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First β-Delayed Two-Neutron Spectroscopy of the r-Process Nucleus In134 and Observation of the i13/2 Single-Particle Neutron State in Sn133

P. Dyszel1, R. Grzywacz1, Z. Y. Xu1, N. Kitamura2, M. Karny3, A. Korgul3, M. Madurga1, S. Neupane4, A. Algora5 et al. (IDS Collaboration)

A. Algora5, A. N. Andreyev6, M. Araszkiewicz3,7, R. A. Bark8, J. Benito9, N. Bernier9,10, M. J. G. Borge11, M. Caballero9, P. Chuchala3, T. E. Cocolios12, C. Costache13, J. G. Cubiss6,14, H. De Witte12, J. E. Escher4, D. Fernandez-Ruiz11, A. Fijałkowska3, L. M. Fraile9, H. O. U. Fynbo15, J. Gouge1, J. L. Herraiz9, A. Illana9, P. M. Jones8, D. S. Judson16, P. Kamińska3, T. Kawano17, K. Kolos4, M. Labiche18, R. Lică13, M. Llanos-Expósito9, G. García De Lorenzo9, N. Marginean13, I. Michelon19, C. Mihai13, E. Nácher5, C. Neacsu13, J. S. Nielsen15, B. Olaizola11, J. N. Orce10, C. A. A. Page6, R. D. Page16, J. Pakarinen20,21, A. Perea11, M. Piersa-Siłkowska1,9,22, Zs. Podolyák23, J. Sánchez-Prieto11, M. Rajabali24, J. Shaw12, K. Solak3, M. Stryjczyk25,20, O. Tengblad11, P. González-Tarrío Vicente9, N. Warr26, J. Wilson6, Z. Yue6, and S. Zajda3 (IDS Collaboration)

  • 1Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, USA
  • 2Center for Nuclear Study, University of Tokyo, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
  • 3Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, PL 02-093 Warsaw, Poland
  • 4Nuclear and Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94551, USA
  • 5Instituto de Física Corpuscular, CSIC-Universidad de Valencia, E-46071, Valencia, Spain
  • 6School of Physics, Engineering and Technology, University of York, York YO10 5DD, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom
  • 7National Centre for Nuclear Research, Andrzeja Sołtana 7, 05-400 Otwock, Poland
  • 8iThemba LABS, National Research Foundation, P.O. Box 722, Somerset West 7129, South Africa
  • 9Grupo de Física Nuclear and IPARCOS, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, CEI Moncloa, E-28040 Madrid, Spain
  • 10Department of Physics, University of the Western Cape, P/B X17 Bellville 7535, South Africa
  • 11Instituto de Estructura de la Materia, CSIC, 28006 Madrid, Spain
  • 12KU Leuven, Instituut, B-3001, Leuven, Belgium
  • 13Horia Hulubei National Institute for Physics and Nuclear Engineering, RO-077125 Bucharest, Romania
  • 14School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH9 3FD, United Kingdom
  • 15Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
  • 16Oliver Lodge Laboratory, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 7ZE, United Kingdom
  • 17Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Lab, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA
  • 18STFC Daresbury Laboratory, Daresbury, WA4 4AD, Warrington, United Kingdom
  • 19ISOLDE, EP Department, CERN, CH-1211 Geneva, Switzerland
  • 20University of Jyväskylä, Department of Physics, P.O. Box 35, FI-40014, Jyväskylä, Finland
  • 21Helsinki Institute of Physics, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 64, FIN-00014 Helsinki, Finland
  • 22Institute of Experimental Physics, Warsaw University, Warszawa, PL 00-681, Poland
  • 23Department of Physics, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, United Kingdom
  • 24Department of Physics, Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, TN 38505, USA
  • 25Institut Laue-Langevin, 71 Avenue des Martyrs, F-38042 Grenoble, France
  • 26Institut für Kernphysik, Universität zu Köln, 50937 Köln, Germany

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 152501 – Published 8 October, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/l24v-5m31

Abstract

This manuscript reports on the direct observation of a β-delayed two-neutron emission in a study of In134 at the ISOLDE Decay Station using neutron spectroscopy. We also report on the first measurement in β− decay of the long-sought 13/2+ excited state in Sn133, attributed to be the neutron single-particle i13/2 orbital. The observation of sequential neutron emission is used to extract the relative population of the i13/2 state, which was found to be much smaller than the predictions of the statistical model. The experiment was possible because of the innovative use of a neutron array with neutron discrimination and interaction tracking capabilities. This is the first study of the details of the two-neutron emission for a nucleus, which belongs to the r-process path. Understanding β-delayed two-neutron emission probabilities is essential to validate models used in astrophysical r-process nucleosynthesis calculations. Observing two-neutron emissions in β− decay paves the way for new experiments to study energy and angular correlations for β-delayed multineutron emitters.

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Corrections

17 March, 2026

Correction: A second affiliation for the 14th author was missing and has been inserted. Three duplicate affiliations were removed from the list. As a result, several affiliations have been renumbered. Several author names contained errors in presentation and have been fixed.

Article Text

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 152501– Published 8 October, 2025
  • Received 20 March 2025
  • Accepted 12 July 2025
  • Corrected 17 March 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Open access publication funded by CERN.

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