Sub-barrier Coulomb excitation of 110^{110}Sn and its implications for the 100^{100}Sn shell closure

The first excited 2+ state of the unstable isotope 110Sn has been studied in safe Coulomb excitation at 2.82  MeV/u using the MINIBALL array at the REX-ISOLDE post accelerator at CERN. This is the first measurement of the reduced transition probability of this state using this method for a neutron deficient Sn isotope. The strength of the approach lies in the excellent peak-to-background ratio that is achieved. The extracted reduced transition probability, B(E2:0+→2+)=0.220±0.022e2b2, strengthens the observation of the evolution of the B(E2) values of neutron deficient Sn isotopes that was observed recently in intermediate-energy Coulomb excitation of 108Sn. It implies that the trend of these reduced transition probabilities in the even-even Sn isotopes is not symmetric with respect to the midshell mass number A=116 as 100Sn is approached

Digital pulse-shape discrimination of fast neutrons and gamma rays

Discrimination of the detection of fast neutrons and gamma rays in a liquid scintillator detector has been investigated using digital pulse-processing techniques. An experimental setup with a 252Cf source, a BC-501 liquid scintillator detector, and a BaF2 detector was used to collect waveforms with a 100 Ms/s, 14 bit sampling ADC. Three identical ADC's were combined to increase the sampling frequency to 300 Ms/s. Four different digital pulse-shape analysis algorithms were developed and compared to each other and to data obtained with an analogue neutron-gamma discrimination unit. Two of the digital algorithms were based on the charge comparison method, while the analogue unit and the other two digital algorithms were based on the zero-crossover method. Two different figure-of-merit parameters, which quantify the neutron-gamma discrimination properties, were evaluated for all four digital algorithms and for the analogue data set. All of the digital algorithms gave similar or better figure-of-merit values than what was obtained with the analogue setup. A detailed study of the discrimination properties as a function of sampling frequency and bit resolution of the ADC was performed. It was shown that a sampling ADC with a bit resolution of 12 bits and a sampling frequency of 100 Ms/s is adequate for achieving an optimal neutron-gamma discrimination for pulses having a dynamic range for deposited neutron energies of 0.3-12 MeV. An investigation of the influence of the sampling frequency on the time resolution was made. A FWHM of 1.7 ns was obtained at 100 Ms/s.Comment: 26 pages, 14 figures, submitted to Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research

Systematic trends in beta-delayed particle emitting nuclei: The case of beta-p-alpha emission from 21Mg

We have observed beta+-delayed alpha and p-alpha emission from the proton-rich nucleus 21Mg produced at the ISOLDE facility at CERN. The assignments were cross-checked with a time distribution analysis. This is the third identified case of beta-p-alpha emission. We discuss the systematic of beta-delayed particle emission decays, show that our observed decays fit naturally into the existing pattern, and argue that the patterns are to a large extent caused by odd-even effects.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

The first quadrupole excitations in spherical nuclei and nuclear pairing

Excitation energies and transition probabilities of the first 2+ excitations in even lead, tin and nickel isotopes are calculated within the self-consistent Theory of Finite Fermi Systems based on the Energy Density Functional by Fayans et al. A reasonable agreement with available experimental data is obtained. The effect of the density dependence of the effective pairing interaction is analyzed in detail by comparing results obtained with volume and surface pairing. The effect is found to be noticeable, especially for the 2+ energies which are systematically higher at 200-300 keV for the volume paring as compared with the surface pairing case, the latter being in a better agreement with the data.Comment: Presented at International Conference on Nuclear Structure and Related Topics, Dubna, July 2 - 7, 201