Nuclear Spectroscopy of ^44,46Ca with Fusion Reactions Induced by Reaccelerated Rare-isotope Beams

Fusion reactions provide powerful tools to study medium- and high- spin states in a variety of nuclei. With the advent of reaccelerator facilities, rare-isotope beams could provide sufficient intensity to take advantage of this reaction mechanism. Detailed investigation is necessary to evaluate the experimental feasibility of this novel approach; therefore, two studies using beams of stable ⁴⁰Ar and neutron-rich ⁴⁵K on a lithium target were performed to access nuclei in the region of ^40-48Ca using the ReA3 complex at NSCL. One particular nucleus of interest in the present measurement is ⁴⁶Ca, where high spin states (J > 6) require neutron particle-hole excitations across the N=28 shell gap. Little is known of such band structures in heavier calcium isotopes, whereas deformed bands associated with intruder configurations have been found on excited 0⁺ states in ^40,42Ca. Using particle and gamma coincidence techniques, reaction channels can be selected to search for unknown transitions. New results are presented and discussed in terms of the shell structure and collective properties in this region.