Support of the Brighton Nuclear Physics Group in the development of an experimental programme at GANIL

Alison Bruce and Marie Harder developed the focus of the University of Brighton's nuclear physics research programme with a three-year project at the Grand Accélérateur National d'Ions Lourds (GANIL) facility.

Brighton's £56,000 ESPRC grant facilitated a mixture of work on K-isomeric states and on N>Z nuclei in the lower quadrant of the Z=28/50 shell.

A collaborative project, it built particularly upon the extensive collaborative links with colleagues at the University of Surrey on a programme that studied isomeric states in the N=74 and Z~72 nuclei. A proposal led by the University of Surrey and the Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils (CCLRC) Daresbury Laboratory planned to extend this isomer work to A~80 N~Z nuclei using the multi-fragmentation reaction at GANIL.

The experiment was to be used as an intermediate step towards developing a collaborative experimental programme of isomeric and in-beam work at GANIL.

This research linked in with modelling work, which began to focus on the Z=28/50 shell, building on existing collaboration with theorists at GANIL and helping the University of Brighton to develop closer ties with theorists at the University of Sussex, ensuring clear links between experiment and theory.

Wider partners included: 

> Institut de Recherche Subatomiques (IReS), Strasbourg, France

> Liverpool University 

> Chalmers University of Technology, Goteborg, Sweden

> Centre d'Etudes Nucléaires de Bordeaux-Gradignan, (CENBG), Gradignan, France

> Instituto de Estructura de la Materia (IEM) - Madrid, Spain

> University of Brighton, UK 

> Surrey University, Guildford, UK

> Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL, Berkeley Lab), USA

> Grand Accélérateur National d'Ions Lourds (GANIL), Caen, France

> York University, York UK

> Warsaw University, Warsaw, Poland

> University of Jyväskylä, Finland

> Constantine University, Algeria 

> Institut de Physique Nucléaire d'Orsay (IPN), France

Selected workshops/conferences

'Indication for superallowed Fermi decay from the N=Z nuclei ⁷⁸Y, ⁸²Nb, ⁸⁶Tc'

Dessagne, Longer, Garces Narro, Bruce, Harder et al. 

AIP Conference Proceedings. ENAM 98, Bellaire (USA) 23 June 1998

'Experimental Investigation of N = Z Nuclei Around A ~ 80 Through Radioactive Decay',  Longour, Axelsson, Blank, Borge, Bruce, Catford, Harder et al. 
The Beta Decay, from Weak Interaction to Nuclear Structure
Workshop on the Beta Decay, From Weak Interaction to Nuclear Structure
Strasbourg, France, 17 March 1999

Selected publications

'Half-lives of the odd-odd N = Z nuclei ⁷⁸Y, ⁸²Nb, ⁸⁶Tc'
Longour, C., Garcés Narro, J., Blank, B., Lewitowicz, M., Miehé, C., Regan, P. H., Applebe, D., Axelsson, L., Bruce, A. M., Catford, W. N., Chandler, C., Clark, R. M., Cullen, D. M., Czajkowski, S., Harder, M et al, Apr 1999, In: Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics. 25, 4, p. 759-762

'Observation of Fermi Superallowed (3+ Decays in Heavy Odd-Odd, N = Z Nuclei : Evidence for 0+ Ground States in ⁷⁸Y, ⁸²Nb, and ⁸⁶Tc'

Longour, Garces Narro, Blank, Brue, Harder et al. Physical Review Letters 81,16(1998)

'First observation of excited states in the neutron deficient nuclei ¹⁶⁸Pt and ¹⁷⁰Pt'

King, Simpson, Page, Amzal, Harder et al. Physics Letters B443 (1998) 82.