Speaker
Description
The region of the nuclear chart centred around $^{32}$Mg, known as the Island of Inversion (IOI), is characterised by the onset of deformed configurations in the ground states due to particle excitations across a weakening N=20 shell gap. The IOI has been described using numerous observables, but information regarding the single-particle structure of nuclei in this region is limited. The aim of this work is to portray the evolution of the single-particle properties across the boundary of the IOI, through comparison with previous measurements of nuclei located outside of it. This offers valuable insights into the mechanisms of cross-shell interactions and acts as a robust test of modern shell model calculations that have struggled to describe the transition to this region in the past.
The $^{30}$Mg(d,p)$^{31}$Mg reaction was performed in inverse kinematics at the incident beam energy of 8 MeV/u. Using the ISOLDE Solenoidal Spectrometer at CERN to analyse the outgoing protons, the experiment probed the single-particle structure of both the bound and unbound states of $^{31}$Mg up to the excitation energy of 3 MeV. Combining the results with previously obtained data on $^{29}$Mg, allowed for a characterisation of the evolution of single-particle properties across the boundary of the IOI.
