Experimental studies of neutron-rich nuclei around N = 126 at KEK isotope separation system

¹ Wako Nuclear Science Center, Institute of Particle and Nuclear Studies, High-Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
² Graduate School of Pure and Applied Science, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennoudai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8571, Japan
³ Nishina Center for Accelerator-Based Science, RIKEN, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
⁴ Rare Isotope Science Project, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), 70, Yuseong-daero 1689-gil, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, Republic of Korea

^* Corresponding author: yutaka.watanabe@kek.jp

Published online: 4 December 2019

Abstract

Nuclear parameters such as lifetimes and masses of the waiting point nuclei of r-process nucleosynthesis are significant to investigate its astrophysical environment. However, the difficulty in the production of extremely neutron-rich nuclei at the 126 neutron closed shell makes their experimentalstudies unfeasible. Therefore, the theoretical nuclear models play crucial roles in the simulation of the r-process nucleosynthesis. The systematic nuclear spectroscopy of the neutron-rich nuclei around the 126 neutron closed shell provides significant inputs to those theoretical models to improve their predictability for the waiting point nuclei. We are developing KEK Isotope Separation System (KISS) to perform the systematic nuclear spectroscopy of those neutron-rich nuclei. The nuclei of interest are produced by multi-nucleon transfer reactions between ¹³⁶Xe and ¹⁹⁸Pt. The experimental study demonstrated its promising potential to produce them. We have successfully performed the β­γ spectroscopy and the laser ionization spectroscopy at KISS using the nuclear production by the multi-nucleon transfer reactions.