First in-beam γ -ray study of the level structure of neutron-rich S 39
R. Chapman et al. ; 8 págs.; 6 figs.; 1 tab. ; The neutron-rich S39 nucleus has been studied using binary grazing reactions produced by the interaction of a 215-MeV beam of S36 ions with a thin Pb208 target. The magnetic spectrometer, PRISMA, and the γ-ray array, CLARA, were used in the measurements. Gamma-ray transitions of the following energies were observed: 339, 398, 466, 705, 1517, 1656, and 1724 keV. Five of the observed transitions have been tentatively assigned to the decay of excited states with spins up to (11/2-). The results of a state-of-the-art shell-model calculation of the level scheme of S39 using the SDPF-U effective interaction are also presented. The systematic behavior of the excitation energy of the first 11/2- states in the odd-A isotopes of sulfur and argon is discussed in relation to the excitation energy of the first excited 2+ states of the adjacent even-A isotopes. The states of S39 that have the components in their wave functions corresponding to three neutrons in the 1f7/2 orbital outside the N=20 core have also been discussed within the context of the 0 ω shell-model calculations presented here. ©2016 American Physical Society ; This work was supported in part by the EPSRC (UK) and by the European Union under Contract No. RII3-CT- 2004-506065. Five of us (D.O., M.B., A.H., K.K., and A.P.) acknowledge financial support from the EPSRC. Z.M.W. acknowledges support from ORSAS and from the University of the West of Scotland. A.N.D. acknowledges support from the STFC. A.J. acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación under Contracts No. FPA2007-66069 and No. FPA2009-13377-C02-02. Zs.D. acknowledges financial support from OTKA under Project No. K100835. S.S. acknowledges support from the Croatian Science Foundation under Project No. 7194. The contribution of the accelerator and target-fabrication staff at the INFN Legnaro National Laboratory is gratefully acknowledged. ; Peer Reviewed