Decay Modes of Exotic Nuclei

The first goal is to develop, install and commission an anti-Compton shield for the COMPEX Germanium detectors as a part of Lundium decay station. Developing the shield involves testing BGO crystals, preparing the crystals to become individual detector units, designing the carbon fiber "pocket" to hold the detectors and the circuit boards to have a signal readout from the shield. Once the shield is completed it has to be tested together with COMPEX detectors.

The nuclear structure part concerns conducting in-beam high-resolution particle- and gamma-ray coincidence spectroscopy on nuclei close to the N=Z line. A good understanding of those nuclei define its significance not only for (continuum) shell-model descriptions and the understanding of isospin breaking interactions in heavier Tz = ±1/2 mirror systems, but also for the astrophysical rp process. The experiments are carried out at Argonne National Laboratory using GammaSphere, Neutron Shell, the Fragment Mass Analyzer, and a novel combination of charged particle detectors composed of Microball and two CD-type double-sided Si-strip detectors. There are two main sub-projects regarding this part of the thesis - particle and gamma-ray coincidence spectroscopy of 57Cu and study of isobaric analog states in mass A = 62, 61 nuclides - mirror symmetry and proton decay in the upper fp shell.