The development of single-nucleon pickup reactions with fast, exotic beams as a spectroscopic tool

One-nucleon knockout reactions are an established tool to track the evolution of nuclear shell structure away from stability by probing single-\emph{hole} states. Currently, fast-beam, heavy-ion induced \emph{pickup} reactions are being developed that provide, in a similar way, the complementary structure information by probing single-\emph{particle} states. At the NSCL, several proton and neutron pickup reactions centered around the proton-rich isotope $^{50}$Fe were investigated: $^9$Be($^{49}$Mn,$^{50}$Fe)X, $^9$Be($^{50}$Fe,$^{51}$Fe)X, and $^9$Be($^{48}$Cr,$^{49}$Mn)X. Information from these reactions, including the effects of target variation ($^9$Be versus $^{12}$C), will help develop the one-nucleon pickup reaction into a tool for nuclear structure physicists.