit channel were detected in the High Resolution Array. Precise three-body correlations extracted from the experimental data allowed us to obtain insight into the mechanism of the three-body democratic decay. The correlation data are in a good agreement with a three-cluster-model calculation and thus validate this theoretical approach over a broad energy range., Comment: 5 pages, 7 figures; Corrected typos

The 0+ ground state of the 10He nucleus produced in the 3H(8He,p)10He reaction was found at about $2.1\pm0.2$ MeV (\Gamma ~ 2 MeV) above the three-body 8He+n+n breakup threshold. Angular correlations observed for 10He decay products show prominent interference patterns allowing to draw conclusions about the structure of low-energy excited states. We interpret the observed correlations as a coherent superposition of the broad 1- state having a maximum at energy 4-6 MeV and the 2+ state above 6 MeV, setting both on top of the 0+ state "tail". This anomalous level ordering indicates that the breakdown of the N=8 shell known in 12Be thus extends also to the 10He system., Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures

The last decades brought an impressive progress in synthesizing and studying properties of nuclides located very far from the beta stability line. Among the most fundamental properties of such exotic nuclides, usually established first, is the half-life, possible radioactive decay modes, and their relative probabilities. When approaching limits of nuclear stability, new decay modes set in. First, beta decays become accompanied by emission of nucleons from highly excited states of daughter nuclei. Second, when the nucleon separation energy becomes negative, nucleons start to be emitted from the ground state. Here, we present a review of the decay modes occurring close to the limits of stability. The experimental methods used to produce, identify and detect new species and their radiation are discussed. The current theoretical understanding of these decay processes is overviewed. The theoretical description of the most recently discovered and most complex radioactive process - the two-proton radioactivity - is discussed in more detail., Comment: Review, 68 pages, 39 figures

By using the 1H(6Li,6Be)n charge-exchange reaction, continuum states in 6Be were populated up to E_t=16 MeV, E_t being the 6Be energy above its three-body decay threshold. In kinematically complete measurements performed by detecting alpha+p+p coincidences, an E_t spectrum of high statistics was obtained, containing approximately ~5x10^6 events. The spectrum provides detailed correlation information about the well-known 0^+ ground state of 6Be at E_t=1.37 MeV and its 2^+ state at E_t=3.05 MeV. Moreover, a broad structure extending from 4 to 16 MeV was observed. It contains negative parity states populated by Delta L=1 angular momentum transfer without other significant contributions. This structure can be interpreted as a novel phenomenon, i.e. the isovector soft dipole mode associated with the 6Li ground state. The population of this mode in the charge-exchange reaction is a dominant phenomenon for this reaction, being responsible for about 60% of the cross section obtained in the measured energy range., Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures

Unknown isotope 26S, expected to decay by two-proton (2p) emission, was studied theoretically and was searched experimentally. The structure of this nucleus was examined within the relativistic mean field (RMF) approach. A method for taking into account the many-body structure in the three-body decay calculations was developed. The results of the RMF calculations were used as an input for the three-cluster decay model worked out to study a possible 2p decay branch of this nucleus. The experimental search for 26S was performed in fragmentation reactions of a 50.3 A MeV 32S beam. No events of 26S or 25P (a presumably proton-unstable subsystem of 26S) were observed. Based on the obtained production systematics an upper half-life limit of T_{1/2}<79 ns was established from the time-of-flight through the fragment separator. Together with the theoretical lifetime estimates for two-proton decay this gives a decay energy limit of Q_{2p}>640 keV for 26S. Analogous limits for 25P are found as T_{1/2}<38 ns and Q_{p}>110 keV. In the case that the one-proton emission is the main branch of the 26S decay a limit Q_{2p}>230 keV would follow for this nucleus. It is likely that 26S resides in the picosecond lifetime range and the further search for this isotope is prospective for the decay-in-flight technique., Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures

