# Recent results on heavy-ion induced reactions of interest for neutrinoless double beta decay at INFN-LNS

Manuela Cavallaro, Luis Acosta, Clementina Agodi, Carmen Altana, Paulina

Amador-Valenzuela, Naftali Auerbach, Jose Barea, Jessica I. Bellone, Roelof

Bijker, Danilo Bonanno, et al.

► To cite this version:

Manuela Cavallaro, Luis Acosta, Clementina Agodi, Carmen Altana, Paulina Amador-Valenzuela, et al. Recent results on heavy-ion induced reactions of interest for neutrinoless double beta decay at INFN-LNS. 4th International Conference on Nuclear Structure and Dynamics, May 2019, Venice, Italy. pp.01009, 10.1051/epjconf/201922301009 . hal-02416931

HAL Id: hal-02416931

https://hal.science/hal-02416931

Submitted on 23 May 2024

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<figure><img src="image_1.png" /></figure>

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# Recent results on heavy-ion induced reactions of interest for neutrinoless double beta decay at INFN-LNS

Manuela Cavallaro, Luis Acosta, Clementina Agodi, Carmen Altana, Paulina

Amador-Valenzuela, Naftali Auerbach, Jose Barea, Jessica I. Bellone, Roelof

Bijker, Danilo Bonanno, et al.

► To cite this version:

Manuela Cavallaro, Luis Acosta, Clementina Agodi, Carmen Altana, Paulina Amador-Valenzuela, et al.. Recent results on heavy-ion induced reactions of interest for neutrinoless double beta decay at INFN-LNS. 4th International Conference on Nuclear Structure and Dynamics, May 2019, Venice, Italy. pp.01009, 10.1051/epjconf/201922301009 . hal-02416931

HAL Id: hal-02416931

https://hal.science/hal-02416931v1

Submitted on 23 May 2024

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access
archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci-
entific research documents, whether they are pub-
lished or not. The documents may come from
teaching and research institutions in France or
abroad, or from public or private research centers.

L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est
destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents
scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non,
émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de
recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires
publics ou privés.

<figure><img src="image_1.png" /></figure>

Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Recent results on heavy-ion induced reactions of interest for neutrinoless double beta decay at INFN-LNS

Manuela Cavallaro<fnref n="1" />*, Luis Acosta<fnref n="2" />, Clementina Agodi<fnref n="1" />, Carmen Altana<fnref n="1" />, Paulina Amador-Valenzuela<fnref n="3" />, Naftali Auerbach<fnref n="4" />, Jose Barea<fnref n="5" />, Jessica I. Bellone<fnref n="1" />, Roelof Bijker<fnref n="6" />, Danilo Bonanno<fnref n="7" />, Thereza Borello-Lewin<fnref n="8" />, Ismail Boztosun<fnref n="9" />, Vincenzo Branchina<fnref n="1" />,<fnref n="7" />, Sandro Brasolin<fnref n="10" />, Giuseppe A. Brischetto<fnref n="1" />,<fnref n="11" />,<fnref n="13" />, Oscar Brunasso<fnref n="10" />, Stefano Burrello<fnref n="1" />, Salvatore Calabrese<fnref n="1" />,<fnref n="2" />, Luciano Calabretta<fnref n="1" />, Daniela Calvo<fnref n="10" />, Vittoria Capirossi<fnref n="10" />,<fnref n="12" />, Francesco Cappuzzello<fnref n="1" />,<fnref n="11" />, Diana Carbone<fnref n="1" />, Luis E. Charon Garcia<fnref n="2" />, Efrain R. Chávez Lomeli<fnref n="2" />, Ruofu Chen<fnref n="14" />, Irene Ciraldo<fnref n="1" />,<fnref n="11" />, Maria Colonna<fnref n="1" />, Grazia D'Agostino<fnref n="1" />, Franck Delaunay<fnref n="10" />,<fnref n="12" />,<fnref n="15" />, Nikit Deshmukh<fnref n="16" />, Haris Djapo<fnref n="9" />, Gianluigi De Geronimo<fnref n="17" />, K. De Los Rios<fnref n="2" />, Carlo Ferraresi<fnref n="18" />, Jonas L. Ferreira<fnref n="19" />, Jacopo Ferretti<fnref n="20" />,<fnref n="21" />, Paolo Finocchiaro<fnref n="1" />, Suna Firat<fnref n="9" />, Maria Fisichella<fnref n="10" />, Antonino Foti<fnref n="7" />, Giuseppe Gallo<fnref n="1" />,<fnref n="11" />, Hugo Garcia-Tecocoatzi<fnref n="20" />,<fnref n="22" /> Aylin Hacisalihoglu<fnref n="23" />, Arcadio Huerta-Hernandez<fnref n="2" />, Jenni Kotila<fnref n="24" />, Yasemin Kucuk<fnref n="9" />, Felice Iazzi<fnref n="10" />,<fnref n="12" />, Gaetano Lanzalone<fnref n="1" />,<fnref n="25" />, José Antonio Lay<fnref n="26" />, Laura La Fauci<fnref n="1" />,<fnref n="11" />, Francesco La Via<fnref n="27" />, Horst Lenske<fnref n="28" />, Roberto Linares<fnref n="19" />, Domenico Lo Presti<fnref n="11" />,<fnref n="7" />, Jesus Lubian<fnref n="19" />, Junbing Ma<fnref n="14" />, Daniel Marin-Lámbarri<fnref n="2" />, J. Mas Ruiz<fnref n="2" />, Nilberto H. Medina<fnref n="8" />, Djalma R. Mendes<fnref n="19" />, Paolo Mereu<fnref n="10" />, Mauricio Moralles<fnref n="29" />, Lorenzo Neri<fnref n="1" />, José R. B. Oliveira<fnref n="8" />, Athena Pakou<fnref n="30" />, Luciano Pandola<fnref n="1" />, Horia Petrascu<fnref n="31" />, Norbert Pietralla<fnref n="32" />, Federico Pinna<fnref n="10" />,<fnref n="12" />, Santo Reito<fnref n="7" />, Philipp C. Ries<fnref n="32" />, Marcia R. D. Rodrigues<fnref n="8" />, Antonio D. Russo<fnref n="1" />, Giuseppe Russo<fnref n="7" />,<fnref n="11" />, Elena Santopinto<fnref n="20" />, Roberto B. B. Santos<fnref n="33" />, Leonardo Serbina<fnref n="31" />, Onoufrios Sgouros<fnref n="1" />, Marcilei A. G. da Silveira<fnref n="33" />, Selçuk O. Solakci<fnref n="9" />, George Souliotis<fnref n="34" />, Vasileios Soukeras<fnref n="1" />, Alessandro Spatafora<fnref n="1" />,<fnref n="11" />, Domenico Torresi<fnref n="1" />, Salvatore Tudisco<fnref n="1" />, Hesiquio Vargas Hernandez<fnref n="2" />, Ruslan I. M. Vsevolodovna<fnref n="20" />,<fnref n="22" />, Jan Song Wang<fnref n="14" />, Volker Werner<fnref n="32" />, Yan Yun Yang<fnref n="14" />, Aydin Yildirin<fnref n="9" />, Vinicius A. B. Zagatto<fnref n="8" />

for the NUMEN Collaboration

<footnote n="1">¹Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Catania, Italy</footnote>

