Location of the Neutron Dripline at Fluorine and Neon

A search for the heaviest isotopes of fluorine, neon, and sodium was conducted by fragmentation of an intense ⁴⁸Ca beam at 345 MeV/nucleon with a 20-mm-thick beryllium target and identification of isotopes in the large-acceptance separator BigRIPS at the RIKEN Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory. No events were observed for 32,33F, 35,36Ne, and ³⁸Na and only one event for ³⁹Na after extensive running. Comparison with predicted yields excludes the existence of bound states of these unobserved isotopes with high confidence levels. The present work indicates that ³¹F and ³⁴Ne are the heaviest bound isotopes of fluorine and neon, respectively. The neutron dripline has thus been experimentally confirmed up to neon for the first time since ²⁴O was confirmed to be the dripline nucleus nearly 20 years ago. These data provide new keys to understanding the nuclear stability at extremely neutron-rich conditions.