Abstract
For the first time, the (d,He2) reaction was successfully used in inverse kinematics to extract the Gamow-Teller transition strength in the β+ direction from an unstable nucleus. The new technique was made possible by the use of an active-target time-projection chamber and a magnetic spectrometer, and opens a path to addressing a range of scientific challenges, including in astrophysics and neutrino physics. In this Letter, the nucleus studied was O14, and the Gamow-Teller transition strength to N14 was extracted up to an excitation energy of 22 MeV. The data were compared to shell-model and state-of-the-art coupled-cluster calculations. Shell-model calculations reproduce the measured Gamow-Teller strength distribution up to about 15 MeV reasonably well, after the application of a phenomenological quenching factor. In a significant step forward to better understand this quenching, the coupled-cluster calculation reproduces the full strength distribution well without such quenching, owing to the large model space, the inclusion of strong correlations, and the coupling of the weak interaction to two nucleons through two-body currents.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 232301 |
| Journal | Physical Review Letters |
| Volume | 130 |
| Issue number | 23 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jun 9 2023 |
Funding
We thank all the staff at NSCL for their support. This work was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation under Grants No. PHY-1913554 (Windows on the Universe: Nuclear Astrophysics at the NSCL), No. PHY-1430152 (JINA Center for the Evolution of the Elements), No. PHY-2209429 Windows on the Universe: Nuclear Astrophysics at FRIB, and No. PHY-2110365 (Nuclear Structure Theory and its Applications to Nuclear Properties, Astrophysics and Fundamental Physics). The A. T. T. P. C. was partially funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation under Grant No. MRI-0923087. This material is also based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Nuclear Physics and used resources of the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB), which is a U.S. DOE Office of Science User Facility under Award No. DE-SC0000661. The work of S. J. N. was supported by the U.S. DOE Early Career Research Program, and G. H. was supported by the Office of Nuclear Physics, U.S. Department of Energy, under Grant No. DE-SC0018223 (NUCLEI SciDAC-4 collaboration) and by the Field Work Proposal ERKBP72 at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Computer time was provided by the Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE) program, and used resources at ORNL which is supported by the Office of Science of the Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725. The work of S. B. was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft through the Cluster of Excellence “Precision Physics, Fundamental Interactions, and Structure of Matter” (PRISMA EXC 2118/1, Project No. 39083149). This work has received financial support from Xunta de Galicia (Centro singular de investigación de Galicia accreditation 2019-2022), by European Union ERDF, and by the “María de Maeztu” Units of Excellence program MDM-2016-0692 and the Spanish Research State Agency. Y. A. acknowledges the support by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad through the Programmes “Ramón y Cajal” with the Grant No. RYC2019-028438-I. +