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Title: Unexpectedly large charge radii of neutron-rich calcium isotopes

Journal Article · · Nature Physics
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys3645· OSTI ID:1376334
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [5];  [7]; ORCiD logo [8]; ORCiD logo [4];  [9];  [3];  [10];  [11];  [1]; ORCiD logo [12];  [4];  [1];  [13];  [7] more »;  [14];  [15] « less
  1. KU Leuven, Leuven (Belgium)
  2. KU Leuven, Leuven (Belgium); The Univ. of Manchester, Manchester (United Kingdom)
  3. Max-Planck-Institut fur Kernphysik, Heidelberg (Germany)
  4. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
  5. Univ. Mainz, Mainz (Germany)
  6. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  7. Technishe Univ. Darmstadt, Darmstadt (Germany); ExtreMe Matter Institute EMMI, Darmstadt (Germany)
  8. TRIUMF, Vancouver, BC (Canada)
  9. CERN, European Organization for Nuclear Research, Geneva (Switzerland)
  10. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Univ. of Warsaw, Warsaw (Poland)
  11. Max-Planck-Institut fur Kernphysik, Heidelberg (Germany); Univ. Mainz, Mainz (Germany)
  12. Univ. Mainz, Mainz (Germany); Technishe Univ. Darmstadt, Darmstadt (Germany)
  13. Max-Planck-Institut fur Kernphysik, Heidelberg (Germany); Technishe Univ. Darmstadt, Darmstadt (Germany); ExtreMe Matter Institute EMMI, Darmstadt (Germany)
  14. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States);Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
  15. Max-Planck-Institut fur Kernphysik, Heidelberg (Germany); Univ. Paris-Sud, Orday Cedex (France)

Here, despite being a complex many-body system, the atomic nucleus exhibits simple structures for certain ‘magic’ numbers of protons and neutrons. The calcium chain in particular is both unique and puzzling: evidence of doubly magic features are known in 40,48Ca, and recently suggested in two radioactive isotopes, 52,54Ca. Although many properties of experimentally known calcium isotopes have been successfully described by nuclear theory, it is still a challenge to predict the evolution of their charge radii. Here we present the first measurements of the charge radii of 49,51,52Ca, obtained from laser spectroscopy experiments at ISOLDE, CERN. The experimental results are complemented by state-of-the-art theoretical calculations. The large and unexpected increase of the size of the neutron-rich calcium isotopes beyond N = 28 challenges the doubly magic nature of 52Ca and opens new intriguing questions on the evolution of nuclear sizes away from stability, which are of importance for our understanding of neutron-rich atomic nuclei.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1376334
Journal Information:
Nature Physics, Vol. 12, Issue 6; ISSN 1745-2473
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group (NPG)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 235 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (33)

Unexpectedly large difference of the electron density at the nucleus in the $$ 4p\, ^2{\mathrm {P}}_{{1}/{2},{3}/{2}}$$ 4 p 2 P 1 / 2 , 3 / 2 fine-structure doublet of Ca $$^+$$ + journal December 2016
Evidence for prevalent Z = 6 magic number in neutron-rich carbon isotopes journal April 2018
Proton superfluidity and charge radii in proton-rich calcium isotopes journal February 2019
Development of a sensitive setup for laser spectroscopy studies of very exotic calcium isotopes journal April 2017
Collinear laser spectroscopy at ISOLDE: new methods and highlights journal April 2017
Status and future of nuclear matrix elements for neutrinoless double-beta decay: a review journal March 2017
Analytic response relativistic coupled-cluster theory: the first application to indium isotope shifts journal January 2020
In-medium similarity renormalization group for closed and open-shell nuclei journal December 2016
Nuclear Structure from the In-Medium Similarity Renormalization Group journal June 2018
Part-per-billion measurement of the 4 2 S 1 / 2 3 2 D 5 / 2 electric-quadrupole-transition isotope shifts between Ca + 42 , 44 , 48 and Ca + 40 journal August 2019
Parameter optimization for the latest quark-meson coupling energy-density functional journal August 2019
Chiral g -matrix folding-model approach to reaction cross sections for scattering of Ca isotopes on a C target journal January 2020
Spectroscopy of Sc 50 and ab initio calculations of B ( M 3 ) strengths journal October 2017
β -decay properties of neutron-rich Ca, Ti, and Cr isotopes journal August 2018
Uncertainties in constraining low-energy constants from 3H $ \beta$β decay journal August 2017
Nuclear density-functional theory and fission of super-heavy elements journal February 2018
Influence of neutrons on charge-changing cross-sections journal August 2019
The oxygen isotopes book March 2017
Evidence for prevalent Z = 6 magic number in neutron-rich carbon isotopes text January 2018
Electric dipole response of neutron-rich Calcium isotopes in relativistic quasiparticle time blocking approximation text January 2016
A nucleus-dependent valence-space approach to nuclear structure text January 2016
In-Medium Similarity Renormalization Group for Closed and Open-Shell Nuclei text January 2016
Changes in nuclear structure along the Mn isotopic chain studied via charge radii text January 2016
Chiral interactions up to next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order and nuclear saturation text January 2017
Microscopic optical potentials for calcium isotopes text January 2018
Parameter Optimisation for the Latest Quark-Meson Coupling Energy Density Functional November 2018
Neutron drip line in the Ca region from Bayesian model averaging text January 2019
Irregularities in nuclear radii at magic numbers text January 2019
Electroweak probes of ground state densities text January 2019
Analytic Response Relativistic Coupled-Cluster Theory: The first application to indium isotope shifts text January 2019
$g$-matrix folding-model approach to reaction cross sections for scattering of Ca isotopes on a C target text January 2019
Properties of exotic nuclei and their linkage to the nucleonic interaction text January 2019
Ab-initio no-core shell model study of $^{10-14}$B isotopes with realistic NN interactions text January 2020

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