Two Decadal Survey of Unbound Nuclei with the Mona-lisa Detector: Past, Present and Future Outlook

The MoNA Collaboration, which is comprised of 11 institutions, has been involved at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) for almost two decades. It has established itself as a leader in the understanding of the nuclear structure from the study of neutron unbound nuclei primarily through nuclear breakup or particle removal reactions. Such studies complement those at other facilities using ion beams and electromagnetic probes. The Collaboration designed and constructed theModular Neutron Array/Large Institutional Scintillator Array (MoNA-LISA)capable of measuring 50-250 MeV neutrons with an efficiency around 70%. The MoNA-LISA detector was housed in the N2 vault of NSCL where it was coupled to a large gap 4 Tm Sweeper magnet bending particles around a 43.3^ocentral trajectory before entering a charged detector system for tracking and particle identification. The entire system allows to reconstruct the decay energy of unbound nuclei using the invariant mass technique. A portion of the MoNA-LISA-Sweeper system is being relocated to the S2 vault and other parts will contribute to the upcoming Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) to replace the NSCL coupled cyclotron facility. When completed, FRIB will become an unprecedented low energy nuclear physics facility to study neutron rich nuclei with heavy ion beams. Highlights of some experiments conducted in N2 along with new developments currently underway to improve the current capability for S2 and HRS will be presented and discussed.