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Neutron Transfer Reactions on 64Zn as a Probe for Testing Shell-Model Isospin-Symmetry-Breaking Theory

As part of an ongoing program to study fundamental symmetries in nuclear physics, a thorough investigation into shell-model isospin-symmetry-breaking (ISB) calculation theory has been conducted using direct reactions to observe detailed nuclear-structure information. The work presented in this Thesis focuses on the 62Ga superallowed beta-decay system, and consists of two primary experiments; 1) A 64Zn(d,t)63Zn single-neutron transfer reaction, aimed at observing spectroscopic strengths to help guide calculation model-space truncations for the beta-decay wave function radial-overlap component of ISB, and 2) A two-neutron 64Zn(p,t)62Zn transfer to search for excited 0+ states in the daughter nucleus of 62Ga. The experiments were performed at the Maier-Leibnitz-Laboratory, on the joint campuses of the Ludwig-Maximilians Universitat and the Technische Universitat Munchen, in Garching, Germany.

In total, 162 states in 63Zn were populated from the 64Zn(d,t) reaction, up to an excitation energy of 4.8 MeV, including the observation of 125 new levels, and unique spin/parity assignments for 92 states. As a result, this work provides the most complete picture for low-spin states in 63Zn to date. A comparison of the extracted S values to the predicted shell-model spectroscopic factors shows an overall over-prediction of strength for the 2p3/2 orbital, and a large disagreement for the 1f7/2 orbital above ~3.5 MeV. No significant 1g9/2 strength was observed, leading to the conclusion that the importance of the 1g9/2 orbital for ISB is small.

Additionally, 67 states were observed in 62Zn using the two-neutron pickup mechanism, including the observation of five 0+ states. More than 99% of the total 0+ (p,t) cross-section is observed in the ground-state reaction channel, implying a nearly maximal overlap of the wave functions with the two-nucleon transfer operator. The dominance of the ground-state-to-ground-state (p,t) cross section is strikingly similar to the dominance of the superallowed Fermi beta-decay between isobaric-analogue 0+ states. This suggests that the population of excited 0+ states in the (p,t) reaction may reflect the population in the Fermi decay process, and can be used to guide future experimental and theoretical work. Further discussion of these results as they relate to the ISB correction calculations, and the implications for future theoretical work are presented in this Thesis. / This work was supported in part by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation, the DFG Cluster of Excellence `Origin and Structure of the Universe', and NSF grant PHY-1068217.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:OGU.10214/4866
Date12 December 2012
CreatorsLeach, Kyle G.
ContributorsGarrett, Paul, Svensson, Carl
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis

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