Formation of light exotic nuclei in low-energy multinucleon transfer reactions

Low-energy multinucleon transfer reactions are shown to comprise a very effective tool for the production and spectroscopic study of light exotic nuclei. The corresponding cross sections are found to be significantly larger as compared with high-energy fragmentation reactions. Several optimal reactions for the production of extremely neutron-rich isotopes of elements with Z = 6‐14 are proposed. I. MOTIVATION Multinucleon transfer reactions occurring in low-energy collisions of heavy ions are currently considered to comprise the most promising method for the production of new heavy (and superheavy) neutron-rich nuclei, unobtainable by other reaction mechanisms. These reactions can be used for the production of both new neutron-rich isotopes of transfermium elements (where only proton-rich nuclei located on the left side from the stability line have been synthesized so far) and new neutron-rich nuclei located along the closed neutron shell N = 126[1](areaofthenuclearmaphavingthelargestimpact on the r process of astrophysical nucleosynthesis). Cross sections of these reactions are predicted to be rather large, making it possible to perform the corresponding experiments at available accelerators. The only problem here is the separation of heavy transfer reaction fragments, although proper separatorsarebeingdesignedandmanufacturednowinseveral laboratories. On the contrary, fission reactions and high-energy fragmentation processes are successfully used for the production of neutron-rich medium-mass and light exotic nuclei, correspondingly. Great progress here was done lately and dozens of new nuclei have been discovered, mainly at the laboratories of NSCL MSU [2], RIKEN [3], and GSI [4]. The disadvantage in producing light exotic nuclei in