Speaker
Description
Nuclear shape coexistence plays a crucial role in understanding the microscopic origin of nuclear deformation.
The Ca isotopic chain between $^{40}$Ca and $^{48}$Ca is an optimal test area that can provide key information on shape coexistence when moving from the valley of stability towards the neutron-rich region of the Segrè chart.
This work aims to perform complete low-spin spectroscopy of $^{42,43,44,45}$Ca isotopes, complementary to the already existing data of $^{41,47,49}$Ca, and to look for evidence of shape coexistence in the A$\sim40$ region.
As a first step in this direction, we focused on $^{42}$Ca, where evidence for a $0^+$ excitation associated with a superdeformed shape has been obtained in a Coulomb excitation experiment.
The $^{42}$Ca nucleus of interest was populated with a $(n_{th},\gamma)$ reaction on a $^{41}$Ca radioactive target.
The $\gamma$ cascades emitted from the $11.480$ MeV capture state were detected using the 32 HPGe crystals array FIPPS, at ILL (Grenoble).
The result of this work is a complex level scheme that will be presented together with preliminary angular correlation studies made to establish spin and parities of several excited states of $^{42}$Ca.