<footnote n="2">²Instituto de Física, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico - Mexico City, Mexico</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Nucleares - Ocoyoacac, Mexico</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University - Tel Aviv, Israel</footnote>

<footnote n="5">⁵Universidad de Concepcion - Concepcion, Chile</footnote>

<footnote n="6">⁶Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico - Mexico City, Mexico</footnote>

<footnote n="7">⁷Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Catania, Italy</footnote>

<footnote n="8">⁸Instituto de Fisica, Universidade de Sao Paulo - Sao Paulo, Brazil</footnote>

<footnote n="9">⁹Department of Physics, Akdeniz University - Antalya, Turkey</footnote>

<footnote n="10">¹⁰Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Torino, Italy</footnote>

<footnote n="11">¹¹Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia “Ettore Majorana”, Università di Catania, Italy</footnote>

<footnote n="12">¹²DISAT, Politecnico di Torino, Italy</footnote>

<footnote n="13">¹³Centro Siciliano di Fisica Nucleare e Struttura della materia, Italy</footnote>

<footnote n="14">¹⁴Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences - Lanzhou, China</footnote>

<footnote n="15">¹⁵LPC Caen, Normandie Universite, ENSICAEN, UNICAEN, CNRS/IN2P3 Caen, France</footnote>

<footnote n="16">¹⁶Nuclear Physics Division, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics - Kolkata, India</footnote>

<footnote n="17">¹⁷Stony Brook University - Stony Brook, NY, USA</footnote>

<footnote n="18">¹⁸DIMEAS, Politecnico di Torino - Torino, Italy</footnote>

<footnote n="19">¹⁹Instituto de Fisica, Universidade Federal Fluminense - Niterói, Brazil</footnote>

<footnote n="20">²⁰Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Genova - Genova, Italy</footnote>

<footnote n="21">²¹Department of Physics, Yale University - New Haven, CT, USA</footnote>

<footnote n="22">²²Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Genova - Genova, Italy</footnote>

<footnote n="23">²³Institute of Natural Sciences, Karadeniz Teknik University - Trabzon, Turkey</footnote>

<footnote n="24">²⁴University of Jyvaskyla - Jyvaskyla, Finland</footnote>

<footnote n="25">²⁵Università degli Studi di Enna “Kore” - Enna, Italy</footnote>

<footnote n="26">²⁶Departamento de FAMN, Universidad de Sevilla - Sevilla, Spain</footnote>

<footnote n="27">²⁷CNR-IMM, Sezione di Catania - Catania, Italy</footnote>

<footnote n="28">²⁸Department of Physics, University of Giessen - Giessen, Germany</footnote>

<footnote n="29">²⁹Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares IPEN/CNEN - Sao Paulo, Brazil</footnote>

<footnote n="30">³⁰Department of Physics and HINP, University of Ioannina - Ioannina, Greece</footnote>

<footnote n="31">³¹IFIN-HH - Magurele, Romania</footnote>

<footnote n="32">³²Institut für Kernphysik, Technische Universität Darmstadt - Darmstadt, Germany</footnote>

<footnote n="33">³³Centro Universitario FEI - Sao Bernardo do Campo, Brazil</footnote>

<footnote n="34">³⁴Department of Chemistry, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece</footnote>

<footnote>* Corresponding author: manuela.cavallaro@lns.infn.it</footnote>
Recent results on heavy-ion induced reactions of interest for neutrinoless double beta decay at INFN-LNS

