Spectroscopy of neutron-rich nuclei populated through binary heavy-ion collisions

Neutron‐rich nuclei from A  =  50 to A  =  80 have been studied through multi‐nucleon transfer reactions by bombarding 208Pb and 238U targets with beams of 48Ca, 64Ni, 70Zn and 82Se. The gamma‐array CLARA coupled to the large‐acceptance magnetic spectrometer PRISMA gave unambiguous identification of prompt γ rays belonging to each nucleus. The existence of the N  =  32 sub‐shell closure has been corroborated through the study of odd V isotopes, whereas a sizable gap at N  =  34 has been evidenced from the spectroscopy of 51Ca and 52Sc. The evolution of the N  =  50 shell closure far from stability has been studied down to Z  =  31. With the 48Ca beam we have applied for the first time the Recoil Distance Dopple Shift technique to measure lifetimes of neutron‐rich nuclei populated in multi‐nucleon transfer reactions. Effective charges in the fp shell above 48Ca have been derived. The first implementation of the tracking array AGATA (the so called “Demon‐strator”) will be soon coupled to the PRISMA spectrometer at Legnaro. The future prospects with the use of the Demonstrator are also presented.