A new Signature for Nuclear Shell Closures?
Abstract
Whereas the magic numbers are very well established for stable nuclear species, little is known about the shell structure of nuclei far off the line of stability. This information, however, is very valuable, not only for achieving simplifications in the descriptions of these nuclei, but also in the context of astrophysics. Nuclear abundances from the astrophysical r-process, for example, depend on the shell closures in neutron-rich nuclei beyond the iron region. Traditional experimental signatures for magic numbers involve primarily systematic features, such as the energies and electromagnetic transition strengths of the first excited states in even-even nuclei or nucleon separation energies of odd-A chains. It is suggested that a new measure for shell closures in a given even-even nucleus can be found in the adjacent (A 1) nucleon systems. Since the proposed new signature relies on spectroscopic factors for very specific excited states of the immediate neighbors only, it is different from and complementary to traditional approaches. Furthermore, the new signature provides some quantitative measure for the goodness of shell closures in the region considered. Applications to various stable nuclei as well as some neutron-rich oxigen isotopes will be discussed.
- Publication:
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APS Northwest Section Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- May 2002
- Bibcode:
- 2002APS..NWS.H1005E