The long-lived isomer in 229Th, first studied in the 1970s as an exotic feature in nuclear physics, is the only known candidate for the development of a nuclear clock. The transition energy between the ground and first excited states of 229Th is unusually small and amounts to only several eV, making it the only laser-accessible nuclear transition. An optical clock based on this transition...
Nuclear isomers can play a pivotal role in the nucleosynthesis of elements and can have various effects on the reaction path. Some of these "astromers" are however difficult to produce and their effects hard to study under laboratory conditions.
I will discuss two isomer-related projects that are planned at TRIUMF, utilizing the decay spectroscopy setup at the TITAN Electron Beam Ion Trap...
A unique feature of thorium-229 is its isomer with an exceptionally low excitation energy, proposed as a candidate for future optical clocks [1]. The small decay width is expected to outperform the accuracy of current state-of-the-art atomic clocks by an order of magnitude [2]. The current best values of the excitation energy are 8.28(17)eV and 8.10(17)eV [3,4]. These were determined using two...
Several aspects of the ELI-NP research program related to isomeric studies will be presented, namely, population of isomers and decay studies in γ-beam activation experiments, studies of doorway states for population or depopulation of isomers in γ-beam experiments and measurements of photofission product yields.
The possibilities for generation of γ beams with orbital angular momentum (OAM)...
An experiment on 4D-imaging of drip-line radioactivity near doubly-magic 56Ni was conducted at GANIL. Pictured with the ACTAR TPC, proton-emission branches from the 6457-keV, 10+ isomer in 54mNi were established [1]. These feature unusually high angular momentum, l=5 and l=7, respectively, which requires a dedicated theoretical treatment [2].
The completed proton-emission pattern of 54mNi...
Nuclear isomers often possess a unique configuration or shape that allows testing nuclear models and advancing the understanding of nuclear structure. In addition, in many cases isomers allow for an easier experimental identification and/or correlated and background-reduced data analysis. Our recent nuclear structure studies of neutron-rich Kr isotopes using prompt and delayed gamma...
