alpha-decay of excited states in 11C and 11B

Studies of the 16O(9Be,alpha7Be)14C and 7Li(9Be,alpha7Li)5He reactions at E{beam}=70 MeV have been performed using resonant particle spectroscopy techniques. The 11C excited states decaying into alpha+7Be(gs) are observed at 8.65, 9.85, 10.7 and 12.1 MeV as well as possible states at 12.6 and 13.4 MeV. This result is the first observation of alpha-decay for excited states above 9 MeV. The alpha+7Li(gs) decay of 11B excited states at 9.2, 10.3, 10.55, 11.2, (11.4), 11.8, 12.5,(13.0), 13.1, (14.0), 14.35, (17.4) and (18.6) MeV is observed. The decay processes are used to indicate the possible three-centre 2alpha+3He(3H) cluster structure of observed states. Two rotational bands corresponding to very deformed structures are suggested for the positive-parity states. Excitations of some observed T=1/2 resonances coincide with the energies of T=3/2 states which are the isobaric analogs of the lowest 11Be states. Some of these states may have mixed isospin.Comment: accepted for publication in Nuclear Physics

Opportunities For The Transfer of Astronomical Technology to Medicine

There are many examples of technology transfer from astronomy to medicine, for example algorithms for reconstructing X-ray CT images were first developed for processing radio astronomy images. In more recent times, X-ray detectors developed for the Hubble Space Telescope have been used in a fine-needle breast biopsy system. Software originally developed to mosaic planetary images has been incorporated into a system for detecting breast cancer. Australia has expertise in the development of instrumentation for producing radio images from an array of radio telescopes and in multi-object fibre systems for capturing the spectra of hundreds of stellar objects simultaneously. Two possible applications of these Australian technologies are suggested that may merit further exploration. A meeting between interested parties is suggested to discuss future directions and funding

Study of the 12-C(7-Li,t)16-O α Transfer Reaction at High Energies

This research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation Grant NSF PHY 87-1440

Commissioning of the MAGNEX large-acceptance spectrometer

The MAGNEX large-acceptance spectrometer has been commissioned with beams from the Tandem accelerator at INFN-LNS Catania. The optics were tested with elastically-scattered 7Li, 16O and 48Ti beams with various apertures mounted after the target. The momentum dispersion was verified to be in agreement with the optics calculations. A demonstration of the particle identification capabilities of the PSD start detector and the focal plane detector was given by a measurement of the 27Al(7Li,6Li)28Al transfer reaction at a mean angle of 25°. The measured charge state distribution of 48Ti ions is in agreement with predictions for a gold stripping foil. Preliminary results of the software reconstruction of incident angle and excitation energy, obtained through matrices based on a 3D-interpolation of the measured field maps, are encouraging