Mirror nucleon-transfer reactions from $^{18}$Ne and $^{18}$O

TL;DR

This study investigates mirror nucleon-transfer reactions involving $^{18}$Ne and $^{18}$O, revealing symmetry in unbound states but notable differences in deeply-bound neutron removal, highlighting nuclear structure asymmetries.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of mirror reactions using coupled reaction channels calculations, highlighting symmetry and breaking phenomena in nucleon transfer processes.

Findings

Mirror states in $^{17}$F and $^{17}$O show similar spectroscopic factors.

Significant symmetry breaking observed in neutron removal to $^{17}$Ne.

Single-particle strength is reduced in the deeply-bound neutron removal channel.

Abstract

The $^{18}$Ne(d,t)$^{17}$Ne and $^{18}$Ne(d,$^3$He)$^{17}$F single-nucleon pickup reactions were measured at 16.5 MeV/nucleon in inverse kinematics together with elastic and inelastic scattering channels. The full set of measured exclusive differential cross sections was compared with the mirror reaction channels on stable $^{18}$O after consistent reanalysis using coupled reaction channels calculations. Within this interpretation scheme, most of the spectroscopic factors extracted for the population of unbound states in $^{17}$F match within uncertainties with their mirror partners in $^{17}$O. However, for the deeply-bound neutron removal channel to $^{17}$Ne, a significant symmetry breaking with the mirror proton-removal channel leading to $^{17}$N is evidenced by an overall single-particle strength reduction.