Study of light proton-rich nuclei by complete kinematics measurements

Light proton-rich bound and unbound nuclei were produced by means of stripping reactions of secondary beams of Mg and Ne. The decays of the unbound nuclei Na have been measured by detecting their decay products Ne and one proton and by performing an invariant-mass reconstruction. For Na, the present work is the first measurement of its decay. As the decay scheme of this nucleus could not be determined, two possible scenarios are proposed and discussed. In addition, the decay of excited states in Ne via two-proton emission was observed. The proton-proton angular distribution is isotropic for the first two-proton–emitting states, whereas higher-lying states seem to decay by a correlated two-proton emission, consistent with a He emission pattern for part of the decay strength. PACS. 21.10.-k Properties of nuclei; nuclear energy levels – 23.40.-s β decay; double β decay; electron and muon capture – 23.50.+z Decay by proton emission