New isotopes, secondary reactions and spectroscopy for medium-mass nuclei at the proton drip line

This paper reviews two experiments performed at GSI and GANIL. Using a primary beam of 58Ni at 650 MeV/nucleon impinging on a beryllium target, production cross sections of proton-rich fragments from projectile fragmentation have been measured at the projectile-fragment separator FRS at GSI. The production rates measured demonstrate that counting rates much higher than expected can be obtained at the proton drip line. The results from spectroscopy measurements show that no Thomas-Ehrmann effect is present in our data which means that the decay energies and masses can be well predicted by using e.g. the IMME. The secondary reactions evidence a slight increase of the interaction cross sections when approaching the proton drip line. Finally, in an experiment performed at the SISSI/LISE facility at GANIL using a 78Kr primary beam, we have observed the 5 new isotopes 60Ga, 64As, 69,70Kr, and 74Sr. However, we have not found any evidence for 69Br which was reported to be observed with a few counts at MSU. These new findings change our understanding of the path and of the ending point of the rp process.