Manuela Cavallaro<fnref n="1" />*, Luis Acosta<fnref n="2" />, Clementina Agodi<fnref n="1" />, Carmen Altana<fnref n="1" />, Paulina Amador-Valenzuela<fnref n="3" />, Naftali Auerbach<fnref n="4" />, Jose Barea<fnref n="5" />, Jessica I. Bellone<fnref n="1" />, Roelof Bijker<fnref n="6" />, Danilo Bonanno<fnref n="7" />, Thereza Borello-Lewin<fnref n="8" />, Ismail Boztosun<fnref n="9" />, Vincenzo Branchina<fnref n="1" />,<fnref n="7" />, Sandro Brasolin<fnref n="10" />, Giuseppe A. Brischetto<fnref n="1" />,<fnref n="11" />,<fnref n="13" />, Oscar Brunasso<fnref n="10" />, Stefano Burrello<fnref n="1" />, Salvatore Calabrese<fnref n="1" />,<fnref n="2" />, Luciano Calabretta<fnref n="1" />, Daniela Calvo<fnref n="10" />, Vittoria Capirossi<fnref n="10" />,<fnref n="12" />, Francesco Cappuzzello<fnref n="1" />,<fnref n="11" />, Diana Carbone<fnref n="1" />, Luis E. Charon Garcia<fnref n="2" />, Efrain R. Chávez Lomeli<fnref n="2" />, Ruofu Chen<fnref n="14" />, Irene Ciraldo<fnref n="1" />,<fnref n="11" />, Maria Colonna<fnref n="1" />, Grazia D'Agostino<fnref n="1" />, Franck Delaunay<fnref n="10" />,<fnref n="12" />,<fnref n="15" />, Nikit Deshmukh<fnref n="16" />, Haris Djapo<fnref n="9" />, Gianluigi De Geronimo<fnref n="17" />, K. De Los Rios<fnref n="2" />, Carlo Ferraresi<fnref n="18" />, Jonas L. Ferreira<fnref n="19" />, Jacopo Ferretti<fnref n="20" />,<fnref n="21" />, Paolo Finocchiaro<fnref n="1" />, Suna Firat<fnref n="9" />, Maria Fisichella<fnref n="10" />, Antonino Foti<fnref n="7" />, Giuseppe Gallo<fnref n="1" />,<fnref n="11" />, Hugo Garcia-Tecocoatzi<fnref n="20" />,<fnref n="22" /> Aylin Hacisalihoglu<fnref n="23" />, Arcadio Huerta-Hernandez<fnref n="2" />, Jenni Kotila<fnref n="24" />, Yasemin Kucuk<fnref n="9" />, Felice Iazzi<fnref n="10" />,<fnref n="12" />, Gaetano Lanzalone<fnref n="1" />,<fnref n="25" />, José Antonio Lay<fnref n="26" />, Laura La Fauci<fnref n="1" />,<fnref n="11" />, Francesco La Via<fnref n="27" />, Horst Lenske<fnref n="28" />, Roberto Linares<fnref n="19" />, Domenico Lo Presti<fnref n="11" />,<fnref n="7" />, Jesus Lubian<fnref n="19" />, Junbing Ma<fnref n="14" />, Daniel Marin-Lámbarri<fnref n="2" />, J. Mas Ruiz<fnref n="2" />, Nilberto H. Medina<fnref n="8" />, Djalma R. Mendes<fnref n="19" />, Paolo Mereu<fnref n="10" />, Mauricio Moralles<fnref n="29" />, Lorenzo Neri<fnref n="1" />, José R. B. Oliveira<fnref n="8" />, Athena Pakou<fnref n="30" />, Luciano Pandola<fnref n="1" />, Horia Petrascu<fnref n="31" />, Norbert Pietralla<fnref n="32" />, Federico Pinna<fnref n="10" />,<fnref n="12" />, Santo Reito<fnref n="7" />, Philipp C. Ries<fnref n="32" />, Marcia R. D. Rodrigues<fnref n="8" />, Antonio D. Russo<fnref n="1" />, Giuseppe Russo<fnref n="7" />,<fnref n="11" />, Elena Santopinto<fnref n="20" />, Roberto B. B. Santos<fnref n="33" />, Leonardo Serbina<fnref n="31" />, Onoufrios Sgouros<fnref n="1" />, Marcilei A. G. da Silveira<fnref n="33" />, Selçuk O. Solakci<fnref n="9" />, George Souliotis<fnref n="34" />, Vasileios Soukeras<fnref n="1" />, Alessandro Spatafora<fnref n="1" />,<fnref n="11" />, Domenico Torresi<fnref n="1" />, Salvatore Tudisco<fnref n="1" />, Hesiquio Vargas Hernandez<fnref n="2" />, Ruslan I. M. Vsevolodovna<fnref n="20" />,<fnref n="22" />, Jan Song Wang<fnref n="14" />, Volker Werner<fnref n="32" />, Yan Yun Yang<fnref n="14" />, Aydin Yildirin<fnref n="9" />, Vinicius A. B. Zagatto<fnref n="8" />

for the NUMEN Collaboration

<footnote n="1">¹Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Catania, Italy</footnote>

<footnote n="2">²Instituto de Física, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico - Mexico City, Mexico</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Nucleares - Ocoyoacac, Mexico</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University - Tel Aviv, Israel</footnote>

<footnote n="5">⁵Universidad de Concepcion - Concepcion, Chile</footnote>

<footnote n="6">⁶Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico - Mexico City, Mexico</footnote>

<footnote n="7">⁷Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Catania, Italy</footnote>

<footnote n="8">⁸Instituto de Fisica, Universidade de Sao Paulo - Sao Paulo, Brazil</footnote>

<footnote n="9">⁹Department of Physics, Akdeniz University - Antalya, Turkey</footnote>

<footnote n="10">¹⁰Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Torino, Italy</footnote>

<footnote n="11">¹¹Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia “Ettore Majorana”, Università di Catania, Italy</footnote>

<footnote n="12">¹²DISAT, Politecnico di Torino, Italy</footnote>

<footnote n="13">¹³Centro Siciliano di Fisica Nucleare e Struttura della materia, Italy</footnote>

<footnote n="14">¹⁴Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences - Lanzhou, China</footnote>

<footnote n="15">¹⁵LPC Caen, Normandie Universite, ENSICAEN, UNICAEN, CNRS/IN2P3 Caen, France</footnote>

<footnote n="16">¹⁶Nuclear Physics Division, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics - Kolkata, India</footnote>

<footnote n="17">¹⁷Stony Brook University - Stony Brook, NY, USA</footnote>

<footnote n="18">¹⁸DIMEAS, Politecnico di Torino - Torino, Italy</footnote>

<footnote n="19">¹⁹Instituto de Fisica, Universidade Federal Fluminense - Niterói, Brazil</footnote>

<footnote n="20">²⁰Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Genova - Genova, Italy</footnote>

<footnote n="21">²¹Department of Physics, Yale University - New Haven, CT, USA</footnote>

<footnote n="22">²²Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Genova - Genova, Italy</footnote>

<footnote n="23">²³Institute of Natural Sciences, Karadeniz Teknik University - Trabzon, Turkey</footnote>

<footnote n="24">²⁴University of Jyvaskyla - Jyvaskyla, Finland</footnote>

<footnote n="25">²⁵Università degli Studi di Enna “Kore” - Enna, Italy</footnote>

<footnote n="26">²⁶Departamento de FAMN, Universidad de Sevilla - Sevilla, Spain</footnote>

<footnote n="27">²⁷CNR-IMM, Sezione di Catania - Catania, Italy</footnote>

<footnote n="28">²⁸Department of Physics, University of Giessen - Giessen, Germany</footnote>

<footnote n="29">²⁹Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares IPEN/CNEN - Sao Paulo, Brazil</footnote>

<footnote n="30">³⁰Department of Physics and HINP, University of Ioannina - Ioannina, Greece</footnote>

<footnote n="31">³¹IFIN-HH - Magurele, Romania</footnote>

<footnote n="32">³²Institut für Kernphysik, Technische Universität Darmstadt - Darmstadt, Germany</footnote>

<footnote n="33">³³Centro Universitario FEI - Sao Bernardo do Campo, Brazil</footnote>

<footnote n="34">³⁴Department of Chemistry, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece</footnote>

<footnote>* Corresponding author: manuela.cavallaro@lns.infn.it</footnote>
**Abstract.** The possibility to use a special class of heavy-ion induced direct reactions, such as double charge exchange reactions, is discussed in view of their application to extract information that may be helpful to determine the nuclear matrix elements entering in the expression of neutrinoless double beta decay half-life. The methodology of the experimental campaign presently running at INFN - Laboratori Nazionali del Sud is reported and the experimental challenges characterizing such activity are described.

