Nuclear structure studies in the xenon and radon region and the discovery of a new radon isotope by Penning-trap mass spectrometry

Nowadays high-precision mass measurements based on Penning traps allow a deep insight into the fundamental properties of nucleonic matter. To this end, the cyclotron frequency of an ion confined in a strong, homogeneous magnetic field B is determined. At the ISOLTRAP mass spectrometer at ISOLDE / CERN the masses of short-lived radioactive nuclei with half-lives down to several ten ms can be measured with an uncertainty in the order of 10$^{-8}$and below. ISOLTRAP consists of an RFQ cooler and buncher to cool and accumulate the ions coming from ISOLDE and a double Penning-trap system to first clean the ion samples and finally perform the mass measurements. Within this thesis the masses of neutron rich xenon and radon isotopes, namely $^{138-146}$Xe and $^{223-229}$Rn were determined, eleven of them for the first time. $^{229}$Rn was even discovered in this experiment and its half-life could be determined to roughly 12$^{+1.2}_{-1.3}$ s. Since the mass reflects all interactions inside the nucleus it is a unique fingerprint of the nuclide of interest. One of these interactions, the proton-neutron interaction, leads for example to the onset of deformation. The aim of this thesis is to investigate a possible connection between collective effects in nuclei, like the onset of deformation, and double-differences of binding energies, so called ${\delta}$V$_{pn}$ values. Especially in the here presented areas these ${\delta}$V$_{pn}$-values show a very unusual behavior and cannot be explained with simple orbital overlapping arguments. One explanation could be the occurrence of octupolar deformation in these regions, which is usually probed with other experimental techniques. However, a quantitative description of the influence of such type of deformation on ${\delta}$V$_{pn}$ is still not possible with modern theories.