Testing the structure of exotic nuclei via coulomb excitation of radioactive ion beams at intermediate energies

Abstract

With the advent of accelerator facilities dedicated to the production of radioactive nuclei, experimenters had to develop new, efficient techniques that can measure observables with the available beam rates. In-flight separated beams offer large luminosity gains through the use of thick secondary targets when combined with the detection of γ-rays to indicate inelastic scattering. Here we review the status of Coulomb excitation at intermediate energies, a technique that allows for the measurement of transition rates in atomic nuclei with beam rates of a few particles per second. © 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.