Purifying one-neutron removal as a probe of single-particle strength

Abstract

One-neutron removal reactions exhibit a strong proton-neutron asymmetry dependence in the inclusive reduction factor $R_s$, a long-standing issue that has been discussed in terms of both possible intrinsic isospin dependence of single-particle strength and reaction-mechanism effects. We address this issue by reframing inclusive removal as a coupled fast-dynamics and deexcitation process, and by validating this transport-deexcitation chain against a global, mutually constraining data set. Confronting 73 one-neutron removal cross sections and 28 residue parallel-momentum distributions with isospin-dependent quantum molecular dynamics followed by GEMINI evaporation shows that the apparent $R_s$-$ΔS$ trend is correlated with evaporation feeding and evaporation loss. By subtracting the feeding contribution and correcting for the loss component in the measured cross sections, we construct a purified reduction factor $R_{\rm dir}$, that more closely reflects single-particle strength than the inclusive $R_s$. The resulting $R_{\rm dir}$ exhibits a much weaker $ΔS$ dependence within current uncertainties, consistent with the weak isospin-asymmetry dependence observed in nucleon-transfer and quasifree-knockout systematics.