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Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 232701 (2009) [4 pages]

Modern Rutherford Experiment: Tunneling of the Most Neutron-Rich Nucleus

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A. Lemasson1, A. Shrivastava1,2, A. Navin1,*, M. Rejmund1, N. Keeley3, V. Zelevinsky4, S. Bhattacharyya5, A. Chatterjee2, G. de France1, B. Jacquot1, V. Nanal6, R. G. Pillay6, R. Raabe1, and C. Schmitt1
1GANIL, CEA/DSM-CNRS/IN2P3, Bd Henri Becquerel, BP 55027, F-14076 Caen Cedex 5, France
2Nuclear Physics Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai 400085, India
3Department of Nuclear Reactions, The Andrzej Sołtan Institute for Nuclear Studies, ul. Hoża 69, PL-00-681 Warsaw, Poland
4NSCL and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824-1321, USA
5Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, 1/AF Bidhan Nagar, Kolkata 700064, India
6Department of Nuclear and Atomic Physics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai 400005, India

Received 15 September 2009; published 30 November 2009

See accompanying Physics Viewpoint

A modern variation of the Rutherford experiment to probe the tunneling of exotic nuclear matter from the measurement of the residues formed in the bombardment of 197Au by extremely neutron-rich 8He nuclei is presented. Using a novel off-beam technique the most precise and accurate measurements of fusion and neutron transfer involving reaccelerated unstable beams are reported. The results show unusual behavior of the tunneling of 8He compared to that for lighter helium isotopes, highlighting the role of the intrinsic structure of composite many-body quantum systems and pairing correlations.

© 2009 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.232701
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.232701
PACS:
25.70.Jj, 24.50.+g, 25.60.-t

*Corresponding author: navin@ganil.fr

 
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