There is strong circumstantial evidence that the shape of atomic nuclei with particular values of Z and N prefers to assume octupole deformation, in which the nucleus is distorted into a pear shape that loses the reflection symmetry of a quadrupole-deformed (rugby ball) shape prevalent in nuclei. Recently, useable intensities of accelerated beams of heavy, radioactive ions have become available at the REX-ISOLDE facility at CERN. This has allowed electric octupole transition strengths, a direct measure of octupole correlations, to be determined for short-lived isotopes of radon and radium expected to be unstable to pear-like distortions. The data are used to discriminate differing theoretical approaches to the description of the octupole phenomena, and also help restrict the choice of candidates for studies of atomic electric-dipole moments, that provide stringent tests of extensions to the Standard Model.

Beta-delayed proton emission from 20 Mg has been measured at ISOLDE, CERN, with the ISOLDE Decay Station (IDS) setup including both charged-particle and gamma-ray detection capabilities. A total of 26 delayed proton branches were measured including seven so far unobserved. An updated decay scheme, including three new resonances above the proton separation energy in 20 Na and more precise resonance energies, is presented. Beta-decay feeding to two resonances above the Isobaric Analogue State (IAS) in 20 Na is observed. This may allow studies of the 4032.9(2.4) keV resonance in 19 Ne through the beta decay of 20 Mg, which is important for the astrophysically relevant reaction 15 O(α, γ) 19 Ne. Beta-delayed protons were used to obtain a more precise value for the half-life of 20 Mg, 90.9(1.2) ms. PACS. 23.20.Lv γ transitions and level energies-26.30.Ca Explosive burning in accreting binary systems (novae, x-ray bursts)-27.30.+t 20 ≤ A ≤ 38-29.30.Ep Charged-particle spectroscopy