Transfer cross sections at near-barrier energy for the 24Mg + 90,92Zr systems

We have tested the hypothesis that for systems 24Mg + 90,92Zr, the shape of the barrier height distribution is not influenced by transfers processes. The experiment was performed using the ICARE detector system at the Warsaw Cyclotron. Having measured the transfer cross sections of the near-barrier collisions of 24Mg + 90,92Zr, we have found them to be roughly half of the value obtained for the 20Ne + 90,92Zr systems. From that observation, we conclude that in the 24Mg + 90,92Zr case, the leading cause of washing out the barrier distribution structure is the partial dissipation of relative kinetic energy into the non-collective excitation of the system.peerReviewe

Study of resonances produced in Heavy Ion Collisions

International audienceAt Laboratori Nazionali del Sud of Catania an experiment has been carried out in order to investigate the correlations between particles produced in 12C+24Mg reaction at 35 AMeV incident energy. Two α correlation has been explored because provide information about temperature of 8Be nuclei produced in the reaction, while three α correaltion has been studied in order to evaluate the competition between sequential and direct decay mode of resonances produced in 12C quasi-projectiles

Experimental Studies of the Structure of 16^{16}C with Reactions at Intermediate Energy

International audienceThe possible existence of cluster structures in 16C has been investigated by inspecting their breakup (induced on CH2 targets) in 10Be+6He events. The excitation energy of the projectile nucleus prior to decay is obtained via an invariant mass analysis of identified fragments. The experiment has been carried out at the FRIBs facility of INFN-LNS, by using a fragmentation cocktail beam at intermediate energies (≈ 55 MeV/nucleon) and the CHIMERA 4π multi-detector. A non-vanishing yield in the 10Be+6He correlations is reported at an excitation energy of about 20.5 MeV in 16C, in analogy with previous works. To improve these results, we recently performed a new experiment by coupling CHIMERA and FARCOS at forward angles. Preliminary details of the new experiment are reported in the text

Study of the cluster structure of(10)Be and(16)C neutron-rich isotopes by means of intermediate energies breakup reactions

International audienceWe describe the results of a new experiment aimed to investigate the possible existence of cluster structures in(10)Be and(16)C isotopes. They have been investigated at the FRIBs facility of INFN-LNS by means of an invariant mass analysis on correlated projectile breakup fragments carried out with the CHIMERA 4π detector. From the analysis of the(6)He+(4)He channel we found evidence of a new state in(10)Be at 13.5MeV excitation energy. Concerning(16)C, we investigated(6)He+(10)Be correlated fragments and we found a non-vanishing yield at about 20.5MeV in the corresponding excitation energy spectrum. Finally, we describe few details of a new experiment performed at the FRIBs facility where the CHIMERA detector was coupled to the FARCOS hodoscope, with the aim to improve the presently obtained results

First results of the Hoyle-Gamma experiment: study of the excited levels in carbon-12 gamma decay

International audiencePreliminary analysis of the Hoyle-Gamma experiment is presented, where simultaneous gamma-particles detection for the α + 12C → α + (12C* + γ) reaction is used to suppress the background various orders of magnitude. This will allow us to measure very small Γ partial widths of 12C. Details of the method, the implementation and CHIMERA software analysis are presented as well as preliminary results

Isospin Effect on fragment productions and reaction mechanisms for Ni+Ca systems at 25 AMeV

International audienceMain features of fragments produced in 58Ni+40Ca and 58Ni+48Ca systems at 25 AMeV, collected by Chimera multidetector at INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Sud (Italy), are analysed in order to study properties of moderately excited systems (Ex=2-5 AMeV) formed in central collisions. By means of correlations between specific global variables, sensitive to the centrality of the collision, a stringent selection of Fusion-Evaporation residues, Multifragmentation sources and their decay products has been performed. The influence of the isospin contents of the systems on the reaction mechanism is carefully investigated and relevant observables such as isospin asymmetry N/Z or charge and mass of fragments, are discussed in order to probe the fragmentation path, characterised by short living ( ∼ 100fm/c) low density states of nuclear matter out of equilibrium. Preliminary comparisons with predictions of the BLOB model, in a semi-classical mean field framework, are presented, investigating cluster production emerging from the occurrence of low-density instabilities in central collisions

