Observation of a correlated free four-neutron system

M. Duer; T. Aumann; R. Gernhäuser; V. Panin; S. Paschalis; D. M. Rossi; N. L. Achouri; D. Ahn; H. Baba; C. A. Bertulani; M. Böhmer; K. Boretzky; C. Caesar; N. Chiga; A. Corsi; D. Cortina-Gil; C. A. Douma; F. Dufter; Z. Elekes; J. Feng; B. Fernández-Domínguez; U. Forsberg; N. Fukuda; I. Gasparic; Z. Ge; J. M. Gheller; J. Gibelin; A. Gillibert; K. I. Hahn; Z. Halász; M. N. Harakeh; A. Hirayama; M. Holl; N. Inabe; T. Isobe; J. Kahlbow; N. Kalantar-Nayestanaki; T. Kobayashi; Y. Kondo; D. Körper; P. Koseoglou; Y. Kubota; I. Kuti; C. Lehr; S. Lindberg; F. M. Marqués; S. Masuoka; M. Matsumoto; J. Mayer; K. Miki; B. Monteagudo; T. Nakamura; T. Nilsson; A. Obertelli; N. A. Orr; H. Otsu; M. Parlog; P. M. Potlog; S. Reichert; A. Revel; A. T. Saito; M. Sasano; H. Scheit; F. Schindler; S. Shimoura; H. Simon; L. Stuhl; H. Suzuki; D. Symochko; H. Takeda; J. Tanaka; Y. Togano; T. Tomai; H. T. Törnqvist; J. Tscheuschner; T. Uesaka; V. Wagner; H. Yamada; M. Yasuda; K. Yoneda; L. Zanetti; J. Zenihiro; M. V. Zhukov

doi:10.1038/s41586-022-04827-6

Observation of a correlated free four-neutron system

M. Duer^*, T. Aumann, R. Gernhäuser, V. Panin, S. Paschalis, D. M. Rossi, N. L. Achouri, D. Ahn, H. Baba, C. A. Bertulani, M. Böhmer, K. Boretzky, C. Caesar, N. Chiga, A. Corsi, D. Cortina-Gil, C. A. Douma, F. Dufter, Z. Elekes, J. FengB. Fernández-Domínguez, U. Forsberg, N. Fukuda, I. Gasparic, Z. Ge, J. M. Gheller, J. Gibelin, A. Gillibert, K. I. Hahn, Z. Halász, M. N. Harakeh, A. Hirayama, M. Holl, N. Inabe, T. Isobe, J. Kahlbow, N. Kalantar-Nayestanaki, T. Kobayashi, Y. Kondo, D. Körper, P. Koseoglou, Y. Kubota, I. Kuti, C. Lehr, S. Lindberg, F. M. Marqués, S. Masuoka, M. Matsumoto, J. Mayer, K. Miki, B. Monteagudo, T. Nakamura, T. Nilsson, A. Obertelli, N. A. Orr, H. Otsu, M. Parlog, P. M. Potlog, S. Reichert, A. Revel, A. T. Saito, M. Sasano, H. Scheit, F. Schindler, S. Shimoura, H. Simon, L. Stuhl, H. Suzuki, D. Symochko, H. Takeda, J. Tanaka, Y. Togano, T. Tomai, H. T. Törnqvist, J. Tscheuschner, T. Uesaka, V. Wagner, H. Yamada, M. Yasuda, K. Yoneda, L. Zanetti, J. Zenihiro, M. V. Zhukov

^*Corresponding author for this work

Physics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

A long-standing question in nuclear physics is whether chargeless nuclear systems can exist. To our knowledge, only neutron stars represent near-pure neutron systems, where neutrons are squeezed together by the gravitational force to very high densities. The experimental search for isolated multi-neutron systems has been an ongoing quest for several decades¹, with a particular focus on the four-neutron system called the tetraneutron, resulting in only a few indications of its existence so far^2–4, leaving the tetraneutron an elusive nuclear system for six decades. Here we report on the observation of a resonance-like structure near threshold in the four-neutron system that is consistent with a quasi-bound tetraneutron state existing for a very short time. The measured energy and width of this state provide a key benchmark for our understanding of the nuclear force. The use of an experimental approach based on a knockout reaction at large momentum transfer with a radioactive high-energy ⁸He beam was key.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	678-682
Number of pages	16
Journal	Nature
Volume	606
Issue number	7915
Early online date	22 Jun 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04827-6
Publication status	Published - 23 Jun 2022

