Strong Evidence for ⁹N and the Limits of Existence of Atomic Nuclei

Authors

R. J. Charity
J. Wylie
S. M. Wang
T. B. Webb
K. W. Brown
G. Cerizza
Z. Chajecki
J. M. Elson
J. Estee
D. E. M. Hoff
S. A. Kuvin
W. G. Lynch
Juan J. Manfredi, Air Force Institute of TechnologyFollow
N. Michel
D. G. McNeel
P. Morfouace
W. Nazarewicz
C. D. Pruitt
C. Santamaria
S. Sweany
J. Smith
L. G. Sobotka
M. B. Tsang
A. H. Wuosmaa

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-27-2023

Abstract

The boundaries of the chart of nuclides contain exotic isotopes that possess extreme proton-to-neutron asymmetries. Here we report on strong evidence of ⁹N, one of the most exotic proton-rich isotopes where more than one half of its constitute nucleons are unbound. With seven protons and two neutrons, this extremely proton-rich system would represent the first-known example of a ground-state five-proton emitter. The invariant-mass spectrum of its decay products can be fit with two peaks whose energies are consistent with the theoretical predictions of an open-quantum-system approach; however, we cannot rule out the possibility that only a single resonancelike peak is present in the spectrum.

Comments

© 2023 American Physical Society

Version used: CHORUS-furnished accepted manuscript.

Plain-text title form: Strong Evidence for N 9 and the Limits of Existence of Atomic Nuclei

The published version of record for the article is available from the publisher as a subscription article via the DOI below.

DOI

10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.172501

Source Publication

Physical Review Letters (ISSN 0031-9007 | e-ISSN 1079-7114)

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