The SπRIT time projection chamber.

The Superconducting Analyzer for MUlti-particles from RAdioIsotope (SAMURAI) Pion-Reconstruction and Ion-Tracker Time Projection Chamber (SπRIT TPC) was designed to enable measurements of heavy ion collisions with the SAMURAI spectrometer at the RIKEN radioactive isotope beam factory and provides constraints on the equation of state of neutron-rich nuclear matter. The SπRIT TPC has a 50.5 cm drift length and an 86.4 × 134.4 cm2 pad plane with 12 096 pads that are equipped with the generic electronics for TPCs. The SπRIT TPC allows for an excellent reconstruction of particles and provides isotopic resolution for pions and other light charged particles across a wide range of energy losses and momenta. The details of the SπRIT TPC are presented, along with discussion of the TPC performance based on cosmic rays and charged particles emitted in heavy ion collisions.

Probing the Single-Particle Character of Rotational States in

A beam containing a substantial component of both the J^{π}=5^{+}, T_{1/2}=162 ns isomeric state of ^{18}F and its 1^{+}, 109.77-min ground state is utilized to study members of the ground-state rotational band in ^{19}F through the neutron transfer reaction (d,p) in inverse kinematics. The resulting spectroscopic strengths confirm the single-particle nature of the 13/2^{+} band-terminating state. The agreement between shell-model calculations using an interaction constructed within the sd shell, and our experimental results reinforces the idea of a single-particle-collective duality in the descriptions of the structure of atomic nuclei.

Mass Measurement of 56Sc Reveals a Small A = 56 Odd-Even Mass Staggering, Implying a Cooler Accreted Neutron Star Crust.

We present the mass excesses of (52-57)Sc, obtained from recent time-of-flight nuclear mass measurements at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory at Michigan State University. The masses of 56Sc and 57Sc were determined for the first time with atomic mass excesses of -24.85(59)((-54)(+0)) MeV and -21.0(1.3) MeV, respectively, where the asymmetric uncertainty for 56Sc was included due to possible contamination from a long-lived isomer. The 56Sc mass indicates a small odd-even mass staggering in the A = 56 mass chain towards the neutron drip line, significantly deviating from trends predicted by the global FRDM mass model and favoring trends predicted by the UNEDF0 and UNEDF1 density functional calculations. Together with new shell-model calculations of the electron-capture strength function of 56Sc, our results strongly reduce uncertainties in model calculations of the heating and cooling at the 56Ti electron-capture layer in the outer crust of accreting neutron stars. We find that, in contrast to previous studies, neither strong neutrino cooling nor strong heating occurs in this layer. We conclude that Urca cooling in the outer crusts of accreting neutron stars that exhibit superbursts or high temperature steady-state burning, which are predicted to be rich in A≈56 nuclei, is considerably weaker than predicted. Urca cooling must instead be dominated by electron capture on the small amounts of adjacent odd-A nuclei contained in the superburst and high temperature steady-state burning ashes. This may explain the absence of strong crust Urca cooling inferred from the observed cooling light curve of the transiently accreting x-ray source MAXI J0556-332.

Mass measurements demonstrate a strong N=28 shell gap in argon.

We present results from recent time-of-flight nuclear mass measurements at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory at Michigan State University. We report the first mass measurements of ^{48}Ar and ^{49}Ar and find atomic mass excesses of -22.28(31) MeV and -17.8(1.1) MeV, respectively. These masses provide strong evidence for the closed shell nature of neutron number N=28 in argon, which is therefore the lowest even-Z element exhibiting the N=28 closed shell. The resulting trend in binding-energy differences, which probes the strength of the N=28 shell, compares favorably with shell-model calculations in the sd-pf shell using SDPF-U and SDPF-MU Hamiltonians.

Observation of long-range three-body coulomb effects in the decay of (16)Ne.

The interaction of an E/A=57.6-MeV ^{17}Ne beam with a Be target is 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 is observed in the High Resolution Array (HiRA). For the first time for a 2p emitter, correlations between the momenta of the three decay products are 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 measurements, our measured limit Γ<80 keV for the intrinsic decay width of the ground state is not in contradiction to the small values (of the order of keV) predicted theoretically.

Democratic decay of 6Be exposed by correlations.

The interaction of an E/A=70-MeV (7)Be beam with a Be target was used to populate levels in (6)Be following neutron knockout reactions. The three-body decay of the ground and first excited states into the α+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 good agreement with a three-cluster-model calculation and thus validate this theoretical approach over a broad energy range.

Correlations in intermediate energy two-proton removal reactions.

We report final-state-exclusive measurements of the light charged fragments in coincidence with (26)Ne residual nuclei following the direct two-proton removal from a neutron-rich (28)Mg secondary beam. A Dalitz-plot analysis and comparisons with simulations show that a majority of the triple-coincidence events with two protons display phase-space correlations consistent with the (two-body) kinematics of a spatially correlated pair-removal mechanism. The fraction of such correlated events, 56(12)%, is consistent with the fraction of the calculated cross section, 64%, arising from spin S=0 two-proton configurations in the entrance-channel (shell-model) (28)Mg ground state wave function. This result promises access to an additional and more specific probe of the spin and spatial correlations of valence nucleon pairs in exotic nuclei produced as fast secondary beams.

First experiment with HELIOS: the structure of 13B.

A first experiment is reported that makes use of a new kind of spectrometer uniquely suited to the study of reactions with radioactive beams in inverse kinematics, the helical orbit spectrometer, HELIOS. The properties of some low-lying states in the neutron-rich N=8 nucleus 13B were studied with good resolution. From the measured angular distributions of the (d,p) reaction and the relative spectroscopic factors, spin and configuration assignments of the first- and third-excited states of this nucleus can be constrained.