# 1 Introduction

Charge exchange reactions are versatile tools for both reaction and nuclear structure studies. An especially appealing aspect is the possibility to use them to investigate the spin-isospin-dependent response of nuclei. These studies have a genuine nuclear physics interest, since they reflects a key aspect of nuclear dynamics. However, beyond that, there is an even broader impact of such investigations because of their relevance for nuclear beta decay, thus connecting strong and weak interactions. In this context, the NUMEN and NURE projects at LNS Catania [1-3] aim to promote heavy-ion induced single and double charge exchange reactions in a systematic approach, with the intention to extract information on nuclear matrix elements for single and double charge exchange processes and to identify the possible connections with double beta decay.

In the present paper, the strategy and methodologies of the above-mentioned programmes, the challenges of the experimental activities together with the status of the already performed experimental runs are described and discussed.

# 2 The motivation

The neutrino is a key particle for astrophysics, nuclear physics, particle physics and cosmology. It is an elementary particle that has only a weak charge, no electric and no colour charge. Thus, neutrino interactions with nuclei are extremely weak and experimental studies related to neutrinos are difficult.

Neutrinos have been extensively studied experimentally and theoretically in the recent 4-5 decades, but some of their fundamental properties are still not well understood and several basic questions about neutrinos remain yet unsolved. Among them, the nature of the neutrino, i.e. whether it is a Majorana particle (neutrino = antineutrino) or a Dirac particle (neutrino ≠ antineutrino) and the absolute mass scale. These questions can be studied well by investigating neutrino-related weak processes in nuclei, such as neutrinoless double beta decays (0νββ). If detected, 0νββ would provide evidence for the Majorana nature of the neutrino and the non-zero mass [4-9].

The 0νββ Nuclear Matrix Elements (NMEs) are very sensitive to nuclear physics involved in 0νββ probing the nuclear wave functions of the initial and final states, the spin-isospin correlations, nuclear structure models, nuclear medium effects, the renormalization (quenching) of the effective weak coupling in nuclei, and so on. However, there are no experimental methods to directly measure 0νββ NMEs and accurate theoretical calculations of them are hard, leading to discrepancy factors larger

than two, as presently reported in literature. Thus experimental inputs relevant to the 0νββ responses are useful to help evaluate the 0νββ NMEs and to constrain the calculations.

In this context, an experimental campaign [1] has started at the INFN-Laboratori Nazionali del Sud in Catania using the MAGNEX large acceptance magnetic spectrometer [10]. It focuses on the study of heavy-ion induced Double Charge Exchange (DCE) reactions and competing reaction channels involving the nuclei of interest for 0νββ decay.

The possible connections of DCE measured cross sections with double beta decay NMEs and consequently with the still unsolved neutrino puzzles are among the goals of the present studies.

# 3 Heavy ion induced double charge exchange reactions

Important experimental challenges must be addressed to measure heavy ion induced DCE reactions.

Such challenges are related to the request to detect heavy ions with good isotopic separation and energy resolution in a wide angular range, including zero-degree, in order to distinguish transitions to individual states and explore a wide momentum transfer range.

In addition, the rather tiny DCE cross sections (down to few nb) demand for a challenging high experimental sensitivity, which strongly depend on the rejection capability against unwanted events. These latter may be generated by competing reaction processes, which are rather likely to occur in view of the small DCE cross sections. For this reason high resolution particle identification is a necessary prerequisite for the experiment. In addition, spurious data associated to a wrong determination of detection parameters could casually be misinterpreted as good DCE data. Such background sources can be subtle and require stringent conditions for the experimental set-up together with a very careful characterization of the detection response in order to get rid of and gain the necessary sensitivity for performing meaningful DCE investigations [11].

These results are pursued thanks to the use of the MAGNEX spectrometer, a tool with high performance and flexibility (see Section 4) [12-15].

The accurate description of reactions involving complex nuclei is a demanding task also for nuclear theory. From the side of reaction theory initial and final state interactions of two many-body systems have to be under control and the transition amplitude must be described properly. Reactions involving a few selected degrees of freedom, keeping the bulk of projectile and target essentially intact are the most appropriate tools for
**Abstract.** The possibility to use a special class of heavy-ion induced direct reactions, such as double charge exchange reactions, is discussed in view of their application to extract information that may be helpful to determine the nuclear matrix elements entering in the expression of neutrinoless double beta decay half-life. The methodology of the experimental campaign presently running at INFN - Laboratori Nazionali del Sud is reported and the experimental challenges characterizing such activity are described.

# 1 Introduction

Charge exchange reactions are versatile tools for both reaction and nuclear structure studies. An especially appealing aspect is the possibility to use them to investigate the spin-isospin-dependent response of nuclei. These studies have a genuine nuclear physics interest, since they reflects a key aspect of nuclear dynamics. However, beyond that, there is an even broader impact of such investigations because of their relevance for nuclear beta decay, thus connecting strong and weak interactions. In this context, the NUMEN and NURE projects at LNS Catania [1-3] aim to promote heavy-ion induced single and double charge exchange reactions in a systematic approach, with the intention to extract information on nuclear matrix elements for single and double charge exchange processes and to identify the possible connections with double beta decay.

In the present paper, the strategy and methodologies of the above-mentioned programmes, the challenges of the experimental activities together with the status of the already performed experimental runs are described and discussed.

# 2 The motivation

The neutrino is a key particle for astrophysics, nuclear physics, particle physics and cosmology. It is an elementary particle that has only a weak charge, no electric and no colour charge. Thus, neutrino interactions with nuclei are extremely weak and experimental studies related to neutrinos are difficult.

Neutrinos have been extensively studied experimentally and theoretically in the recent 4-5 decades, but some of their fundamental properties are still not well understood and several basic questions about neutrinos remain yet unsolved. Among them, the nature of the neutrino, i.e. whether it is a Majorana particle (neutrino = antineutrino) or a Dirac particle (neutrino ≠ antineutrino) and the absolute mass scale. These questions can be studied well by investigating neutrino-related weak processes in nuclei, such as neutrinoless double beta decays (0νββ). If detected, 0νββ would provide evidence for the Majorana nature of the neutrino and the non-zero mass [4-9].

