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.

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.

Shedding Light on the Origin of

Asymptotic giant branch stars are responsible for the production of most of the heavy isotopes beyond Sr observed in the solar system. Among them, isotopes shielded from the r-process contribution by their stable isobars are defined as s-only nuclei. For a long time the abundance of ^{204}Pb, the heaviest s-only isotope, has been a topic of debate because state-of-the-art stellar models appeared to systematically underestimate its solar abundance. Besides the impact of uncertainties from stellar models and galactic chemical evolution simulations, this discrepancy was further obscured by rather divergent theoretical estimates for the neutron capture cross section of its radioactive precursor in the neutron-capture flow, ^{204}Tl (t_{1/2}=3.78 yr), and by the lack of experimental data on this reaction. We present the first ever neutron capture measurement on ^{204}Tl, conducted at the CERN neutron time-of-flight facility n_TOF, employing a sample of only 9 mg of ^{204}Tl produced at the Institute Laue Langevin high flux reactor. By complementing our new results with semiempirical calculations we obtained, at the s-process temperatures of kT≈8 keV and kT≈30 keV, Maxwellian-averaged cross sections (MACS) of 580(168) mb and 260(90) mb, respectively. These figures are about 3% lower and 20% higher than the corresponding values widely used in astrophysical calculations, which were based only on theoretical calculations. By using the new ^{204}Tl MACS, the uncertainty arising from the ^{204}Tl(n,γ) cross section on the s-process abundance of ^{204}Pb has been reduced from ∼30% down to +8%/-6%, and the s-process calculations are in agreement with the latest solar system abundance of ^{204}Pb reported by K. Lodders in 2021.

Measurement of the

^{140}Ce(n,γ) is a key reaction for slow neutron-capture (s-process) nucleosynthesis due to being a bottleneck in the reaction flow. For this reason, it was measured with high accuracy (uncertainty ≈5%) at the n_TOF facility, with an unprecedented combination of a high purity sample and low neutron-sensitivity detectors. The measured Maxwellian averaged cross section is up to 40% higher than previously accepted values. Stellar model calculations indicate a reduction around 20% of the s-process contribution to the Galactic cerium abundance and smaller sizeable differences for most of the heavier elements. No variations are found in the nucleosynthesis from massive stars.

Nuclear Charge Radii of the Nickel Isotopes

Collinear laser spectroscopy is performed on the nickel isotopes ^{58-68,70}Ni, using a time-resolved photon counting system. From the measured isotope shifts, nuclear charge radii R_{c} are extracted and compared to theoretical results. Three ab initio approaches all employ, among others, the chiral interaction NNLO_{sat}, which allows an assessment of their accuracy. We find agreement with experiment in differential radii δ⟨r_{c}^{2}⟩ for all employed ab initio methods and interactions, while the absolute radii are consistent with data only for NNLO_{sat}. Within nuclear density functional theory, the Skyrme functional SV-min matches experiment more closely than the Fayans functional Fy(Δr,HFB).

74 Ge( n , γ ) cross section below 70 keV measured at n_TOF CERN.

Neutron capture reaction cross sections on 74 Ge are of importance to determine 74 Ge production during the astrophysical slow neutron capture process. We present new resonance data on 74 Ge( n , γ ) reactions below 70 keV neutron energy. We calculate Maxwellian averaged cross sections, combining our data below 70 keV with evaluated cross sections at higher neutron energies. Our stellar cross sections are in agreement with a previous activation measurement performed at Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe by Marganiec et al., once their data has been re-normalised to account for an update in the reference cross section used in that experiment.

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.

Laser Spectroscopy of Neutron-Rich

The mean-square charge radii of ^{207,208}Hg (Z=80, N=127, 128) have been studied for the first time and those of ^{202,203,206}Hg (N=122, 123, 126) remeasured by the application of in-source resonance-ionization laser spectroscopy at ISOLDE (CERN). The characteristic kink in the charge radii at the N=126 neutron shell closure has been revealed, providing the first information on its behavior below the Z=82 proton shell closure. A theoretical analysis has been performed within relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov and nonrelativistic Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov approaches, considering both the new mercury results and existing lead data. Contrary to previous interpretations, it is demonstrated that both the kink at N=126 and the odd-even staggering (OES) in its vicinity can be described predominately at the mean-field level and that pairing does not need to play a crucial role in their origin. A new OES mechanism is suggested, related to the staggering in the occupation of the different neutron orbitals in odd- and even-A nuclei, facilitated by particle-vibration coupling for odd-A nuclei.

