Observation of enhanced monopole strength and clustering in (12)Be

Phys Rev Lett. 2014 Apr 25;112(16):162501. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.162501. Epub 2014 Apr 22.

Abstract

In a recent breakup-reaction experiment using a Be12 beam at 29 MeV/nucleon, the 0+ band head of the expected He4+He8 molecular rotation was clearly identified at about 10.3 MeV, from which a large monopole matrix element of 7.0±1.0 fm2 and a large cluster-decay width were determined for the first time. These findings support the picture of strong clustering in Be12, which has been a subject of intense investigations over the past decade. The results were obtained thanks to a specially arranged detection system around zero degrees, which is essential in determining the newly emphasized monopole strengths to signal the cluster formation in a nucleus.