The 0νββ Nuclear Matrix Elements (NMEs) are very sensitive to nuclear physics involved in 0νββ probing the nuclear wave functions of the initial and final states, the spin-isospin correlations, nuclear structure models, nuclear medium effects, the renormalization (quenching) of the effective weak coupling in nuclei, and so on. However, there are no experimental methods to directly measure 0νββ NMEs and accurate theoretical calculations of them are hard, leading to discrepancy factors larger

than two, as presently reported in literature. Thus experimental inputs relevant to the 0νββ responses are useful to help evaluate the 0νββ NMEs and to constrain the calculations.

In this context, an experimental campaign [1] has started at the INFN-Laboratori Nazionali del Sud in Catania using the MAGNEX large acceptance magnetic spectrometer [10]. It focuses on the study of heavy-ion induced Double Charge Exchange (DCE) reactions and competing reaction channels involving the nuclei of interest for 0νββ decay.

The possible connections of DCE measured cross sections with double beta decay NMEs and consequently with the still unsolved neutrino puzzles are among the goals of the present studies.

# 3 Heavy ion induced double charge exchange reactions

Important experimental challenges must be addressed to measure heavy ion induced DCE reactions.

Such challenges are related to the request to detect heavy ions with good isotopic separation and energy resolution in a wide angular range, including zero-degree, in order to distinguish transitions to individual states and explore a wide momentum transfer range.

In addition, the rather tiny DCE cross sections (down to few nb) demand for a challenging high experimental sensitivity, which strongly depend on the rejection capability against unwanted events. These latter may be generated by competing reaction processes, which are rather likely to occur in view of the small DCE cross sections. For this reason high resolution particle identification is a necessary prerequisite for the experiment. In addition, spurious data associated to a wrong determination of detection parameters could casually be misinterpreted as good DCE data. Such background sources can be subtle and require stringent conditions for the experimental set-up together with a very careful characterization of the detection response in order to get rid of and gain the necessary sensitivity for performing meaningful DCE investigations [11].

These results are pursued thanks to the use of the MAGNEX spectrometer, a tool with high performance and flexibility (see Section 4) [12-15].

The accurate description of reactions involving complex nuclei is a demanding task also for nuclear theory. From the side of reaction theory initial and final state interactions of two many-body systems have to be under control and the transition amplitude must be described properly. Reactions involving a few selected degrees of freedom, keeping the bulk of projectile and target essentially intact are the most appropriate tools for
those investigations and direct reaction theory can provide
the suitable toolbox.

Nuclear structure theory is asked to provide accurate
input for the spectroscopy of both projectile and target,
even if the main interest is to explore the spectrum of one
of the reaction partners only.

Despite of these caveats coherent ion-ion interactions
have been used quite successfully in the past to investigate
excitations in the quasi-elastic region. Moreover new
theoretical developments for the description of the
reaction mechanism involved in heavy ion induced
reactions have been achieved under specific conditions
and others are presently in progress within the NUMEN
project [16-20].

## 4 The experiments

The experimental challenges mentioned in the previous
section are faced at INFN-LNS by using the K800
Superconducting Cyclotron to accelerate beams and the
MAGNEX large acceptance magnetic spectrometer for
the detection of the ejectiles.

The MAGNEX spectrometer is a large acceptance
magnetic device made up of a large aperture vertically
focusing quadrupole and a horizontally bending dipole
magnet. MAGNEX was designed to investigate processes
characterized by very low yields and allows the
identification of heavy ions with quite high mass
(ΔA/A~1/160), angle (Δθ~0.2°) and energy resolutions
(ΔE/E~1/1000), within a large solid angle (Ω~50 msr)

and momentum range (-14% < Δp/p < +10%). High-resolution measurements for quasi-elastic processes, characterized by differential cross sections falling down to tens of nb/sr, were already performed by this setup [21-26]. A crucial feature is the implementation of a technique of trajectory reconstruction, based on differential algebraic techniques, which allows solving the equation of motion of each detected particle to 10th order [27-29]. This is a unique characteristic of MAGNEX, which guarantees the above-mentioned performances and its relevance in the worldwide scenario of heavy-ion physics.

The experimental activity with accelerated beams
proposed and presently in progress consists of two main
classes of experiments, corresponding to the exploration
of the two directions of isospin lowering τ⁻τ⁻ and rising
τ⁺τ⁺, characteristic of β⁻β⁻ and β⁺β⁺ decays, respectively.
In particular, the β⁺β⁺ direction in the target is investigated
using an ¹⁸O⁸⁺ beam and measuring the (¹⁸O,¹⁸Ne) DCE
transitions, together with other reaction channels
involving same beam and target. Similarly, the β⁻β⁻
direction is explored via the (²⁰Ne,²⁰O) reaction, using a
²⁰Ne¹⁰⁺ beam and detecting the reaction products of the
DCE channel and of the other open channels characterized
by same projectile and target.

Exploratory investigations of the two classes of
experiments have been already performed, highlighting
the strengths and the limiting aspects of the adopted
technique and establishing the best working conditions
[30-34].

<figure><img src="image_2.png" /><figcaption>**Fig. 1.** Drawing of the MAGNEX spectrometer showing two typical trajectories of the ¹⁸O and ²⁰Ne beams in the experimental conditions used for the DCE measurements.</figcaption></figure>

## 4.1 Experiments with ¹⁸O beam (β⁺β⁺ direction)

For the experiments of this class, the reaction channels of
our interest are listed below:

* Elastic and inelastic scattering (¹⁸O, ¹⁸O)

* DCE reaction (¹⁸O, ¹⁸Ne)

* Charge-exchange reaction (¹⁸O, ¹⁸F)

* Two-proton pickup reaction (¹⁸O, ²⁰Ne)

* One-proton pickup reaction (¹⁸O, ¹⁹F)

* Two-neutron stripping reaction (¹⁸O, ¹⁶O)

* One-neutron stripping reaction (¹⁸O, ¹⁷O)

One of the main challenges of such experiments is the
measurement at very forward angles, including zero-
degree. This is performed by placing the spectrometer
with its optical axis at +3° with respect to the beam axis.
Thanks to its large angular acceptance, a range -2° < θ<sub>lab</sub>
< +9° is thus covered. The MAGNEX quadrupole and
those investigations and direct reaction theory can provide
the suitable toolbox.

Nuclear structure theory is asked to provide accurate
input for the spectroscopy of both projectile and target,
even if the main interest is to explore the spectrum of one
of the reaction partners only.

Despite of these caveats coherent ion-ion interactions
have been used quite successfully in the past to investigate
excitations in the quasi-elastic region. Moreover new
theoretical developments for the description of the
reaction mechanism involved in heavy ion induced
reactions have been achieved under specific conditions
and others are presently in progress within the NUMEN
project [16-20].