Charge Radius of the Short-Lived

We present the first laser spectroscopic measurement of the neutron-rich nucleus ^{68}Ni at the N=40 subshell closure and extract its nuclear charge radius. Since this is the only short-lived isotope for which the dipole polarizability α_{D} has been measured, the combination of these observables provides a benchmark for nuclear structure theory. We compare them to novel coupled-cluster calculations based on different chiral two- and three-nucleon interactions, for which a strong correlation between the charge radius and dipole polarizability is observed, similar to the stable nucleus ^{48}Ca. Three-particle-three-hole correlations in coupled-cluster theory substantially improve the description of the experimental data, which allows to constrain the neutron radius and neutron skin of ^{68}Ni.

Neutron Capture on the s-Process Branching Point

The neutron capture cross sections of several unstable nuclides acting as branching points in the s process are crucial for stellar nucleosynthesis studies. The unstable ^{171}Tm (t_{1/2}=1.92 yr) is part of the branching around mass A∼170 but its neutron capture cross section as a function of the neutron energy is not known to date. In this work, following the production for the first time of more than 5 mg of ^{171}Tm at the high-flux reactor Institut Laue-Langevin in France, a sample was produced at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland. Two complementary experiments were carried out at the neutron time-of-flight facility (n_TOF) at CERN in Switzerland and at the SARAF liquid lithium target facility at Soreq Nuclear Research Center in Israel by time of flight and activation, respectively. The result of the time-of-flight experiment consists of the first ever set of resonance parameters and the corresponding average resonance parameters, allowing us to make an estimation of the Maxwellian-averaged cross sections (MACS) by extrapolation. The activation measurement provides a direct and more precise measurement of the MACS at 30 keV: 384(40) mb, with which the estimation from the n_TOF data agree at the limit of 1 standard deviation. This value is 2.6 times lower than the JEFF-3.3 and ENDF/B-VIII evaluations, 25% lower than that of the Bao et al. compilation, and 1.6 times larger than the value recommended in the KADoNiS (v1) database, based on the only previous experiment. Our result affects the nucleosynthesis at the A∼170 branching, namely, the ^{171}Yb abundance increases in the material lost by asymptotic giant branch stars, providing a better match to the available pre-solar SiC grain measurements compared to the calculations based on the current JEFF-3.3 model-based evaluation.

Isomer Shift and Magnetic Moment of the Long-Lived 1/2

Collinear laser spectroscopy is performed on the _{30}^{79}Zn_{49} isotope at ISOLDE-CERN. The existence of a long-lived isomer with a few hundred milliseconds half-life is confirmed, and the nuclear spins and moments of the ground and isomeric states in ^{79}Zn as well as the isomer shift are measured. From the observed hyperfine structures, spins I=9/2 and I=1/2 are firmly assigned to the ground and isomeric states. The magnetic moment µ (^{79}Zn)=-1.1866(10)µ_{N}, confirms the spin-parity 9/2^{+} with a νg_{9/2}^{-1} shell-model configuration, in excellent agreement with the prediction from large scale shell-model theories. The magnetic moment µ (^{79m}Zn)=-1.0180(12)µ_{N} supports a positive parity for the isomer, with a wave function dominated by a 2h-1p neutron excitation across the N=50 shell gap. The large isomer shift reveals an increase of the intruder isomer mean square charge radius with respect to that of the ground state, δ⟨r_{c}^{2}⟩^{79,79m}=+0.204(6) fm^{2}, providing first evidence of shape coexistence.

Publisher's Note: Isomer Shift and Magnetic Moment of the Long-Lived 1/2

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.182502.

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.

Collinear resonance ionization spectroscopy of neutron-deficient francium isotopes.

