In the framework of an international collaboration led by Irfu/DPhN and IJCLab, an experiment aiming to study the pygmy dipole resonance in the 140Ce nucleus (composed of 58 protons and 82 neutrons) has just been performed at GANIL-SPIRAL2, using the NFS (Neutron For Science) installation. The pygmy dipole resonance (PDR) is a vibration mode of neutron-rich nuclei described as the oscillation of a neutron skin around a proton/neutron-symmetric core. By making the nuclei interact with a neutron beam produced by NFS, researchers try to improve the theoretical description of the PDR and to better understand the properties of nuclear matter, which is present in the dense cosmic environments such as neutron stars.
A more detailed version of this article appears in number 3 (2022) of the newsletter published by the P2I axis of the Graduate School of Physics (University Paris-Saclay).
Correspondents: Marine Vandebrouck (CEA Irfu/DPhN), Iolanda Matea (IJLab)