Spectroscopy of light exotic nuclei using nuclear break-up.

One-nucleon removal reactions at relativistic energies have been used as spectroscopic tool to obtain information about the ground state properties of several neutron-rich isotopes in the sd-shell. Using the FRS at GSI, the longitudinal momentum distributions of the emerging fragments after one-nucleon removal cross-sections were measured. The relative contributions of the remaining fragments in their ground and excited states have been determined from measurements of γ rays in coincidence with the longitudinal momentum distributions. The interesting case of 23O will be directly address. The interpretation of our experimental results in the framework of a simple theoretical model will favours a spin and parity assignment of 1/2+ for the 23O ground state in agreement with shell model predictions. © 2004 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]