## 4 The experiments

The experimental challenges mentioned in the previous
section are faced at INFN-LNS by using the K800
Superconducting Cyclotron to accelerate beams and the
MAGNEX large acceptance magnetic spectrometer for
the detection of the ejectiles.

The MAGNEX spectrometer is a large acceptance
magnetic device made up of a large aperture vertically
focusing quadrupole and a horizontally bending dipole
magnet. MAGNEX was designed to investigate processes
characterized by very low yields and allows the
identification of heavy ions with quite high mass
(ΔΑ/Α~1/160), angle (Δθ~0.2°) and energy resolutions
(ΔΕ/Ε~1/1000), within a large solid angle (Ω~50 msr)

and momentum range (-14% < Δp/p < +10%). High-resolution measurements for quasi-elastic processes, characterized by differential cross sections falling down to tens of nb/sr, were already performed by this setup [21-26]. A crucial feature is the implementation of a technique of trajectory reconstruction, based on differential algebraic techniques, which allows solving the equation of motion of each detected particle to 10th order [27-29]. This is a unique characteristic of MAGNEX, which guarantees the above-mentioned performances and its relevance in the worldwide scenario of heavy-ion physics.

The experimental activity with accelerated beams
proposed and presently in progress consists of two main
classes of experiments, corresponding to the exploration
of the two directions of isospin lowering τ⁻τ⁻ and rising
τ⁺τ⁺, characteristic of β⁻β⁻ and β⁺β⁺ decays, respectively.
In particular, the β⁺β⁺ direction in the target is investigated
using an ¹⁸O⁸⁺ beam and measuring the (¹⁸O,¹⁸Ne) DCE
transitions, together with other reaction channels
involving same beam and target. Similarly, the β⁻β⁻
direction is explored via the (²⁰Ne,²⁰O) reaction, using a
²⁰Ne¹⁰⁺ beam and detecting the reaction products of the
DCE channel and of the other open channels characterized
by same projectile and target.

Exploratory investigations of the two classes of
experiments have been already performed, highlighting
the strengths and the limiting aspects of the adopted
technique and establishing the best working conditions
[30-34].

<figure><img src="image_2.png" /><figcaption>**Fig. 1.** Drawing of the MAGNEX spectrometer showing two typical trajectories of the ¹⁸O and ²⁰Ne beams in the experimental conditions used for the DCE measurements.</figcaption></figure>

## 4.1 Experiments with ¹⁸O beam (β⁺β⁺ direction)

For the experiments of this class, the reaction channels of
our interest are listed below:

• Elastic and inelastic scattering (¹⁸O,¹⁸O)

• DCE reaction (¹⁸O,¹⁸Ne)

• Charge-exchange reaction (¹⁸O,¹⁸F)

• Two-proton pickup reaction (¹⁸O,²⁰Ne)

• One-proton pickup reaction (¹⁸O,¹⁹F)

• Two-neutron stripping reaction (¹⁸O,¹⁶O)

• One-neutron stripping reaction (¹⁸O,¹⁷O)

One of the main challenges of such experiments is the
measurement at very forward angles, including zero-
degree. This is performed by placing the spectrometer
with its optical axis at +3° with respect to the beam axis.
Thanks to its large angular acceptance, a range -2° < θ<sub>lab</sub>
< +9° is thus covered. The MAGNEX quadrupole and
dipole magnetic fields are set in order that the incident beam, after passing through the magnets, reaches a region besides the FPD. For this class of experiments, in fact, the incident beam ($^{18}$O$^{8+}$) has higher magnetic rigidity (Bp) than the ones of the ejectiles of interest (namely $^{18}$Ne, $^{18}$F, $^{20}$Ne, $^{19}$F, $^{16}$O, $^{17}$O with maximum charge state). The beam stops in a specifically designed Faraday Cup, which measures the incident charge in each run, placed in the high-Bp region besides the FPD.

A drawing of the MAGNEX spectrometer and an example of the typical $^{18}$O beam trajectory inside the spectrometer is shown in Fig. 1.

$^{116}$Sn, $^{76}$Se and $^{48}$Ti are the targets already explored via ($^{18}$O,$^{18}$Ne) reaction at 15 and 22 AMeV in order to study the $^{116}$Sn → $^{116}$Cd, $^{76}$Se → $^{76}$Ge and $^{48}$Ti → $^{48}$Ca transitions, respectively, and the competing channels as shown in Fig. 2. The reduction and analysis of the collected data is presently in progress.

## 4.2 Experiments with $^{20}$Ne beam ($\beta^{-}\beta^{−}$ direction)

In the class of experiments with $^{20}$Ne$^{10+}$ beams, the reaction channels we are interested are the following:

* Elastic and inelastic scattering ($^{20}$Ne,$^{20}$Ne)

* DCE reaction ($^{20}$Ne,$^{20}$O)

* Charge Exchange reaction ($^{20}$Ne,$^{20}$F)

* Two-proton stripping reaction ($^{20}$Ne,$^{18}$O)

* One-proton stripping reaction ($^{20}$Ne,$^{19}$F)

* Two-neutron pickup reaction ($^{20}$Ne,$^{22}$Ne)

* One-neutron pickup reaction ($^{20}$Ne,$^{21}$Ne)

For these experiments, the incident beam ($^{20}$Ne$^{10+}$) has a lower magnetic rigidity with respect to the reaction ejectiles of interest. Thus, for a fixed magnetic field setting, the beam will be more bent than the ejectiles of interest. The spectrometer optical axis is typically placed at -3°, thus the covered angular range is $-8° < \theta_{\text{lab}} < +3°$. The quadrupole and dipole magnetic fields of MAGNEX are set in order that the $^{20}$Ne$^{10+}$ beam reaches the low-Bp region besides the FPD.

A peculiarity of these experiments concerns the treatment of the different charge states of the beam emerging out of the target. The beam components characterized by charge states lower than $10^+$, mainly $^{20}$Ne$^{9+}$ and $^{20}$Ne$^{8+}$, produced by the interaction of the beam with the electrons of the target material, have a magnetic rigidity which is similar to the ions of interest. Therefore, they enter in the FPD acceptance, causing a limitation in the rate tolerable by the detector.

In order to stop these unwanted $^{20}$Ne particles, two aluminium shields are mounted upstream the sensitive region of the focal plane detector.

