On the synthesis of neutron-rich isotopes along the N=126 shell in multinucleon transfer reactions

We performed experimental and theoretical studies of deep inelastic multinucleon transfer reactions in heavy-ion collisions at Coulomb barrier energies. Our goal was to investigate if deep inelastic transfer is superior to fragmentation reactions for producing neutron-rich isotopes in the astrophysically interesting region along the closed neutron shell N = 126. Here, we will present our results obtained in reactions of Ni-64 + Pb-207 at 5.0 MeV/nucleon. The experiment was performed at the velocity filter SHIP at GSI Darmstadt. Several transfer products on the neutron-rich side were populated but new isotopes were not observed. A comparison of the measured transfer cross-sections and production yields with those from fragmentation reactions allowed for interesting conclusions.