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Progress of isotope separators and KISS facility for the study of exotic nuclei

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Abstract

Facilities equipped with two major types of isotope separators—Isotope Separation On-Line (ISOL) and in-flight separators—have produced many types of unstable nuclei and have provided opportunities to study their exotic properties successfully. Gas-cell systems have been developed for both types of radioactive-ion (RI) facilities, enabling the performance of a great variety of nuclear-spectroscopic measurements by compensating for their respective disadvantages in the production and purification of the RI beams. Although many nuclear-spectroscopic studies have been performed in both types of RI facilities by applying \(^{238}\)U target (ISOL) or \(^{238}\)U beam (in-flight), two major unexplored regions remain on the nuclear chart located in the regions of the refractory elements in the vicinity of \(Z=\) 73–78 and \(N=\) 126 and in the actinide elements. Because it is hard or almost impossible to produce the neutron-rich nuclei, which require specific nuclear reactions for the productions, in these unexplored regions. To access these regions and perform nuclear spectroscopy there, the KEK Isotope Separation System (KISS)—an argon-gas-cell-based laser ion source—has been developed and operated. The gas-cell system at the KISS facility is dedicated to multinucleon transfer (MNT) reactions for producing heavy, neutron-rich nuclei in the unexplored regions. Here, we introduce some of the experimental results and discuss a plan to upgrade the facility to promote further nuclear spectroscopy of the nuclei in the unexplored regions.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant No. JP21H04479. I thank Prof. Walker for helpful comments and suggestions.

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  1. Wako Nuclear Science Center (WNSC), Institute of Particle and Nuclear Studies (IPNS), High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, 351-0198, Saitama, Japan

    Yoshikazu Hirayama

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Hirayama, Y., KISS Collaboration. Progress of isotope separators and KISS facility for the study of exotic nuclei. Eur. Phys. J. Spec. Top. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjs/s11734-024-01099-1

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