Bibliographical note

© The Author(s) 2022

Funding Information:
We thank M. Göbel and H. W. Hammer for providing the theoretical input of the two-neutron energy distribution. This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) Project-ID 279384907 - SFB 1245, the GSI-TU Darmstadt cooperation agreement, by the UK STFC under contract numbers ST/P003885/1 and ST/L005727/1 and the University of York Pump Priming Fund, by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research - BMBF project numbers 05P15RDFN1, 05P15WOFNA and 05P15WOCIA, by project FAIR-RO-04/DEMAND - IFA, by JSPS KAKENHI grant numbers JP16H02177, JP16H02179 and JP18H05404, by the Spanish Research grant PGC2018-099746-B-C21, and by the Swedish Research Council, project grant 2011-5324 and 2017-03839. K.I.H., D. Kim, S.K., L.S., S.Y.P. and D.A. acknowledge the support from the IBS grant funded by the Korea government grant number IBS-R031-D1. C.A.B. acknowledges partial support by the US DOE grant number DE-FG02- 08ER41533. I.G. acknowledges support by HIC for FAIR and Croatian Science Foundation under project numbers 1257 and 7194. Z.E., Z.H. and I.K. acknowledge the support by NKFIH grants numbers 114454, 128947 and GINOP-2.3.3-15-2016-00034. The LPC group acknowledge support from the France-Japanese LIA-International Associated Laboratory for Nuclear Structure Problems as well as the French ANR-14-CE33-0022-02 EXPAND.

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10.1038/s41586-022-04827-6

s41586-022-04827-6
© The Author(s) 2022
Final published version, 3.79 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

Duer, M., Aumann, T., Gernhäuser, R., Panin, V., Paschalis, S., Rossi, D. M., Achouri, N. L., Ahn, D., Baba, H., Bertulani, C. A., Böhmer, M., Boretzky, K., Caesar, C., Chiga, N., Corsi, A., Cortina-Gil, D., Douma, C. A., Dufter, F., Elekes, Z., ... Zhukov, M. V. (2022). Observation of a correlated free four-neutron system. Nature, 606(7915), 678-682. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04827-6

@article{6812e66c636f4f9bbbd39721ffecd1ff,

title = "Observation of a correlated free four-neutron system",

abstract = "A long-standing question in nuclear physics is whether chargeless nuclear systems can exist. To our knowledge, only neutron stars represent near-pure neutron systems, where neutrons are squeezed together by the gravitational force to very high densities. The experimental search for isolated multi-neutron systems has been an ongoing quest for several decades1, with a particular focus on the four-neutron system called the tetraneutron, resulting in only a few indications of its existence so far2–4, leaving the tetraneutron an elusive nuclear system for six decades. Here we report on the observation of a resonance-like structure near threshold in the four-neutron system that is consistent with a quasi-bound tetraneutron state existing for a very short time. The measured energy and width of this state provide a key benchmark for our understanding of the nuclear force. The use of an experimental approach based on a knockout reaction at large momentum transfer with a radioactive high-energy 8He beam was key.",

author = "M. Duer and T. Aumann and R. Gernh{\"a}user and V. Panin and S. Paschalis and Rossi, {D. M.} and Achouri, {N. L.} and D. Ahn and H. Baba and Bertulani, {C. A.} and M. B{\"o}hmer and K. Boretzky and C. Caesar and N. Chiga and A. Corsi and D. Cortina-Gil and Douma, {C. A.} and F. Dufter and Z. Elekes and J. Feng and B. Fern{\'a}ndez-Dom{\'i}nguez and U. Forsberg and N. Fukuda and I. Gasparic and Z. Ge and Gheller, {J. M.} and J. Gibelin and A. Gillibert and Hahn, {K. I.} and Z. Hal{\'a}sz and Harakeh, {M. N.} and A. Hirayama and M. Holl and N. Inabe and T. Isobe and J. Kahlbow and N. Kalantar-Nayestanaki and T. Kobayashi and Y. Kondo and D. K{\"o}rper and P. Koseoglou and Y. Kubota and I. Kuti and C. Lehr and S. Lindberg and Marqu{\'e}s, {F. M.} and S. Masuoka and M. Matsumoto and J. Mayer and K. Miki and B. Monteagudo and T. Nakamura and T. Nilsson and A. Obertelli and Orr, {N. A.} and H. Otsu and M. Parlog and Potlog, {P. M.} and S. Reichert and A. Revel and Saito, {A. T.} and M. Sasano and H. Scheit and F. Schindler and S. Shimoura and H. Simon and L. Stuhl and H. Suzuki and D. Symochko and H. Takeda and J. Tanaka and Y. Togano and T. Tomai and T{\"o}rnqvist, {H. T.} and J. Tscheuschner and T. Uesaka and V. Wagner and H. Yamada and M. Yasuda and K. Yoneda and L. Zanetti and J. Zenihiro and Zhukov, {M. V.}",

