Unveiling the intruder deformed 02+^+_2 state in 34^{34}Si

The 0$^+_2$ state in $^{34}$Si has been populated at the {\sc Ganil/Lise3} facility through the $\beta$-decay of a newly discovered 1$^+$ isomer in $^{34}$Al of 26(1) ms half-life. The simultaneous detection of $e^+e^-$ pairs allowed the determination of the excitation energy E(0$^+_2$)=2719(3) keV and the half-life T$_{1/2}$=19.4(7) ns, from which an electric monopole strength of $\rho^2$(E0)=13.0(0.9)$\times10^{-3}$ was deduced. The 2$^+_1$ state is observed to decay both to the 0$^+_1$ ground state and to the newly observed 0$^+_2$ state (via a 607(2) keV transition) with a ratio R(2$^+_1$$\rightarrow0^+_1/2^+_1$$\rightarrow0^+_2$)=1380(717). Gathering all information, a weak mixing with the 0$^+_1$ and a large deformation parameter of $\beta$=0.29(4) are found for the 0$^+_2$ state, in good agreement with shell model calculations using a new {\sc sdpf-u-mix} interaction allowing \textit{np-nh} excitations across the N=20 shell gap.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter

Probing Nuclear forces beyond the drip-line using the mirror nuclei 16^{16}N and 16^{16}F

Radioactive beams of $^{14}$O and $^{15}$O were used to populate the resonant states 1/2$^+$, 5/2$^+$ and $0^-,1^-,2^-$ in the unbound $^{15}$F and $^{16}$F nuclei respectively by means of proton elastic scattering reactions in inverse kinematics. Based on their large proton spectroscopic factor values, the resonant states in $^{16}$F can be viewed as a core of $^{14}$O plus a proton in the 2s$_{1/2}$ or 1d$_{5/2}$ shell and a neutron in 1p$_{1/2}$. Experimental energies were used to derive the strength of the 2s$_{1/2}$-1p$_{1/2}$ and 1d$_{5/2}$-1p$_{1/2}$ proton-neutron interactions. It is found that the former changes by 40% compared with the mirror nucleus $^{16}$N, and the second by 10%. This apparent symmetry breaking of the nuclear force between mirror nuclei finds explanation in the role of the large coupling to the continuum for the states built on an $\ell=0$ proton configuration.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication as a regular article in Physical Review

Prolate-Spherical Shape Coexistence at N=28 in 44^{44}S

The structure of $^{44}$S has been studied using delayed $\gamma$ and electron spectroscopy at \textsc{ganil}. The decay rates of the 0$^+_2$ isomeric state to the 2$^+_1$ and 0$^+_1$ states have been measured for the first time, leading to a reduced transition probability B(E2~:~2$^{+}_1$$\rightarrow$0$^{+}_2)$= 8.4(26)~e$^2$fm$^4$ and a monopole strength $\rho^2$(E0~:~0$^{+}_2$$\rightarrow$0$^{+}_1)$ =~8.7(7)$\times$10$^{-3}$. Comparisons to shell model calculations point towards prolate-spherical shape coexistence and a phenomenological two level mixing model is used to extract a weak mixing between the two configurations.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter

In-beam fast-timing measurements in 103,105,107Cd

Fast-timing measurements were performed recently in the region of the medium-mass 103,105,107Cd isotopes, produced in fusion evaporation reactions. Emitted gamma-rays were detected by eight HPGe and five LaBr3:Ce detectors working in coincidence. Results on new and re-evaluated half-lives are discussed within a systematic of transition rates. The $7/2_1^+$ states in 103,105,107Cd are interpreted as arising from a single-particle excitation. The half-life analysis of the $11/2_1^-$ states in 103,105,107Cd shows no change in the single-particle transition strength as a function of the neutron number

New pathway to bypass the 15O waiting point

We propose the sequential reaction process $^{15}$O($p$,$\gamma)(\beta^{+}$)$^{16}$O as a new pathway to bypass of the $^{15}$O waiting point. This exotic reaction is found to have a surprisingly high cross section, approximately 10$^{10}$ times higher than the $^{15}$O($p$,$\beta^{+}$)$^{16}$O. These cross sections were calculated after precise measurements of energies and widths of the proton-unbound $^{16}$F low lying states, obtained using the H($^{15}$O,p)$^{15}$O reaction. The large $(p,\gamma)(\beta^{+})$ cross section can be understood to arise from the more efficient feeding of the low energy wing of the ground state resonance by the gamma decay. The implications of the new reaction in novae explosions and X-ray bursts are discussed.Comment: submitte

High-precision quadrupole moment reveals significant intruder component in 13 33Al20 ground state

