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Isospin mixing in the hot compound nucleus 80 Zr was studied by measuring and comparing the γ -ray emission from the fusion reactions 40 Ca + 40 Ca at E beam = 200 MeV and 37 Cl + 44 Ca at E beam = 153 MeV. The γ yield associated with the giant dipole resonance is found to be different in the two reactions because, in self-conjugate nuclei, the E1 selection rules forbid the decay between states with isospin I = 0. The degree of mixing is deduced from statistical-model analysis of the γ -ray spectrum emitted by the compound nucleus 80 Zr with the standard parameters deduced from the γ decay of the nucleus 81 Rb. The results are used to deduce the zero-temperature value, which is then compared with the latest predictions. The Coulomb spreading width is found to be independent of temperature.The issue of isospin impurity in nuclei has been a longstanding open problem in nuclear physics. In particular, its knowledge is interesting in connection with the properties of the isobaric analog states (IAS) and with the Fermi β decay of the N ≈ Z nuclei around the proton drip line. The evaluation of the isospin impurity provides an important correction to the Fermi-transition rates allowing the extraction, in a nucleusindependent way, of the up-down quark-mixing matrix element of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix [1,2]. Concerning the IAS, they are known to have a narrow spreading width ↓ related to the isospin impurities [3,4] originating from the Coulomb interaction coupling them to states of different isospin.In general, the breaking of isospin symmetry can be observed using, as a magnifying lens, the decays which would be forbidden by the selection rules if isospin mixing was not to occur. This is the case of the neutron decay from the IAS [5] and of the E1 decay from self-conjugate nuclei [6].The giant dipole resonance (GDR), where the maximum strength of the E1 transitions is concentrated, is the ideal excitation mode where this selection rule of E1 decay can be fully exploited. This approach was employed to measure the E1 decay of the GDR in nuclei at a finite temperature produced with fusion-evaporation reactions [7][8][9][10][11]. Fusion-evaporation reactions allow the production of self-conjugate compound nuclei (CN) at high excitation energy which, in many cases, * Present address: CEA Saclay, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France. are far from the β-stability valley. The use of a self-conjugate projectile and target ensures that the CN produced in fusion reactions has isospin I = 0. Therefore, E1 emission associated with the decay of the GDR is hindered due to the fact that, if the isospin of the initial state is pure, only the less-numerous I = 1 final states can be reached in the decay [12]. Conversely, if the initial state is not pure in isospin but contains an admixture of I = 1 states, it can decay to the more numerous I = 0 final states. Thus, the first-step γ yield depends on the degree of isospin mixing of the CN. In addition, at a finite temperature one expects a partial restoration of the isospin symmetry b...

The reduced transition probability B(E2)↑ of the first excited 2 + state in the nucleus 104 Sn was measured via Coulomb excitation in inverse kinematics at intermediate energies. A value of 0.173(28) e 2 b 2 was extracted from the absolute cross section on a Pb target. Feeding contributions in 104 Sn from higher lying states were estimated by a reference measurement of the stable 112 Sn. Corresponding only to a moderate decrease of excitation strength relative to the almost constant values observed in the proton-rich, even-A 106−114 Sn isotopes, present state-of-the-art shell-model predictions, which include proton and neutron excitations across the N = Z = 50 shell closures as well as standard polarization charges, underestimate the experimental findings.

The properties of pygmy dipole states in 208Pb were investigated using the 208Pb(17O, 17O'γ) reaction at 340 MeV and measuring the γ decay with high resolution with the AGATA demonstrator array. Cross sections and angular distributions of the emitted γ rays and of the scattered particles were measured. The results are compared with (γ, γ') and (p, p') data. The data analysis with the distorted wave Born approximation approach gives a good description of the elastic scattering and of the inelastic excitation of the 2+ and 3- states. For the dipole transitions a form factor obtained by folding a microscopically calculated transition density was used for the first time. This has allowed us to extract the isoscalar component of the 1- excited states from 4 to 8 MeV.