note = "{\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2022 Funding Information: We thank M. G{\"o}bel and H. W. Hammer for providing the theoretical input of the two-neutron energy distribution. This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) Project-ID 279384907 - SFB 1245, the GSI-TU Darmstadt cooperation agreement, by the UK STFC under contract numbers ST/P003885/1 and ST/L005727/1 and the University of York Pump Priming Fund, by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research - BMBF project numbers 05P15RDFN1, 05P15WOFNA and 05P15WOCIA, by project FAIR-RO-04/DEMAND - IFA, by JSPS KAKENHI grant numbers JP16H02177, JP16H02179 and JP18H05404, by the Spanish Research grant PGC2018-099746-B-C21, and by the Swedish Research Council, project grant 2011-5324 and 2017-03839. K.I.H., D. Kim, S.K., L.S., S.Y.P. and D.A. acknowledge the support from the IBS grant funded by the Korea government grant number IBS-R031-D1. C.A.B. acknowledges partial support by the US DOE grant number DE-FG02- 08ER41533. I.G. acknowledges support by HIC for FAIR and Croatian Science Foundation under project numbers 1257 and 7194. Z.E., Z.H. and I.K. acknowledge the support by NKFIH grants numbers 114454, 128947 and GINOP-2.3.3-15-2016-00034. The LPC group acknowledge support from the France-Japanese LIA-International Associated Laboratory for Nuclear Structure Problems as well as the French ANR-14-CE33-0022-02 EXPAND. ",

year = "2022",

month = jun,

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doi = "10.1038/s41586-022-04827-6",

language = "English",

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pages = "678--682",

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Duer, M, Aumann, T, Gernhäuser, R, Panin, V, Paschalis, S, Rossi, DM, Achouri, NL, Ahn, D, Baba, H, Bertulani, CA, Böhmer, M, Boretzky, K, Caesar, C, Chiga, N, Corsi, A, Cortina-Gil, D, Douma, CA, Dufter, F, Elekes, Z, Feng, J, Fernández-Domínguez, B, Forsberg, U, Fukuda, N, Gasparic, I, Ge, Z, Gheller, JM, Gibelin, J, Gillibert, A, Hahn, KI, Halász, Z, Harakeh, MN, Hirayama, A, Holl, M, Inabe, N, Isobe, T, Kahlbow, J, Kalantar-Nayestanaki, N, Kobayashi, T, Kondo, Y, Körper, D, Koseoglou, P, Kubota, Y, Kuti, I, Lehr, C, Lindberg, S, Marqués, FM, Masuoka, S, Matsumoto, M, Mayer, J, Miki, K, Monteagudo, B, Nakamura, T, Nilsson, T, Obertelli, A, Orr, NA, Otsu, H, Parlog, M, Potlog, PM, Reichert, S, Revel, A, Saito, AT, Sasano, M, Scheit, H, Schindler, F, Shimoura, S, Simon, H, Stuhl, L, Suzuki, H, Symochko, D, Takeda, H, Tanaka, J, Togano, Y, Tomai, T, Törnqvist, HT, Tscheuschner, J, Uesaka, T, Wagner, V, Yamada, H, Yasuda, M, Yoneda, K, Zanetti, L, Zenihiro, J & Zhukov, MV 2022, 'Observation of a correlated free four-neutron system', Nature, vol. 606, no. 7915, pp. 678-682. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04827-6

TY - JOUR

T1 - Observation of a correlated free four-neutron system

AU - Duer, M.

AU - Aumann, T.

AU - Gernhäuser, R.

AU - Panin, V.

AU - Paschalis, S.

AU - Rossi, D. M.

AU - Achouri, N. L.

AU - Ahn, D.

AU - Baba, H.

AU - Bertulani, C. A.

AU - Böhmer, M.

AU - Boretzky, K.

AU - Caesar, C.

AU - Chiga, N.

AU - Corsi, A.

AU - Cortina-Gil, D.

AU - Douma, C. A.

AU - Dufter, F.

AU - Elekes, Z.

AU - Feng, J.

AU - Fernández-Domínguez, B.

AU - Forsberg, U.

AU - Fukuda, N.

AU - Gasparic, I.

AU - Ge, Z.

AU - Gheller, J. M.

AU - Gibelin, J.

AU - Gillibert, A.

AU - Hahn, K. I.

AU - Halász, Z.

AU - Harakeh, M. N.

AU - Hirayama, A.

AU - Holl, M.

AU - Inabe, N.

AU - Isobe, T.

AU - Kahlbow, J.

AU - Kalantar-Nayestanaki, N.

AU - Kobayashi, T.

AU - Kondo, Y.

AU - Körper, D.

AU - Koseoglou, P.

AU - Kubota, Y.

AU - Kuti, I.

AU - Lehr, C.

AU - Lindberg, S.

AU - Marqués, F. M.

AU - Masuoka, S.

AU - Matsumoto, M.

AU - Mayer, J.

AU - Miki, K.

AU - Monteagudo, B.

