The gamma decay from Coulomb excitation of 68Ni at 600 MeV/nucleon on a Au target was measured using the RISING setup at the fragment separator of GSI. The 68Ni beam was produced by a fragmentation reaction of 86Kr at 900 MeV/nucleon on a 9Be target and selected by the fragment separator. The gamma rays produced at the Au target were measured with HPGe detectors at forward angles and with BaF2 scintillators at backward angles. The measured spectra show a peak centered at approximately 11 MeV, whose intensity can be explained in terms of an enhanced strength of the dipole response function (pygmy resonance). Such pygmy structure has been predicted in this unstable neutron-rich nucleus by theory.

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Shape coexistence in the light krypton isotopes was studied in two low-energy Coulomb excitation experiments using radioactive 74 Kr and 76 Kr beams from the SPIRAL facility at GANIL. The ground-state bands in both isotopes were populated up to the 8 + state via multi-step Coulomb excitation, and several non-yrast states were observed. Large sets of matrix elements were extracted for both nuclei from the observed γ -ray yields. Diagonal matrix elements were determined by utilizing the reorientation effect. In both isotopes the spectroscopic quadrupole moments for the ground-state bands and the bands based on excited 0 + 2 states are found to have opposite signs. The experimental data are interpreted within a phenomenological two-band mixing model and model-independent quadrupole invariants are deduced for the relevant 0 + states using the complete sets of matrix elements and the formalism of quadrupole sum rules. Configuration mixing calculations based on triaxial Hartree-Fock-Bogolyubov calculations with the Gogny D1S effective interaction have been performed and are compared both with the experimental results and with recent calculations using the Skyrme SLy6 effective interaction and the full generator-coordinate method restricted to axial shapes.

The NEMO collaboration is looking to measure neutrinoless double beta decay. The search for the effective neutrino mass will approach a lower limit of 0.1 eV. The NEMO 3 detector is now operating in the Frejus Underground Laboratory. The fundamental design of the detector is reviewed and the performances detailed. Finally, a summary of the data collected in the first runs which involve energy and time calibration and study of the background are presented.

In-beam ␥-ray spectroscopy using fragmentation reactions of both stable and radioactive beams has been performed in order to study the structure of excited states in neutron-rich oxygen isotopes with masses ranging from A = 20 to 24. For the produced fragments, ␥-ray energies, intensities, and ␥-␥ coincidences have been measured. Based on this information new level schemes are proposed for