Abstract
Bound states of the neutron-deficient, near-dripline nucleus ³⁶Ca were populated in two-neutron removal from the ground state of ³⁸Ca, a direct reaction sensitive to the single-particle configurations and couplings of the removed neutrons in the projectile wave function. Final-state exclusive cross sections for the formation of ³⁶Ca and the corresponding longitudinal momentum distributions, both determined through the combination of particle and γ-ray spectroscopy, are compared to predictions combining eikonal reaction theory and shell-model two-nucleon amplitudes from the USDB, USDC, and ZBM2 effective interactions. The final-state cross-section ratio σ(2 + 1)/σ(0 +) shows particular sensitivity and is approximately reproduced only with the two-nucleon amplitudes from the ZBM2 effective interaction that includes proton cross-shell excitations into the pf shell. Characterizing the proton pf-shell occupancy locally and schematically, an increase of the sd-pf shell gap by 250 keV yields an improved description of this cross-section ratio and simultaneously enables a reproduction of the B(E2; 0 + 1 → 2 + 1) excitation strength of ³⁶Ca. This highlights an important aspect if a new shell-model effective interaction for the region was to be developed on the quest to model the neutron-deficient Ca isotopes and surrounding nuclei whose structure is impacted by proton cross-shell excitations.