Inelastic and multi-nucleon transfer reactions between a $^{ 238}$U beam, accelerated at 6.14 MeV/u, and a $^{ 12}$C target were used for the production of neutron-rich, fissioning systems from U to Cm. A Si telescope, devoted to the detection of the target-like nuclei, provided a characterization of the fissioning systems in atomic and mass numbers, as well as in excitation energy. Cross-sections, angular and excitation-energy distributions were measured for the inelastic and transfer channels. Possible excitations of the target-like nuclei were experimentally investigated for the first time, by means of g -ray measurements. The decays from the first excited states of $^{ 12}$C, $^{ 11}$B and $^{ 10}$Be were observed with probabilities of 0.12 - 0.14, while no evidence for the population of higher-lying states was found. Moreover, the fission probabilities of $^{ 238}$U, $^{ 239}$Np and $^{ 240,241,242}$Pu and $^{ 244}$Cm were determined as a function of the excitation energy.
Categories: nucl-ex