Strong one-neutron emission from two-neutron inbound states in beta decays of $r$-process nuclei, $^{86, 87}$Ga

ORAL

Abstract

Beta-delayed one- and two-neutron branching ratios ($P_{1n}$ and $P_{2n}$) are measured in the decay of $^{86}$Ga and $^{87}$Ga at the RI-beam Factory at RIKEN Nishina Center using a high-efficiency array of $^{3}$He neutron counters (BRIKEN). Large $P_{1n}$ values are observed in $^{87,86}$Ga compared to $P_{2n}$ which was not predicted by theoretical calculations [PRL117,092502(2016), PRC67,055802(2003), PRC93,025805(2016)]. Our shell model calculation explains the observed $P_{1n} > P_{2n}$ successfully only when combined with Hauser-Feshbach statistical model [Nucl.Phys.A913,51(2013)]. This result is the first experimental demonstration that competition between multi-particle emission channels has to be considered to predict the decay properties of multi-neutron emitters which must be included in the astrophysical $r$-process modeling.

*This research was sponsored in part by the U.S. Department of Energy under Award No. DE-FG02-96ER40983 (UTK), DE-AC05-00OR22725 (ORNL), and No. DE-NA0002132. This work was also supported by JSPS KAKENHI, UK Science and Technology Facilities Council, NKFIH, Spanish Ministerio de Eonomia y Competitividad, European Commission FP7/EURATOM, NSERC of Canada, NRF in South Korea, and Polish National Science Center.

Presenters

  • Rin Yokoyama

    • Univ of Tennessee, Knoxville
    • Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville

Authors

  • Rin Yokoyama

    • Univ of Tennessee, Knoxville
    • Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville
  • Robert Grzywacz

    • University of Tennessee, Knoxville
  • Bertis C Rasco

    • ORNL
    • Oak Ridge National Lab
  • Nathan Brewer

    • Oak Ridge National Lab
  • Krzysztof P. Rykaczewski

    • ORNL Physics Division
    • ORNL
    • Oak Ridge National Laboratory
  • Iris Dillmann

    • TRIUMF
  • Jose Louis Tain

    • IFIC, Spain
  • Shunji Nishimura

    • RIKEN
    • RIKEN Nishina Center for Accelerator-Based Science, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan