First observation of ²⁸O

Subjecting a physical system to extreme conditions is one of the means often used to obtain a better understanding and deeper insight into its organization and structure. In the case of the atomic nucleus, one such approach is to investigate isotopes that have very different neutron-to-proton (N/Z) ratios than in stable nuclei. Light, neutron-rich isotopes exhibit the most asymmetric N/Z ratios and those lying beyond the limits of binding, which undergo spontaneous neutron emission and exist only as very short-lived resonances (about 10⁻²¹s), provide the most stringent tests of modern nuclear-structure theories. Here we report on the first observation of ²⁸O and ²⁷O through their decay into ²⁴O and four and three neutrons, respectively. The ²⁸O nucleus is of particular interest as, with the Z = 8 and N = 20 magic numbers^1,2, it is expected in the standard shell-model picture of nuclear structure to be one of a relatively small number of so-called ‘doubly magic’ nuclei. Both ²⁷O and ²⁸O were found to exist as narrow, low-lying resonances and their decay energies are compared here to the results of sophisticated theoretical modelling, including a large-scale shell-model calculation and a newly developed statistical approach. In both cases, the underlying nuclear interactions were derived from effective field theories of quantum chromodynamics. Finally, it is shown that the cross-section for the production of ²⁸O from a ²⁹F beam is consistent with it not exhibiting a closed N = 20 shell structure.