VECC-INGA: an exploration of nuclear structure with light ions

Since past two decades, the Indian National Gamma Array (INGA) facility in India has exploited unique features and facilities at three accelerator centres in India to probe the fascinating aspects of behavior of an excited nucleus, its exotic shapes and the underlying symmetries using high-resolution gamma ray spectroscopy techniques. INGA has been conceptualized and implemented in India under the national collaboration between various national institutes and universities. The unique feature of the availability of energetic light ion beams (α, p) from the K-130 cyclotron at VECC, Kolkata, coupled with advanced state of art detector facilities of INGA, allowed the access to the unique physics cases (e.g, horizontal spectroscopy, exotic nuclear shape at lower spin) in particular regimes of nuclear chart, which are not possible with heavy-ion beams. These include the hard-to-reach nuclei near/around the stability line in heavy mass region and the neutron-rich part of nuclear horizon from the spectroscopy of fission fragments induced by light-ions