The shields act on a limited phase space region which stops the $9^+$ and $8^+$ beams and elastic scattering at very forward angles, but not the other reaction channels generated by these beams. It is known that the charge state distribution of a heavy-ion beam after crossing a material depends on the bombarding energy and on the chemical composition of the target. The targets relevant for NUMEN generate an unwanted charge distribution that can be conveniently changed, minimizing the amount of $^{20}$Ne$^{9+}$ and $^{20}$Ne$^{8+}$, by adding an appropriate second foil

(post-stripper) downstream of the isotopic target. Recently a specific study of different materials to be used as poststripper has been performed [33].

The systems already experimentally explored using the ($^{20}$Ne,$^{20}$O) reaction at 15 AMeV are the $^{116}$Cd target (to study the $^{116}$Cd → $^{116}$Sn transition), the $^{130}$Te (for the $^{130}$Te → $^{130}$Xe) and the $^{76}$Ge (for the $^{76}$Ge → $^{76}$Se). The data reduction and analysis is in progress.

A scheme of the transitions already studied in the experimental runs is shown in Fig. 2.

<figure><img src="image_3.png" /><figcaption>**Fig. 2.** Scheme of the reaction channels already studied within the NURE and NUMEN experiments.</figcaption></figure>
dipole magnetic fields are set in order that the incident beam, after passing through the magnets, reaches a region besides the FPD. For this class of experiments, in fact, the incident beam ($^{18}$O$^{8+}$) has higher magnetic rigidity (Bp) than the ones of the ejectiles of interest (namely $^{18}$Ne, $^{18}$F, $^{20}$Ne, $^{19}$F, $^{16}$O, $^{17}$O with maximum charge state). The beam stops in a specifically designed Faraday Cup, which measures the incident charge in each run, placed in the high-Bp region besides the FPD.

A drawing of the MAGNEX spectrometer and an example of the typical $^{18}$O beam trajectory inside the spectrometer is shown in Fig. 1.

$^{116}$Sn, $^{76}$Se and $^{48}$Ti are the targets already explored via ($^{18}$O,$^{18}$Ne) reaction at 15 and 22 AMeV in order to study the $^{116}$Sn → $^{116}$Cd, $^{76}$Se → $^{76}$Ge and $^{48}$Ti → $^{48}$Ca transitions, respectively, and the competing channels as shown in Fig. 2. The reduction and analysis of the collected data is presently in progress.

## 4.2 Experiments with $^{20}$Ne beam ($\beta^{-}\beta^{−}$ direction)

In the class of experiments with $^{20}$Ne$^{10+}$ beams, the reaction channels we are interested are the following:

* Elastic and inelastic scattering ($^{20}$Ne,$^{20}$Ne)

* DCE reaction ($^{20}$Ne,$^{20}$O)

* Charge Exchange reaction ($^{20}$Ne,$^{20}$F)

* Two-proton stripping reaction ($^{20}$Ne,$^{18}$O)

* One-proton stripping reaction ($^{20}$Ne,$^{19}$F)

* Two-neutron pickup reaction ($^{20}$Ne,$^{22}$Ne)

* One-neutron pickup reaction ($^{20}$Ne,$^{21}$Ne)

For these experiments, the incident beam ($^{20}$Ne$^{10+}$) has a lower magnetic rigidity with respect to the reaction ejectiles of interest. Thus, for a fixed magnetic field setting, the beam will be more bent than the ejectiles of interest. The spectrometer optical axis is typically placed at -3°, thus the covered angular range is $-8° < θ_{lab} < +3°$. The quadrupole and dipole magnetic fields of MAGNEX are set in order that the $^{20}$Ne$^{10+}$ beam reaches the low-Bp region besides the FPD.

A peculiarity of these experiments concerns the treatment of the different charge states of the beam emerging out of the target. The beam components characterized by charge states lower than $10^+$, mainly $^{20}$Ne$^{9+}$ and $^{20}$Ne$^{8+}$, produced by the interaction of the beam with the electrons of the target material, have a magnetic rigidity which is similar to the ions of interest. Therefore, they enter in the FPD acceptance, causing a limitation in the rate tolerable by the detector.

In order to stop these unwanted $^{20}$Ne particles, two aluminium shields are mounted upstream the sensitive region of the focal plane detector.

The shields act on a limited phase space region which stops the $9^+$ and $8^+$ beams and elastic scattering at very forward angles, but not the other reaction channels generated by these beams. It is known that the charge state distribution of a heavy-ion beam after crossing a material depends on the bombarding energy and on the chemical composition of the target. The targets relevant for NUMEN generate an unwanted charge distribution that can be conveniently changed, minimizing the amount of $^{20}$Ne$^{9+}$ and $^{20}$Ne$^{8+}$, by adding an appropriate second foil

(post-stripper) downstream of the isotopic target. Recently a specific study of different materials to be used as poststripper has been performed [33].

The systems already experimentally explored using the ($^{20}$Ne,$^{20}$O) reaction at 15 AMeV are the $^{116}$Cd target (to study the $^{116}$Cd → $^{116}$Sn transition), the $^{130}$Te (for the $^{130}$Te → $^{130}$Xe) and the $^{76}$Ge (for the $^{76}$Ge → $^{76}$Se). The data reduction and analysis is in progress.

A scheme of the transitions already studied in the experimental runs is shown in Fig. 2.

<figure><img src="image_3.png" /><figcaption>**Fig. 2.** Scheme of the reaction channels already studied within the NURE and NUMEN experiments.</figcaption></figure>
# 5 Conclusions

A systematic study of heavy-ion induced double charge exchange reactions and of the other reaction channels characterized by the same projectile and target is in progress at INFN-LNS. The main goal is to investigate the nuclear response to DCE reactions for all the isotopes candidate for $0\beta\beta$ decay to give experimentally driven indication towards the determination of $0\beta\beta$ NMEs.

In the present paper, the focus is on the techniques adopted to set up the MAGNEX spectrometer for the challenging measurements of such suppressed reaction channels. The strategy used to perform the zero-degree measurement, based on an accurate simulation of the ion trajectories along the spectrometer and on the use of two Faraday cups properly designed for each category of experiments, is described.

# Acknowledgments

This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 714625).

