CAPPUZZELLO , F.

The NUMEN project aims at accessing experimentally driven information on Nuclear Matrix Elements (NME) involved in the half-life of the neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ), by high-accuracy measurements of the cross sections of Heavy Ion (HI) induced Double Charge Exchange (DCE) reactions. Particular attention is given to the (18O,18Ne) and...

Background: Double charge exchange (DCE) nuclear reactions have recently attracted much interest as tools to provide experimentally driven information about nuclear matrix elements of interest in the context of neutrinoless double- β decay. In this framework, a good description of the reaction mechanism and a complete knowledge of the initial...

A multichannel approach for the analysis of many different reactions channels induced by the 18O + 40Ca collisions at 275 MeV incident energy is introduced. The reactions are simultaneously measured and analysed consistently within the same reaction and structure frameworks within the NUMEN project. In particular, the elastic and inelastic...

Neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) is considered the best potential resource to access the absolute neutrino mass scale. Moreover, if observed, it will signal that neutrinos are their own anti-particles (Majorana particles). Presently, this physics case is one of the most important research "beyond Standard Model" and might guide the way...

Background: Charge-exchange (CE) reactions offer a major opportunity to excite nuclear isovector modes, providing important clues about the nuclear interaction in the medium. Moreover, double charge-exchange reactions are proving to be a tempting tool to access nuclear transition matrix elements (NMEs) related to double beta-decay processes....

Background: Nucleon transfer reactions are selective tools for nuclear physics investigations. The theoretical and computational limits affecting in the past their data analysis could be nowadays surmounted thanks to the advent of methods with refined approximations and constraints, even when heavy-ion collisions are considered. Purpose:...

An updated overview of recent results on Heavy-Ion induced reactions of interest for neutrinoless double beta decay is reported in the framework of the NUMEN project. The NUMEN idea is to study heavy-ion induced Double Charge Exchange (DCE) reactions with the aim to get information on the nuclear matrix elements for neutrinoless double beta...

Background: In our recent experiment, 9 Be + p at 5.67 A MeV, the breakup decay rates to the three configurations, α + α + n , 8 Be ∗ + n and 5 He + 4 He of 9 Be , were observed and quantified in the proton recoil spectra, in a full kinematics approach. Unfolding step by step the accessibility to the above configurations, it will...

The NUMEN main goal is the extraction from measured cross-sections of "data-driven" information on Nuclear Matrix Elements for all the systems candidate for 0νββ. The idea is to use as experimental tool Heavy Ions –Double Charge Exchange (HI-DCE) reactions. Crucial for the experimental challanges is the INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Sud (LNS)...

Different reactions channels induced by the 18O + 40Ca collisions at 275 MeV incident energy are simultaneously measured and analysed consistently within the same reaction and structure frameworks within the NUMEN project. The project aims to provide data-driven information for the determination of the nuclear matrix elements involved in the...

The NUMEN project aims at accessing experimentally driven information on Nuclear Matrix Elements (NME) involved in the half-life of the neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ). In this view measurements of Heavy Ion (HI) induced Double Charge Exchange (DCE) reaction cross sections are performed with high-accuracy. In particular, the (18O,18Ne)...

The article describes the main achievements of the NUMEN project together with an updated and detailed overview of the related R&D activities and theoretical developments. NUMEN proposes an innovative technique to access the nuclear matrix elements entering the expression of the lifetime of the double beta decay by cross section measurements of...

The broad network of nuclear reactions populated in the 18O + 12C collision was studied to test the capability of state-of-art nuclear structure and reaction theories to describe both the direct and sequential components of the (18O, 18F) single charge exchange nuclear reaction. The experiment was performed using the 18O beam at 275 MeV...

The NUMEN project aims at accessing experimentally driven information on Nuclear Matrix Elements (NME) involved in the half-life of the neutrinoless double beta decay (0vββ), by high-accuracy measurements of the cross sections of Heavy Ion (HI) induced Double Charge Exchange (DCE) reactions. Particular attention is given to the (18O,18Ne) and...

The upgrade project POTLNS to produce high-intensity beams has already started at INFN- Laboratori Nazionali del Sud in Catania (Italy). The POTLNS project was triggered by the NUMEN physics case that aims to provide experimental information on the Nuclear Matrix Elements (NMEs) that enter in the expression of the neutrino-less double beta...

Two new gamma spectrometer projects are under development, both with some challenging technical characteristics in common, one for the investigation of weakly bound nuclear beam reactions at near barrier energies, and the other for the measurement of double charge exchange reactions in the 15-70 MeV per nucleon range. The first one is being...

Elastic scattering measurements have been performed for the 6Li+p system in inverse kinematics at the energies of 16, 20, 25 and 29 MeV. The heavy ejectile was detected by the large acceptance MAGNEX spectrometer at the Laboratori Nazionali del Sud (LNS) in Catania, in the angular range between ∼20 and 120 in the laboratory system, giving us...

Exclusive breakup measurements have been performed for the Li6+p system in inverse kinematics at Li6 incident energies of 25 and 29 MeV. The results are considered in the Continuum Discretized Coupled-Channels framework, together with elastic scattering data at 16, 20, 25, and 29 MeV, obtained simultaneously in the same experiment and reported...

Elastic-scattering measurements have been performed for the Li6+p system in inverse kinematics at the energies of 16, 20, 25, and 29 MeV. The heavy ejectile was detected by the large acceptance MAGNEX spectrometer at the Laboratori Nazionali del Sud in Catania, Italy. The results are considered in a Jeukenne-Lejeune-Mahaux and a continuum...