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Title: Measurement and microscopic description of odd–even staggering of charge radii of exotic copper isotopes

Journal Article · · Nature Physics
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [2];  [2]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [4]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [5];  [2];  [6];  [7];  [1]; ORCiD logo [8];  [3];  [9];  [10]; ORCiD logo [11];  [12];  [13]; ORCiD logo [14] more »;  [15];  [16];  [17]; ORCiD logo [14];  [3]; ORCiD logo [18] « less
  1. Katholieke Univ. (KU), Leuven (Belgium); Univ. of Jyvaskyla (Finland)
  2. Univ. of Manchester (United Kingdom)
  3. Katholieke Univ. (KU), Leuven (Belgium)
  4. European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Geneva (Switzerland); TRIUMF, Vancouver, BC (Canada)
  5. Petersburg Nuclear Physics Inst., Gatchina (Russia)
  6. Inst. of Nuclear Physics (IPN), Orsay (France)
  7. Univ. of Manchester (United Kingdom); Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Geneva (Switzerland)
  8. TRIUMF, Vancouver, BC (Canada); McGill Univ., Montreal, QC (Canada)
  9. European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Geneva (Switzerland)
  10. TRIUMF, Vancouver, BC (Canada)
  11. Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States)
  12. Katholieke Univ. (KU), Leuven (Belgium); European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Geneva (Switzerland)
  13. Univ. Erlangen (Germany)
  14. Univ. of Manchester (United Kingdom); European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Geneva (Switzerland)
  15. New York Univ. (NYU), NY (United States)
  16. Katholieke Univ. (KU), Leuven (Belgium); Univ. of Manchester (United Kingdom)
  17. Johannes Gutenberg-Univ., Mainz (Germany)
  18. Katholieke Univ. (KU), Leuven (Belgium); Peking Univ., Beijing (China)

Nuclear charge radii globally scale with atomic mass number A as A1/3, and isotopes with an odd number of neutrons are usually slightly smaller in size than their even-neutron neighbours. This odd–even staggering, ubiquitous throughout the nuclear landscape1, varies with the number of protons and neutrons, and poses a substantial challenge for nuclear theory. Here, we report measurements of the charge radii of short-lived copper isotopes up to the very exotic 78Cu (with proton number Z = 29 and neutron number N = 49), produced at only 20 ions s–1, using the collinear resonance ionization spectroscopy method at the Isotope Mass Separator On-Line Device facility (ISOLDE) at CERN. We observe an unexpected reduction in the odd–even staggering for isotopes approaching the N = 50 shell gap. To describe the data, we applied models based on nuclear density functional theory and A-body valence-space in-medium similarity renormalization group theory. Through these comparisons, we demonstrate a relation between the global behaviour of charge radii and the saturation density of nuclear matter, and show that the local charge radii variations, which reflect the many-body polarization effects, naturally emerge from A-body calculations fitted to properties of A ≤ 4 nuclei.

Research Organization:
Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP); FNPMLS ERC Consolidator; Science and Technology Facilities Council; National Research Council of Canada
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0013365; SC0008511; SC)0018083; 648381; ST/P004423/1; ST/L005794/1
OSTI ID:
1615730
Journal Information:
Nature Physics, Vol. 16; ISSN 1745-2473
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group (NPG)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 52 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Charge radii of exotic neon and magnesium isotopes text January 2020