Identification of the crossing point at N=21 between normal and intruder configurations

Abstract

R. Lica et al. -- 6 pags., 3 figs. -- Open Access funded by Creative Commons Atribution Licence 4.0 ; The β- decay of Mg34 was used to study the Al34 nucleus through γ spectroscopy at the Isotope Separator On-Line facility of CERN. Previous studies identified two β-decaying states in Al34 having spin-parity assignments Jπ=4- dominated by the normal configuration π(d5/2)-1 - ν(f7/2) and Jπ=1+ by the intruder configuration π(d5/2)-1 - ν(d3/2)-1(f7/2)2. Their unknown ordering and relative energy have been the subject of debate for the placement of Al34 inside or outside the N=20 >island of inversion.> We report here that the 1+ intruder lies only 46.6 keV above the 4- ground state. In addition, a new half-life of T1/2=44.9(4)ms, that is twice as long as the previously measured 20(10) ms, has been determined for Mg34. Large-scale shell-model calculations with the recently developed sdpf-u-mix interaction are compared with the new data and used to interpret the mechanisms at play at the very border of the N=20 island of inversion. ; This Rapid Communication was partially supported by a grant of the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research and Innovation, CNCS-UEFISCDI Project No. PN-II-RU-TE-2014-4-1455, the Romanian IFA Grant CERN/ISOLDE, by FWO-Vlaanderen (Belgium), by GOA/2010/010 (BOF KU Leuven), and by the Interuniversity Attraction Poles Programme initiated by the Belgian Science Policy Office (BriX network P7/12). Support from the U.K. Science and Technology Facilities Council, the European Union Seventh Framework through ENSAR (Contract No. 262010), the MINECO (Spain) Grants No. FPA2015-64969- P, No. FPA2014-57196, and No. FPA2015-65035-P, Programme "Centros de Excelencia Severo Ochoa" Program No. SEV-2012-0249, the German BMBF under Contract No. 05P15PKCIA (ISOLDE), and "Verbundprojekt 05P2015" also is acknowledged. ; Peer Reviewed