Quenching of single-particle strength inferred from nucleon-removal transfer reactions on ${}^{15}$C

Abstract

The difference in the proton and neutron separation energies ($\hat{I}”S$) of the weakly bound ${}^{15}$C ground state is -19.86 MeV, an extreme value. Data from intermediate-energy heavy-ion induced (HI-induced) knockout reactions on nuclei spanning $-20\lesssim \hat{I}”S\lesssim +20$ MeV, suggest that the degree to which single-particle strength is quenched, $R{}_{\mathrm{s}}$, has a negative correlation with $\hat{I}”S$, decreasing from unity around $-20$~MeV to around 0.2 at $+20$~MeV. For the ${}^{15}$C ground state ($R_s=0.96(4)$ in HI-induced knockout), contrasting results have recently been obtained via the neutron-adding transfer reaction, which reveal a value of $R_s=0.64(15)$, similar to the value observed at modest $\hat{I}”S$ and more extreme values of $\hat{I}”S$ with reaction probes other than HI knockout. In order to explore the any potential differences between $adding$ and $removing$ processes in transfer reactions at extreme $\hat{I}”S$, single-neutron removal transfer reactions on ${}^{15}$C were performed at 7.1MeV/u in inverse kinematics. The removal of a valence neutron in 2$s_{1/2}$ orbit using both ($p$,$d$) and ($d$,$t$) reactions shows consistent quenching factors and agrees with those from the neutron-adding reaction. The present results, which can be compared with neutron knockout reaction, suggest that correlations, represented by the quenching factor, show limited dependence on neutron-proton asymmetry under the most extreme asymmetry conditions so far achieved in transfer reactions.

8 pages, 4 figures, accepted by Physics Letters B