The electric quadrupole moment of the Al201333 ground state, located at the border of the island of inversion, was obtained using continuous-beam β-detected nuclear quadrupole resonance (β-NQR). From the measured quadrupole coupling constant νQ=2.31(4) MHz in an α-Al2O3 crystal, a precise value for the electric quadrupole moment is extracted: |Qs(Al33)|=141(3) mb. A comparison with large-scale shell model calculations shows that Al33 has at least 50% intruder configurations in the ground state wave function, favoring the excitation of two neutrons across the N=20 shell gap. Al33 therefore clearly marks the gradual transition north of the deformed Na and Mg nuclei towards the normal Z≥14 isotopesThis work was partly supported by the European Community FP6—Structuring the ERA—Integrated Infrastructure Initiative Contract EURONS No. RII3-CT-2004-506065, by the FWO-Vlaanderen, by the IAP programme of the Belgium Science Policy under Grants No. P6/23 and No. P7/12, by a grant of the MICINN (Spain) (FPA2011-29854), by the Nupnet network SARFEN (PRI-PIMMNUP-2011-1361), by MINECO (Spain) Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa Programme under Grant No. SEV-2012-0249, and by JSPS KAKENHI (Japan) Grants No. 21740204 and No. 15K05094. The experiment was carried out under Experimental Program E437

The N=14 shell closure in 22^{22}O viewed through a neutron sensitive probe

NESTER PTHInternational audienceTo investigate the behavior of the N=14 neutron gap far from stability with a neutron-sensitive probe, proton elastic and 2+1 inelastic scattering angular distributions for the neutron-rich nucleus 22O were measured with a secondary beam intensity of only 1200 particles per second using the MUST silicon strip detector array at the GANIL facility. A phenomenological analysis yields a deformation parameter bp;p' = 0.26 +- 0.04 for the 2+1 state, much lower than in 20O, showing a surprisingly weak neutron contribution to this state. A fully microscopic analysis was performed using optical potentials obtained from matter and transition densities generated by continuum Skyrme-HFB and QRPA calculations, respectively. When the present results and those from a 22O + 197Au scattering experiment are combined, the ratio of neutron to proton contributions to the 2+1 state is found close to the N/Z ratio, demonstrating a strong N=14 shell closure in the vicinity of the neutron drip-line

Low-lying spectroscopy of a few even-even silicon isotopes investigated by means of the multiparticle-multihole Gogny energy density functional

A multiconfiguration microscopic method has been applied with the Gogny effective interaction to the calculation of low-lying positive-parity states in even-even $^{26-28}$Si isotopes. The aim of the study is to compare the results of this approach with those of a standard method of GCM type and to get insight into the predictive power of multiconfiguration methods employed with effective nucleon-nucleon force taylored to mean-field calculations. It is found that the multiconfiguration approach leads to an excellent description of the low-lying spectroscopy of $^{26}$Si, $^{28}$Si and $^{32}$Si, but gives a systematic energy shift in $^{30}$Si. A careful analysis of this phenomenon shows that this discrepancy originates from too large matrix elements in the proton-neutron residual interaction supplied by the Gogny interaction. Finally, a statistical analysis of highly excited configurations in $^{28}$Si is performed, revealing exponential convergence in agreement with previous work in the context of the shell model approach. This latter result provides strong arguments towards an implicit treatment of highly excited configurations.Comment: 17 pages, 13 figures, 11 table

Accelerated apoptotic death and <i>in vivo</i> turnover of erythrocytes in mice lacking functional mitogen- and stress-activated kinase MSK1/2

The mitogen- and stress-activated kinase MSK1/2 plays a decisive role in apoptosis. In analogy to apoptosis of nucleated cells, suicidal erythrocyte death called eryptosis is characterized by cell shrinkage and cell membrane scrambling leading to phosphatidylserine (PS) externalization. Here, we explored whether MSK1/2 participates in the regulation of eryptosis. To this end, erythrocytes were isolated from mice lacking functional MSK1/2 (msk−/−) and corresponding wild-type mice (msk+/+). Blood count, hematocrit, hemoglobin concentration and mean erythrocyte volume were similar in both msk−/− and msk+/+ mice, but reticulocyte count was significantly increased in msk−/− mice. Cell membrane PS exposure was similar in untreated msk−/− and msk+/+ erythrocytes, but was enhanced by pathophysiological cell stressors ex vivo such as hyperosmotic shock or energy depletion to significantly higher levels in msk−/− erythrocytes than in msk+/+ erythrocytes. Cell shrinkage following hyperosmotic shock and energy depletion, as well as hemolysis following decrease of extracellular osmolarity was more pronounced in msk−/− erythrocytes. The in vivo clearance of autologously-infused CFSE-labeled erythrocytes from circulating blood was faster in msk−/− mice. The spleens from msk−/− mice contained a significantly greater number of PS-exposing erythrocytes than spleens from msk+/+ mice. The present observations point to accelerated eryptosis and subsequent clearance of erythrocytes leading to enhanced erythrocyte turnover in MSK1/2-deficient mice