AU - Nakamura, T.

AU - Nilsson, T.

AU - Obertelli, A.

AU - Orr, N. A.

AU - Otsu, H.

AU - Parlog, M.

AU - Potlog, P. M.

AU - Reichert, S.

AU - Revel, A.

AU - Saito, A. T.

AU - Sasano, M.

AU - Scheit, H.

AU - Schindler, F.

AU - Shimoura, S.

AU - Simon, H.

AU - Stuhl, L.

AU - Suzuki, H.

AU - Symochko, D.

AU - Takeda, H.

AU - Tanaka, J.

AU - Togano, Y.

AU - Tomai, T.

AU - Törnqvist, H. T.

AU - Tscheuschner, J.

AU - Uesaka, T.

AU - Wagner, V.

AU - Yamada, H.

AU - Yasuda, M.

AU - Yoneda, K.

AU - Zanetti, L.

AU - Zenihiro, J.

AU - Zhukov, M. V.

N1 - © The Author(s) 2022 Funding Information: We thank M. Göbel and H. W. Hammer for providing the theoretical input of the two-neutron energy distribution. This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) Project-ID 279384907 - SFB 1245, the GSI-TU Darmstadt cooperation agreement, by the UK STFC under contract numbers ST/P003885/1 and ST/L005727/1 and the University of York Pump Priming Fund, by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research - BMBF project numbers 05P15RDFN1, 05P15WOFNA and 05P15WOCIA, by project FAIR-RO-04/DEMAND - IFA, by JSPS KAKENHI grant numbers JP16H02177, JP16H02179 and JP18H05404, by the Spanish Research grant PGC2018-099746-B-C21, and by the Swedish Research Council, project grant 2011-5324 and 2017-03839. K.I.H., D. Kim, S.K., L.S., S.Y.P. and D.A. acknowledge the support from the IBS grant funded by the Korea government grant number IBS-R031-D1. C.A.B. acknowledges partial support by the US DOE grant number DE-FG02- 08ER41533. I.G. acknowledges support by HIC for FAIR and Croatian Science Foundation under project numbers 1257 and 7194. Z.E., Z.H. and I.K. acknowledge the support by NKFIH grants numbers 114454, 128947 and GINOP-2.3.3-15-2016-00034. The LPC group acknowledge support from the France-Japanese LIA-International Associated Laboratory for Nuclear Structure Problems as well as the French ANR-14-CE33-0022-02 EXPAND.

PY - 2022/6/23

Y1 - 2022/6/23

N2 - A long-standing question in nuclear physics is whether chargeless nuclear systems can exist. To our knowledge, only neutron stars represent near-pure neutron systems, where neutrons are squeezed together by the gravitational force to very high densities. The experimental search for isolated multi-neutron systems has been an ongoing quest for several decades1, with a particular focus on the four-neutron system called the tetraneutron, resulting in only a few indications of its existence so far2–4, leaving the tetraneutron an elusive nuclear system for six decades. Here we report on the observation of a resonance-like structure near threshold in the four-neutron system that is consistent with a quasi-bound tetraneutron state existing for a very short time. The measured energy and width of this state provide a key benchmark for our understanding of the nuclear force. The use of an experimental approach based on a knockout reaction at large momentum transfer with a radioactive high-energy 8He beam was key.

AB - A long-standing question in nuclear physics is whether chargeless nuclear systems can exist. To our knowledge, only neutron stars represent near-pure neutron systems, where neutrons are squeezed together by the gravitational force to very high densities. The experimental search for isolated multi-neutron systems has been an ongoing quest for several decades1, with a particular focus on the four-neutron system called the tetraneutron, resulting in only a few indications of its existence so far2–4, leaving the tetraneutron an elusive nuclear system for six decades. Here we report on the observation of a resonance-like structure near threshold in the four-neutron system that is consistent with a quasi-bound tetraneutron state existing for a very short time. The measured energy and width of this state provide a key benchmark for our understanding of the nuclear force. The use of an experimental approach based on a knockout reaction at large momentum transfer with a radioactive high-energy 8He beam was key.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85132450232&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1038/s41586-022-04827-6

DO - 10.1038/s41586-022-04827-6

M3 - Article

C2 - 35732764

AN - SCOPUS:85132450232

SN - 0028-0836

VL - 606

SP - 678

EP - 682

JO - Nature

JF - Nature

IS - 7915

ER -

Observation of a correlated free four-neutron system

Abstract

Bibliographical note

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Nuclear Physics Consolidated Grant

RPF 2016/17: Studying exotic nuclear systems with high precision measurements

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Observation of a correlated free four-neutron system

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Access to Document

Other files and links

Projects

Nuclear Physics Consolidated Grant

RPF 2016/17: Studying exotic nuclear systems with high precision measurements

Cite this