Structure of the brunnian nucleus 10C

The 2α + 2p breakup and structure of the only known Brunnian nucleus, 10C, has been studied at 33.3 MeV/nucleon. Detection of the 2α + 2p breakup fragments using a highly segmented Si-Si-Si-CsI detector array has allowed the 10C → 9B + p, 9B → 8Be + p, 8Be → α + α and 10C → 6Be + α, 6Be → 5Li + p, 5Li → α + p decay channels to be reconstructed. Proton emission was seen to be favoured. Resonant breakup was observed from excited states at Ex = 4.20, 5.31 and 6.74 MeV. The previously unobserved state at 4.20 MeV may correspond to a 0+ α + 2p + α cluster structure.