The evolution of nuclear properties as a function of the neutron excess depends on how the shell structure changes. This evolution has consequences on the ground state properties and on the single-particle and collective excitations. Presently, our knowledge about the structure of nuclei is mostly limited to nuclei close to the valley of stability or nuclei with a deficiency of neutrons. Only recently the availability of beams of unstable ions has given access to unexplored regions of the nuclear chart, especially on the neutron-rich side. A complementary way to study the structure of neutron-rich nuclear systems is offered by the use of high intensity beams of stable ions and binary reactions. Multi-nucleon and deep-inelastic reactions are a powerful tool to populate medium-and high-spin states in moderately neutron-rich systems. In this article, I will discuss some selected examples studied using the novel experimental setup that combines the large acceptance magnetic spectrometer, PRISMA, and the high-efficiency γ-ray detection arrays, CLARA and AGATA. They show the high potential of such reaction mechanism for the study of the spectroscopic properties of neutron-rich nuclear systems.

Lifetimes of high-spin states in 66 Ge have been measured using Doppler shift attenuation technique with the GASP and RFD setup. The 66 Ge nucleus was populated in the 40 Ca( 32 S, α2p) reaction at beam energy of 95 MeV. The transition quadrupole moment, Q t , of the negative parity band in this nucleus has been determined to be approx. 0.9±0.1 eb.

For certain combinations of protons and neutrons, there is a theoretical expectation that the shape of nuclei can assume octupole deformation, which would give rise to reflection asymmetry or a "pear shape" in the intrinsic frame, either dynamically (octupole vibrations) or statically (permanent octupole deformation). In this paper, I will briefly review the historic evidence for reflection asymmetry in nuclei, describe how recent experiments carried out at REX-ISOLDE are constraining nuclear theory and how they contribute to tests of extensions of the Standard Model, and look at future prospects for this field.