Abstract
The degree of freedom of spin in quantum systems serves as an unparalleled laboratory where intriguing quantum physical properties can be observed, and the ability to control spin is a powerful tool in physics research. We propose a method for controlling spin in a system of rare isotopes which takes advantage of the mechanism of the projectile fragmentation reaction combined with the momentum-dispersion matching technique. The present method was verified in an experiment at the RIKEN RI Beam Factory, in which a degree of alignment of 8% was achieved for the spin of a rare isotope 32Al. The figure of merit for the present method was found to be greater than that of the conventional method by a factor of more than 50.
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Acknowledgements
Experiments were performed under Program No. NP0702-RIBF018 at RIBF, operated by RIKEN Nishina Center and CNS, The University of Tokyo. We thank the RIKEN Ring Cyclotron staff for their cooperation during experiments. Y.I. is grateful to the Special Postdoctoral Researchers Program, RIKEN. This work was partly supported by the JSPS KAKENHI (22340071 and 20532089), by the JSPS and MAEE under the Japan-France Integrated Action Program (SAKURA), and by the Bulgarian National Science Fund (grant DID-02/16).
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Y. Ichikawa, H.U. and K.A. designed the experiments. H.U. is a spokesperson for the proposal of the present experiment at the RIBF, and the collaboration of all the other authors with him led to the accomplishment of the experiment. Y. Ichikawa and Y. Ishii analysed data. Y. Ichikawa, H.U. and K.A. chiefly wrote the paper.
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Ichikawa, Y., Ueno, H., Ishii, Y. et al. Production of spin-controlled rare isotope beams. Nature Phys 8, 918–922 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys2457
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys2457
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