Hope College Physics Department Research Experiences for Undergraduates Summer 2007 Project Summary

The goal of this experiment was to find the ground state energies for ^12,13Li. These isotopes are of interest as they exist along the neutron dripline and are highly unstable and thus have never been studied before. Gaining a better understanding of them will allow for better modeling of nuclear structure. Also there is the interesting possibility that ¹³Li may be bound with respect to one neutron emissions. The ^12,13Li were created using a ¹⁴B and ¹⁴Be beam created at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Lab impinged on a 470 mg/cm² Be target. Then both isotopes decay to ¹¹Li which is analyzed in the Sweeper magnet and detector array while the coincident neutrons are detected by MoNA. By reconstructing the energy of the fragments and corresponding neutrons the ground state, and possibly excited state, energies of ^12,13Li can by found.