Background: Near-threshold alpha-clustered states in light nuclei have been postulated to have a structure consisting of a diffuse gas of alpha particles which condense into the 0s orbital. Experimental evidence for such a dramatic phase change in the structure of the nucleus has not yet been observed.Purpose: To understand the role of alpha condensation in light nuclei experimentally.Method: To examine signatures of this alpha condensation, a compound nucleus reaction using 160-, 280-, and 400-(MeVO)-O- 16 beams impinging on a carbon target was used to investigate the C-12(O-16, 7 alpha) reaction. This permits a search for near-threshold states in the alpha-conjugate nuclei up to Mg-24.Results: Events up to an alpha-particle multiplicity of seven were measured and the results were compared to both an extended Hauser-Feshbach calculation and the Fermi breakup model. The measured multiplicity distribution exceeded that predicted from a sequential decay mechanism and had a better agreement with the multiparticle Fermi breakup model. Examination of how these 7 alpha final states could be reconstructed to form Be-8 and( 12)C(0(2)(+)) showed a quantitative difference in which decay modes were dominant compared to the Fermi breakup model. No new states were observed in O-16, Ne-20, and Mg-24 due to the effect of the N-alpha penetrability suppressing the total alpha-particle dissociation decay mode.Conclusion: The reaction mechanism for a high-energy compound nucleus reaction can only be described by a hybrid of sequential decay and multiparticle breakup. Highly alpha-clustered states were seen which did not originate from simple binary reaction processes. Direct investigations of near-threshold states in N-alpha systems are inherently impeded by the Coulomb barrier prohibiting the observation of states in the N-alpha decay channel. No evidence of a highly clustered 15.1-MeV state in O-16 was observed from [Si-28 *, C-12(0(2)(+))]O-16(0(6)(+)) when reconstructing the Hoyle state from three alpha particles. Therefore, no experimental signatures for alpha condensation were observed.
Experimental investigation of α condensation in light nuclei
Dell'Aquila D.;De Luca S.;Francalanza L.;Gnoffo B.;Lombardo I.;Martorana N. S.;Pagano A.;Pagano E. V.;Papa M.;Pirrone S.;Politi G.;Rizzo F.;Russotto P.;Quattrocchi L.;
2019-01-01
Abstract
Background: Near-threshold alpha-clustered states in light nuclei have been postulated to have a structure consisting of a diffuse gas of alpha particles which condense into the 0s orbital. Experimental evidence for such a dramatic phase change in the structure of the nucleus has not yet been observed.Purpose: To understand the role of alpha condensation in light nuclei experimentally.Method: To examine signatures of this alpha condensation, a compound nucleus reaction using 160-, 280-, and 400-(MeVO)-O- 16 beams impinging on a carbon target was used to investigate the C-12(O-16, 7 alpha) reaction. This permits a search for near-threshold states in the alpha-conjugate nuclei up to Mg-24.Results: Events up to an alpha-particle multiplicity of seven were measured and the results were compared to both an extended Hauser-Feshbach calculation and the Fermi breakup model. The measured multiplicity distribution exceeded that predicted from a sequential decay mechanism and had a better agreement with the multiparticle Fermi breakup model. Examination of how these 7 alpha final states could be reconstructed to form Be-8 and( 12)C(0(2)(+)) showed a quantitative difference in which decay modes were dominant compared to the Fermi breakup model. No new states were observed in O-16, Ne-20, and Mg-24 due to the effect of the N-alpha penetrability suppressing the total alpha-particle dissociation decay mode.Conclusion: The reaction mechanism for a high-energy compound nucleus reaction can only be described by a hybrid of sequential decay and multiparticle breakup. Highly alpha-clustered states were seen which did not originate from simple binary reaction processes. Direct investigations of near-threshold states in N-alpha systems are inherently impeded by the Coulomb barrier prohibiting the observation of states in the N-alpha decay channel. No evidence of a highly clustered 15.1-MeV state in O-16 was observed from [Si-28 *, C-12(0(2)(+))]O-16(0(6)(+)) when reconstructing the Hoyle state from three alpha particles. Therefore, no experimental signatures for alpha condensation were observed.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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PRC100(2019) bishop.pdf
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