First Observation of the Four-Proton Unbound Nucleus 18Mg
- Peking Univ., Beijing (China)
- Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States)
- Washington Univ., St. Louis, MO (United States)
- Peking Univ., Beijing (China); Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou (China); Univ. of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing (China)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou (China); Univ. of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing (China)
- Fudan Univ., Shanghai (China); Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States)
- Sun Yat-Sen Univ., Zhuhai (China)
18Mg was observed, for the first time, by the invariant-mass reconstruction of 14O + 4p events. The ground-state decay energy and width are ET = 4.865(34) MeV and Γ = 115(100) keV, respectively. The observed momentum correlations between the five particles are consistent with two sequential steps of prompt 2p decay passing through the ground state of 16Ne. The invariant-mass spectrum also provides evidence for an excited state at an excitation energy of 1.84(14) MeV, which is likely the first excited 2+ state. As this energy exceeds that for the 2+ state in 20Mg, this observation provides an argument for the demise of the N = 8 shell closure in nuclei far from stability. Furthermore, in open systems this classical argument for shell strength is compromised by Thomas-Ehrman shifts.
- Research Organization:
- Washington Univ., St. Louis, MO (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- FG02-87ER40316
- OSTI ID:
- 1837749
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 127, Issue 26; ISSN 0031-9007
- Publisher:
- American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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