Nuclear mass systematics and nucleon-removal thresholds; application to 17-Na

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method to estimate unknown nuclear masses using mirror system excitations and energy trends, applying it to predict the mass and threshold energy of 17-Na, with results differing from recent models.

Contribution

It presents a model-free approach to estimate nuclear masses and thresholds, specifically applied to 17-Na, based on mirror system data and energy trends.

Findings

Estimated mass of 17-Na is larger than recent model predictions.

The energy relative to the p+16-Ne threshold is derived from mirror system data.

The approach provides a new way to estimate uncertain nuclear masses.

Abstract

A survey of known threshold excitations of mirror systems suggests a means to estimate masses of nuclear systems that are uncertain or not known, as does a trend in the relative energies of isobaric ground states. Using both studies and known mirror-pair energy differences, we estimate the mass of the nucleus 17-Na and its energy relative to the p+16-Ne threshold. This model-free estimate of the latter is larger than that suggested by recent structure models.