The cross sections for single-neutron removal from the very neutron-rich nucleus 31Ne on Pb and C targets have been measured at 230 MeV/nucleon using the RIBF facility at RIKEN. The deduced large Coulomb breakup cross section of 540(70) mb is indicative of a soft E1 excitation. Comparison with direct-breakup model calculations suggests that the valence neutron of 31Ne occupies a low-l orbital (most probably 2p(3/2)) with a small separation energy (S(n) approximately < 0.8 MeV), instead of being predominantly in the 1f(7/2) orbital as expected from the conventional shell ordering. These findings suggest that 31Ne is the heaviest halo system known.

The BigRIPS in-flight separator, which became operational in March 2007 at the RI Beam Factory (RIBF) at RIKEN Nishina Center, has been used to produce a variety of rare-isotope (RI) beams by using in-flight fission as well as projectile fragmentation. Its major features are large ion-optical acceptances and two-stage structure. Excellent performance in particle identification is also an important feature. Efficient RI-beam production based on the in-flight scheme has been made possible by these features of the BigRIPS separator, allowing us to greatly expand the accessible region of exotic nuclei. An RI-beam delivery line following the BigRIPS separator is designed to work as a forward spectrometer, called ZeroDegree. As a major experimental device at RIBF, the ZeroDegree spectrometer has been used for a variety of reaction studies with RI beams. In this paper, we present an overview of the BigRIPS separator and the ZeroDegree spectrometer, emphasizing the capability and potential of the new-generation RI beam facility, RIBF.

The Bethe-Salpeter (BS) equation for scalar-scalar bound states in scalar theories without derivative coupling is formulated and solved in Minkowski space. This is achieved using the perturbation theory integral representation (PTIR), which allows these amplitudes to be expressed as integrals over weight functions and known singularity structures and hence allows us to convert the BS equation into an integral equation involving weight functions. We obtain numerical solutions using this formalism for a number of scattering kernels to illustrate the generality of the approach. It applies even when the naïve Wick rotation is invalid. As a check we verify, for example, that this method applied to the special case of the massive ladder exchange kernel reproduces the same results as are obtained by Wick rotation.

We apply the perturbation theory integral representation (PTIR) to solve for the bound state Bethe-Salpeter (BS) vertex for an arbitrary scattering kernel, without the need for any Wick rotation. The results derived are applicable to any scalar field theory (without derivative coupling). It is shown that solving directly for the BS vertex, rather than the BS amplitude, has several major advantages, notably its relative simplicity and superior numerical accuracy. In order to illustrate the generality of the approach we obtain numerical solutions using this formalism for a number of scattering kernels, including cases where the Wick rotation is not possible.

No abstract