The γ\gamma decay of the Hoyle and higher excitation energy states of 12^{12}C

International audienceThe Hoyle state and few other excited levels of 12C are fundamental for the production of carbon in the universe. In particular, the γ decay branching ratio is of utmost importance, being the only way to produce a carbon at the ground state. For the purpose to precisely investigate the decay mechanism of such states we conducted an experiment, at Laboratori Nazionali del Sud-Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN-LNS), using the reaction α + 12 C at 64 MeV. We used the 4π CHIMERA detector to detect both α and γ 12 C decay channels. Details of the experiment and preliminary results are discussed in the paper

On the 12^{12}C Hoyle state gamma decay

International audienceThe γ-decays of 12C excited levels (the Hoyle state 0+ at 7.65 MeV and the 9.64 MeV 3) are essential for its production in the universe. We present here a new attempt to precisely measure such γ-decay probabilities. The measurement was performed at INFN-LNS in Catania using the 4π CHIMERA multidetector. In order to measure these low probability decay-channels we performed 4-fold coincidence measurements. The 12C target nuclei were excited by using a beam of 64 MeV α-particles produced by the Superconducting Cyclotron (CS) of INFN-LNS. The scattered α-particles and the 12C recoils were detected and identified by? E-E and ToF methods using CHIMERA telescopes. The two emitted γ-rays in the decay chain were detected and identified by using the second stage of the telescopes, CsI(Tl) scintillators, by means of fast-slow and rise time techniques. Kinematics and energy-momentum conservation laws were used to constrain the data analysis. Also the 3-α decay channel probability was measured. Such a simultaneous measurement of all known decay channels was useful to reduce the systematic errors. Preliminary results of the data analysis are reported

Dynamical versus statistical production of Intermediate Mass Fragments at Fermi Energies

International audienceThe emission probability of Intermediate Mass Fragments (IMFs) in non-central reactions has been investigated in collisions of heavy $^{124}\hbox {Xe}$ projectiles with the two different medium-mass targets of $^{64}\hbox {Ni}$ and $^{64}\hbox {Zn}$ at the laboratory energy of 35 A MeV. The two colliding systems differ only for the target atomic number Z and, consequently, for the isospin N/Z ratio. The probability of IMFs emission from the projectile-like fragment has been measured, showing an enhancement of the IMFs emission for the neutron rich $^{64}\hbox {Ni}$ target. Most of the observed projectile break-up yield is associated with the production of only one IMF, that is, a quasi-binary splitting of projectile in two fragments in a broad range of charge asymmetry. For the events with one IMF, the relative contributions of the dynamical and statistical emissions have been evaluated. We find an enhancement of dynamical break-up probability for the neutron rich target with respect to the neutron poor one. The analysis suggests influence of the target isospin in inducing the dynamical break-up of projectile-like fragments. The new data have been also compared with previous published results of $^{112,124}\hbox {Sn}$ + $^{58,64}\hbox {Ni}$ systems, in order to disentangle between isospin effects against system-size effects on the emission probability. The comparisons between previous and new data suggest that the dynamical break-up is determined by the N/Z content of both projectile and target; for the cases here investigated, the influence of the system size on the dynamical emission probability can be excluded

Gamma ray detection with CHIMERA at LNS: results and perspectives

International audienceWe describe the use of the 4tt CHIMERA charged particle detector as a large efficiency y-ray detector. The CsI(Tl) stage of the CHIMERA telescope is used to detect and identify y-rays. The high detection efficiency and the sufficient energy resolution guaranteed by CsI(Tl) allows us to use the detector for the study of rare decays. Two examples are reported: the low probability gamma decay (<10%) of the Pygmy resonance of a radioactive nucleus as the 68Ni; the measurement of the gamma decay probability of excited levels of 12C as the Hoyle state at 7.65 (∼10−4) MeV and the 3- level at 9.64 MeV (∼107), both important for the Carbon production in stars. Future experiments made possible at INFN-LNS by the availability of the new fragment separator FRAISE are also outlined