# References

1. F. Cappuzzello et al., Eur. Phys. J. A **54**, 72 (2018)

2. M. Cavallaro et al., Proceedings of Science, PoS(BORMIO2017) **015** (2017)

3. F. Cappuzzello et al., J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. **630**, 012018 (2015)

4. H. Ejiri, J. Suhonen, K. Zuber, Physics Reports **797**, 1 (2019)

5. J. Vergados, H. Ejiri, F. Šimkovic, Rep. Progr. Phys. **75**, 106301 (2012)

6. J. Suhonen, O. Civitarese, J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys. **39**, 124005 (2012)

7. S. Dell'Oro, S. Marcocci, and F. Vissani, Phys. Rev. D **90**, 033005 (2014)

8. J. Engel, J. Menéndez, Rep. Progr. Phys. **60**, 046301 (2017)

9. P. Vogel, Jour. of Phys. G: Nucl. and Part. Phys., **39** 124002 (2012)

10. F. Cappuzzello et al., Eur. Phys. J. A **51**, 145 (2015)

11. S. Calabrese et al., in preparation.

12. F. Cappuzzello et al. Eur. Phys. J. A **52**, 167 (2016)

13. C. Boiano et al., IEEE Trans. on Nucl. Science **4723837**, 3563 (2008)

14. M. Cavallaro et al., Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A **700**, 65 (2013)

15. M. Cavallaro et al. Phys. Rev. C **93**, 064323 (2016)

16. H. Lenske et al., Phys. Rev. C **98**, 044620 (2018)

17. E. Santopinto et al., Phys. Rev. C **98** 061601(R) (2018)

18. H. Lenske et al., Prog. Part. Nucl. Phys. **109**, 103716 (2019)

19. J.I. Bellone et al., J. Phys. Conf. Ser. **1056**, 012004 (2018)

20. J.A. Lay et al., J. Phys. Conf. Ser. **1056**, 012029 (2018)

21. F. Cappuzzello et al., Eur. Phys. J. A **52**, 169 (2016)

22. D. Carbone et al., Phys. Rev. C **95**, 034603 (2017)

23. V.A.B. Zagatto et al., Phys. Rev. C **97**, 054608 (2018)

24. M. J. Ermamatov et al., Phys. Rev. C **94**, 024610 (2016)

25. J.R.B. Oliveira et al., Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics **40**, 105101 (2013)

26. F. Cappuzzello et al., Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A **763**, 314 (2014)

27. F. Cappuzzello, et al., Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A **638**, 74 (2011)

28. A. Lazzaro et al., Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A **585**, 136 (2008)

29. A. Lazzaro et al., Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A **602**, 494 (2009)

30. F. Cappuzzello et al., Eur. Phys. J. A **51**, 145 (2015)

31. S. Calabrese et al., Acta Phys. Pol. B **49**, 275 (2018)

32. M. Cavallaro et al., Nucl. Instr. and Meth. B (in press) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nimb.2019.04.069.

33. M. Cavallaro et al., Results in Phys. **13**, 102191 (2019)

34. A. Spatafora et al., Phys. Rev. C **100**, 034620 (2019)
# 5 Conclusions

A systematic study of heavy-ion induced double charge exchange reactions and of the other reaction channels characterized by the same projectile and target is in progress at INFN-LNS. The main goal is to investigate the nuclear response to DCE reactions for all the isotopes candidate for $0\beta\beta$ decay to give experimentally driven indication towards the determination of $0\beta\beta$ NMEs.

In the present paper, the focus is on the techniques adopted to set up the MAGNEX spectrometer for the challenging measurements of such suppressed reaction channels. The strategy used to perform the zero-degree measurement, based on an accurate simulation of the ion trajectories along the spectrometer and on the use of two Faraday cups properly designed for each category of experiments, is described.

# Acknowledgments

This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 714625).

# References

1. F. Cappuzzello et al., Eur. Phys. J. A **54**, 72 (2018)

2. M. Cavallaro et al., Proceedings of Science, PoS(BORMIO2017) **015** (2017)

3. F. Cappuzzello et al., J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. **630**, 012018 (2015)

4. H. Ejiri, J. Suhonen, K. Zuber, Physics Reports **797**, 1 (2019)

5. J. Vergados, H. Ejiri, F. Šimkovic, Rep. Progr. Phys. **75**, 106301 (2012)

6. J. Suhonen, O. Civitarese, J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys. **39**, 124005 (2012)

7. S. Dell'Oro, S. Marcocci, and F. Vissani, Phys. Rev. D **90**, 033005 (2014)

8. J. Engel, J. Menéndez, Rep. Progr. Phys. **60**, 046301 (2017)

9. P. Vogel, Jour. of Phys. G: Nucl. and Part. Phys., **39** 124002 (2012)

10. F. Cappuzzello et al., Eur. Phys. J. A **51**, 145 (2015)

11. S. Calabrese et al., in preparation.

12. F. Cappuzzello et al. Eur. Phys. J. A **52**, 167 (2016)

13. C. Boiano et al., IEEE Trans. on Nucl. Science **4723837**, 3563 (2008)

14. M. Cavallaro et al., Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A **700**, 65 (2013)

15. M. Cavallaro et al. Phys. Rev. C **93**, 064323 (2016)

16. H. Lenske et al., Phys. Rev. C **98**, 044620 (2018)

17. E. Santopinto et al., Phys. Rev. C **98** 061601(R) (2018)

18. H. Lenske et al., Prog. Part. Nucl. Phys. **109**, 103716 (2019)

19. J.I. Bellone et al., J. Phys. Conf. Ser. **1056**, 012004 (2018)

20. J.A. Lay et al., J. Phys. Conf. Ser. **1056**, 012029 (2018)

21. F. Cappuzzello et al., Eur. Phys. J. A **52**, 169 (2016)

22. D. Carbone et al., Phys. Rev. C **95**, 034603 (2017)

23. V.A.B. Zagatto et al., Phys. Rev. C **97**, 054608 (2018)

24. M. J. Ermamatov et al., Phys. Rev. C **94**, 024610 (2016)

25. J.R.B. Oliveira et al., Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics **40**, 105101 (2013)

26. F. Cappuzzello et al., Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A **763**, 314 (2014)

27. F. Cappuzzello, et al., Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A **638**, 74 (2011)

28. A. Lazzaro et al., Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A **585**, 136 (2008)

29. A. Lazzaro et al., Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A **602**, 494 (2009)

30. F. Cappuzzello et al., Eur. Phys. J. A **51**, 145 (2015)

31. S. Calabrese et al., Acta Phys. Pol. B **49**, 275 (2018)

32. M. Cavallaro et al., Nucl. Instr. and Meth. B (in press) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nimb.2019.04.069.

33. M. Cavallaro et al., Results in Phys. **13**, 102191 (2019)

34. A. Spatafora et al., Phys. Rev. C **100**, 034620 (2019)