Nuclear moments of indium isotopes reveal abrupt change at magic number 82.

In spite of the high-density and strongly correlated nature of the atomic nucleus, experimental and theoretical evidence suggests that around particular 'magic' numbers of nucleons, nuclear properties are governed by a single unpaired nucleon1,2. A microscopic understanding of the extent of this behaviour and its evolution in neutron-rich nuclei remains an open question in nuclear physics3-5. The indium isotopes are considered a textbook example of this phenomenon6, in which the constancy of their electromagnetic properties indicated that a single unpaired proton hole can provide the identity of a complex many-nucleon system6,7. Here we present precision laser spectroscopy measurements performed to investigate the validity of this simple single-particle picture. Observation of an abrupt change in the dipole moment at N = 82 indicates that, whereas the single-particle picture indeed dominates at neutron magic number N = 82 (refs. 2,8), it does not for previously studied isotopes. To investigate the microscopic origin of these observations, our work provides a combined effort with developments in two complementary nuclear many-body methods: ab initio valence-space in-medium similarity renormalization group and density functional theory (DFT). We find that the inclusion of time-symmetry-breaking mean fields is essential for a correct description of nuclear magnetic properties, which were previously poorly constrained. These experimental and theoretical findings are key to understanding how seemingly simple single-particle phenomena naturally emerge from complex interactions among protons and neutrons.

Isotope Shifts of Radium Monofluoride Molecules.

Isotope shifts of ^{223-226,228}Ra^{19}F were measured for different vibrational levels in the electronic transition A^{2}Π_{1/2}←X^{2}Σ^{+}. The observed isotope shifts demonstrate the particularly high sensitivity of radium monofluoride to nuclear size effects, offering a stringent test of models describing the electronic density within the radium nucleus. Ab initio quantum chemical calculations are in excellent agreement with experimental observations. These results highlight some of the unique opportunities that short-lived molecules could offer in nuclear structure and in fundamental symmetry studies.

Spectroscopy of short-lived radioactive molecules.

Molecular spectroscopy offers opportunities for the exploration of the fundamental laws of nature and the search for new particle physics beyond the standard model1-4. Radioactive molecules-in which one or more of the atoms possesses a radioactive nucleus-can contain heavy and deformed nuclei, offering high sensitivity for investigating parity- and time-reversal-violation effects5,6. Radium monofluoride, RaF, is of particular interest because it is predicted to have an electronic structure appropriate for laser cooling6, thus paving the way for its use in high-precision spectroscopic studies. Furthermore, the effects of symmetry-violating nuclear moments are strongly enhanced5,7-9 in molecules containing octupole-deformed radium isotopes10,11. However, the study of RaF has been impeded by the lack of stable isotopes of radium. Here we present an experimental approach to studying short-lived radioactive molecules, which allows us to measure molecules with lifetimes of just tens of milliseconds. Energetically low-lying electronic states were measured for different isotopically pure RaF molecules using collinear resonance ionisation at the ISOLDE ion-beam facility at CERN. Our results provide evidence of the existence of a suitable laser-cooling scheme for these molecules and represent a key step towards high-precision studies in these systems. Our findings will enable further studies of short-lived radioactive molecules for fundamental physics research.

Use of a Continuous Wave Laser and Pockels Cell for Sensitive High-Resolution Collinear Resonance Ionization Spectroscopy.

New technical developments have led to a 2 orders of magnitude improvement of the resolution of the collinear resonance ionization spectroscopy (CRIS) experiment at ISOLDE, CERN, without sacrificing the high efficiency of the CRIS technique. Experimental linewidths of 20(1) MHz were obtained on radioactive beams of francium, allowing us for the first time to determine the electric quadrupole moment of the short lived [t_{1/2}=22.0(5) ms] ^{219}Fr Q_{s}=-1.21(2) eb, which would not have been possible without the advantages offered by the new method. This method relies on a continuous-wave laser and an external Pockels cell to produce narrow-band light pulses, required to reach the high resolution in two-step resonance ionization. Exotic nuclei produced at rates of a few hundred ions/s can now be studied with high resolution, allowing detailed studies of the anchor points for nuclear theories.