Experimental study of the isomeric state in 16N using the 16Ng,m(d,3He) reaction

The isomeric state of 16N was studied using the 16Ng,m(d,3He) proton-removal reactions at 11.8 MeV/u in inverse kinematics. The 16N beam, of which 24% was in the isomeric state, was produced using the Argonne Tandem-Linac Accelerator System (ATLAS) in-flight system and delivered to the Helical Orbit Spectrometer (HELIOS), which was used to analyze the 3He ions from the (d,3He) reactions. The simultaneous measurement of reactions on both the ground state and the isomeric states, reduced the systematic uncertainties from the experiment and in the analysis. A direct and reliable extraction of the relative spectroscopic factors was made based on a distorted-wave Born approximation approach. The experimental results suggest that the isomeric state of 16N is an excited neutron-halo state. The results can be understood through calculations using a Woods-Saxon potential model, which captures the effects of weak binding.