Probing nuclear structure and reactions in inverse kinematics with transfer reactions

The study of nuclear structure and reactions in exotic nuclear systems, those that are far from stable nuclei, improve our understanding of the strong nuclear force, the force that binds atomic nuclei, and the reactions that they undergo. This is important for understanding how the elements are produced in astrophysical environments, for our fundamental understanding of the nuclear force and for applications in nuclear industry.
Transfer reactions are a selective probe of nuclear structure. They selectively populate certain states in the nucleus, that look like a single-particle around a core, by adding or removing a neutron or proton. They can be used to investigate the mechanisms driving evolving nuclear structure, such as how the magic numbers that correspond to closed shells in the nuclear shell model or the onset of shape changes in light neutron-rich nuclei. Or they can be used as surrogate reactions where the direct measurement of the reaction of interest is not possible, such as reactions where a nucleus captures a neutron.
This project will combine study of the single-particle properties of exotic nuclei using radioactive beams with the study of transfer-induced fission. The first part of the project will utilise a measurement of the (d,p) neutron-adding reaction in inverse kinematics (where a heavy beam is fired at a light target) to selectively populate single-particle states in 31Mg to explore how the single-particle properties of nuclei evolve in to a region of changing nuclear shape. The second part will commission a new detector set up using the same probe, the (d,p) reaction, to induce fission in the 235U+n system in inverse kinematics, as a surrogate for neutron-induced fission, using the ISOLDE Solenoidal Spectrometer at CERN. Successful demonstration of this technique will open up a study of fission with short-lived actinides at the ISOLDE facility at CERN.