Pathway for the Production of Neutron-Rich Isotopes around the N=126 Shell Closure.

Absolute cross sections for isotopically identified products formed in multinucleon transfer in the Xe-136 + Pt-198 system at similar to 8 MeV/nucleon are reported. The isotopic distributions obtained using a large acceptance spectrometer demonstrated the production of the "hard-to-reach" neutron-rich isotopes for Z < 78 around the N = 126 shell closure far from stability. The main contribution to the formation of these exotic nuclei is shown to arise in collisions with a small kinetic energy dissipation. The present experimental finding corroborates for the first time recent predictions that multinucleon transfer reactions would be the optimum method to populate and characterize neutron-rich isotopes around N = 126 which are crucial for understanding both astrophysically relevant processes and the evolution of "magic" numbers far from stability.