The magnetic moments and isotope shifts of the neutron-deficient francium isotopes (202-205)Fr were measured at ISOLDE-CERN with use of collinear resonance ionization spectroscopy. A production-to-detection efficiency of 1% was measured for (202)Fr. The background from nonresonant and collisional ionization was maintained below one ion in 10(5) beam particles. Through a comparison of the measured charge radii with predictions from the spherical droplet model, it is concluded that the ground-state wave function remains spherical down to (205)Fr, with a departure observed in (203)Fr (N=116).

Neutron capture cross section of unstable 63Ni: implications for stellar nucleosynthesis.

The 63Ni(n,γ) cross section has been measured for the first time at the neutron time-of-flight facility n_TOF at CERN from thermal neutron energies up to 200 keV. In total, capture kernels of 12 (new) resonances were determined. Maxwellian averaged cross sections were calculated for thermal energies from kT=5-100 keV with uncertainties around 20%. Stellar model calculations for a 25M⊙ star show that the new data have a significant effect on the s-process production of 63Cu, 64Ni, and 64Zn in massive stars, allowing stronger constraints on the Cu yields from explosive nucleosynthesis in the subsequent supernova.

First experimental determination of the charge radius of 74Rb and its application in tests of the unitarity of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix.

Collinear-laser spectroscopy with the bunched-beams technique was used for the study of neutron deficient Rb isotopes, out to (74)Rb (N = Z = 37) at TRIUMF. The measured hyperfine coupling constants of (76,78m)Rb were in agreement with literature values. The nuclear spin of (75)Rb was confirmed to be I = 3/2, and its hyperfine coupling constants were measured for the first time. The mean-square charge radius of (74)Rb was determined for the first time. This result has improved the isospin symmetry breaking correction term used to calculate the Ft value, with implications for tests of the unitarity of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix.

Nuclear spins and moments of Ga isotopes reveal sudden structural changes between N=40 and N=50.

Collinear laser spectroscopy was performed on Ga (Z=31) isotopes at ISOLDE, CERN. A gas-filled linear Paul trap (ISCOOL) was used to extend measurements towards very neutron-rich isotopes (N=36-50). A ground state (g.s.) spin I=1/2 is measured for 73Ga, being near degenerate with a 3/2{-} isomer (75 eV≲E{ex}≲1 keV). The 79Ga g.s., with I=3/2, is dominated by protons in the πf{5/2} orbital and in 81Ga the 5/2{-} level becomes the g.s. The data are compared to shell-model calculations in the f{5/2}pg{9/2} model space, calling for further theoretical developments and new experiments.

Laser spectroscopy of indium Rydberg atom bunches by electric field ionization.

This work reports on the application of a novel electric field-ionization setup for high-resolution laser spectroscopy measurements on bunched fast atomic beams in a collinear geometry. In combination with multi-step resonant excitation to Rydberg states using pulsed lasers, the field ionization technique demonstrates increased sensitivity for isotope separation and measurement of atomic parameters over previous non-resonant laser ionization methods. The setup was tested at the Collinear Resonance Ionization Spectroscopy experiment at ISOLDE-CERN to perform high-resolution measurements of transitions in the indium atom from the [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] states to [Formula: see text]p [Formula: see text]P and [Formula: see text]F Rydberg states, up to a principal quantum number of [Formula: see text]. The extracted Rydberg level energies were used to re-evaluate the ionization potential of the indium atom to be [Formula: see text]. The nuclear magnetic dipole and nuclear electric quadrupole hyperfine structure constants and level isotope shifts of the [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] states were determined for [Formula: see text]In. The results are compared to calculations using relativistic coupled-cluster theory. A good agreement is found with the ionization potential and isotope shifts, while disagreement of hyperfine structure constants indicates an increased importance of electron correlations in these excited atomic states. With the aim of further increasing the detection sensitivity for measurements on exotic isotopes, a systematic study of the field-ionization arrangement implemented in the work was performed at the same time and an improved design was simulated and is presented. The improved design offers increased background suppression independent of the distance from field ionization to ion detection.