Capitol News

A research team at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) at Michigan State University has discovered that cobalt-70 isotopes can form different nuclear shapes with only slight differences in energy levels. The study, published in Nature Communications Physics, highlights the complex nature of exotic nuclear particles.

The team comprised Artemis Spyrou, Sean Liddick, Alex Brown from FRIB and MSU, and Cade Dembski, now a doctoral student at the University of Notre Dame. Dembski served as the lead author of the paper.

“When we first started this project, it was motivated by the astrophysical side of nuclear science research,” said Dembski. “As we continued with our data analysis...it turned out the reason was due to some interesting nuclear structure effects.”

Using the Summing Nal Detector (SuN) at FRIB’s predecessor, they found both spherical and deformed states of cobalt-70. This isotope exists as a transition between chromium isotopes and neutron-rich nickel isotopes' spherical ground states.

Sean Liddick noted that understanding these shapes is crucial because "in regions where this happens, we see a lot of change in the structure of the nucleus over a small number of proton and neutron numbers."

The research involved studying iron-70's decay chain to cobalt-70 and then to nickel-70 using total absorption spectroscopy (TAS). Artemis Spyrou explained that their technique aimed to capture all energy emitted during decay rather than individual gamma rays.

Dembski began his work with Spyrou’s group as an undergraduate at MSU. He expressed interest in continuing collaboration with FRIB during his graduate studies. “By having easy access to facilities on campus...I could take ownership of this research,” he said.

MSU operates FRIB as a user facility for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science (DOE-SC), focusing on rare isotopes' properties to understand nuclei physics better.

“I thoroughly enjoy continuing to collaborate with undergraduate and graduate students,” said Liddick. Spyrou added that such collaborations could last many years depending on mutual interests.

Dembski plans further experiments focusing on tin around FRIB’s capabilities, supported by DOE-SC's mission to advance scientific knowledge in physical sciences.