Nowadays quantum-mechanical theory allows one to reliably calculate the processes of 2p radioactivity (true three-body decays) and the corresponding energy and angular correlations up to distances of the order of 1000 fm. However, the precision of modern experiments has now become sufficient to indicate some deficiency of the predicted theoretical distributions. In this paper we discuss the extrapolation along the classical trajectories as a method to improve the convergence of the theoretical energy and angular correlations at very large distances (of the order of atomic distances), where only the long-range Coulomb forces are still operating. The precision of this approach is demonstrated using the "exactly" solvable semianalytical models with simplified three-body Hamiltonians. It is also demonstrated that for heavy 2p emitters, the 2p decay momentum distributions can be sensitive to the effect of the screening by atomic electrons. We compare theoretical results with available experimental data., Comment: 13 pages, 18 figures

Three-body correlations for the ground-state decay of the lightest two-proton emitter $^{6}$Be are studied both theoretically and experimentally. Theoretical studies are performed in a three-body hyperspherical-harmonics cluster model. In the experimental studies, the ground state of $^{6}$Be was formed following the $\alpha$ decay of a $^{10}$C beam inelastically excited through interactions with Be and C targets. Excellent agreement between theory and experiment is obtained demonstrating the existence of complicated correlation patterns which can elucidate the structure of $^{6}$Be and, possibly, of the A=6 isobar., Comment: 17 pages, 21 figures, 5 tables

The low-lying spectra of $^8$He and $^{10}$He nuclei were studied in the $^3$H($^6$He,$p$)$^8$He and $^3$H($^8$He,$p$)$^{10}$He transfer reactions. The $0^+$ ground state (g.s.) of $^8$He and excited states, $2^+$ at $3.6-3.9$ MeV and $(1^+)$ at $5.3-5.5$ MeV, were populated with cross sections of 200, 100-250, and 90-125 $\mu$b/sr, respectively. Some evidence for $^8$He state at about 7.5 MeV is obtained. We discuss a possible nature of the near-threshold anomaly above 2.14 MeV in $^8$He and relate it to the population of a $1^-$ continuum (soft dipole excitation) with peak value at about 3 MeV. The lowest energy group of events in the $^{10}$He spectrum was observed at $\sim 3$ MeV with a cross section of $\sim 140$ $\mu$b/sr. We argue that this result is possibly consistent with the previously reported observation of $^{10}$He, in that case providing a new g.s. position for $^{10}$He at about 3 MeV., Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Phys. Lett. B

Proton-proton correlations were observed for the two-proton decays of the ground states of $^{19}$Mg and $^{16}$Ne. The trajectories of the respective decay products, $^{17}$Ne+p+p and $^{14}$O+p+p, were measured by using a tracking technique with microstrip detectors. These data were used to reconstruct the angular correlations of fragments projected on planes transverse to the precursor momenta. The measured three-particle correlations reflect a genuine three-body decay mechanism and allowed us to obtain spectroscopic information on the precursors with valence protons in the $sd$ shell., Comment: 5 pages 6 figures

We report on the first measurement of the $\beta^+$- and orbital electron capture decay rates of $^{140}$Pr nuclei with the most simple electron configurations: bare nuclei, hydrogen-like and helium-like ions. The measured electron capture decay constant of hydrogen-like $^{140}$Pr$^{58+}$ ions is about 50% larger than that of helium-like $^{140}$Pr$^{57+}$ ions. Moreover, $^{140}$Pr ions with one bound electron decay faster than neutral $^{140}$Pr$^{0+}$ atoms with 59 electrons. To explain this peculiar observation one has to take into account the conservation of the total angular momentum, since only particular spin orientations of the nucleus and of the captured electron can contribute to the allowed decay., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures

We derive quasiclassical expressions for the three-body decay width and define the ``preexponential'' coefficients for them. The derivation is based on the integral formulae for the three-body width obtained in the semianalytical approach with simplified three-body Hamiltonian [L.V. Grigorenko and M.V.\ Zhukov, arXiv:0704.0920v1]. The model is applied to the decays of the first excited $3/2^{-}$ state of $^{17}$Ne and $3/2^{-}$ ground state of $^{45}$Fe. Various qualitative aspects of the model and relations with the other simplified approaches to the three-body decays are discussed., Comment: 9 Pages, 2 figures