Understanding the fundamental excitations of many-fermion systems is of significant current interest. In atomic nuclei with even numbers of neutrons and protons, the low-lying excitation spectrum is generally formed by nucleon pair breaking and nuclear vibrations or rotations. However, for certain numbers of protons and neutrons, a subtle rearrangement of only a few nucleons among the orbitals at the Fermi surface can result in a different elementary mode: a macroscopic shape change. The first experimental evidence for this phenomenon came from the observation of shape coexistence in 16O (ref. 4). Other unexpected examples came with the discovery of fission isomers and super-deformed nuclei. Here we find experimentally that the lowest three states in the energy spectrum of the neutron deficient nucleus 186Pb are spherical, oblate and prolate. The states are populated by the alpha-decay of a parent nucleus; to identify them, we combine knowledge of the particular features of this decay with sensitive measurement techniques (a highly efficient velocity filters with strong background reduction, and an extremely selective recoil-alpha-electron coincidence tagging methods). The existence of this apparently unique shape triplet is permitted only by the specific conditions that are met around this particular nucleus.
The reduced transition probabilities, B E2; 0 gs ! 2 1 , have been measured in the radioactive isotopes 108;106 Sn using subbarrier Coulomb excitation at the REX-ISOLDE facility at CERN. Deexcitation rays were detected by the highly segmented MINIBALL Ge-detector array. The results, B E2; 0 gs ! 2 1 0:222 19 e 2 b 2 for 108 Sn and B E2; 0 gs ! 2 1 0:195 39 e 2 b 2 for 106 Sn were determined relative to a stable 58 Ni target. The resulting B E2 values are 30% larger than shell-model predictions and deviate from the generalized seniority model. This experimental result may point towards a weakening of the N Z 50 shell closure. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.012502 PACS numbers: 23.20.Js, 21.60.Cs, 25.70.De, 27.60.+j Precision measurements in unstable nuclei together with recently developed models of the nucleon-nucleon interaction, stemming from many-body techniques and QCD, show promise to improve our understanding of the finer aspects of the dynamics of the atomic nucleus. One approach to this question is to measure reduced transition probabilities -B E2; 0 gs ! 2 1 -for specific nuclei in the vicinity of a shell closure and to compare these results with calculations based on such models. In particular, one of the pressing questions in nuclear physics today is whether the shell closures, that are well established close to stability, remain so also for isotopes with a more extreme proton-toneutron ratio. Intuitive models, such as the generalized seniority scheme [1], predict that these B E2 values follow a parabolic trend, that peaks at midshell, for a sequence of isotopes between two shell closures. In the following we address the 100 Sn shell closure and consequently present results from measurements in the sequence of neutron-deficient even-mass Sn isotopes. This approach has been made possible by newly developed facilities that produce high-quality radioactive ion beams. Recent measurements in 110;108 Sn [2 -4] consistently deviate from the broken-pair model as given by the generalized seniority scheme and from current large-scale shell-model calculations [2]. Parallel work [4], using intermediate energy Coulomb excitation, suggests a constant trend of the reduced transition probabilities extending to 106 Sn. In this Letter we report results from the first measurements of 108;106 Sn using subbarrier Coulomb excitation. This is the only experiment so far for 106 Sn that has permitted for complete control of the scattering process and thus explicitly fulfills the conditions for safe Coulomb excitation. Our result still deviates significantly from theoretical predictions but indicates a decreasing trend of the B E2 with a decreasing number of valence particles outside of the 100 Sn core. Note that with this Letter three different isotopes have been used for normalization as 112 Sn [2] and 197 Au [4] have been used previously. All three experiments yield similar PRL 101, 012502 (2008)
Article:Bree, N., Wrzosek-Lipska, K., Petts, A. et al. (67 more authors) (2014) Shape coexistence in the neutron-deficient even-even 182-188Hg isotopes studied via Coulomb excitation.
In-source resonant ionization laser spectroscopy of the even-A polonium isotopes (192-210,216,218)Po has been performed using the 6p(3)7s (5)S(2) to 6p(3)7p (5)P(2) (λ=843.38 nm) transition in the polonium atom (Po-I) at the CERN ISOLDE facility. The comparison of the measured isotope shifts in (200-210)Po with a previous data set allows us to test for the first time recent large-scale atomic calculations that are essential to extract the changes in the mean-square charge radius of the atomic nucleus. When going to lighter masses, a surprisingly large and early departure from sphericity is observed, which is only partly reproduced by beyond mean field calculations.
Atomic nuclei exhibit single-particle and collective degrees of freedom, making them susceptible to variations in size and shape when adding or removing nucleons. The rare cases where dramatic changes in shape occur with the removal of only a single nucleon are key for pinpointing the components of the nuclear interaction driving nuclear deformation. Laser spectroscopy probes the nuclear charge distribution, revealing attometer-scale variations and highlighting sensitivity to the proton (Z) and neutron (N) configurations of the nucleus. The lead isotopes, which possess a closed proton shell (Z = 82), are spherical and steadily shrink with decreasing N. A surprisingly different story was observed for their close neighbours, the mercury isotopes (Z = 80) almost half a century ago 1, 2 : Whilst the even-mass isotopes follow the trend seen for lead, the odd-mass isotopes 181,183,185 Hg exhibit a striking increase in charge radius. This dramatic 'shape staggering' between evenand odd-mass isotopes remains a unique feature of the nuclear chart. Here we present the extension of laser spectroscopy results that reach 177 Hg. An unprecedented combination of state-of-theart techniques including resonance laser ionization, nuclear spectroscopy and mass spectrometry, has established 181 Hg as the shape-staggering endpoint. Accompanying this experimental tour de force, recent computational advances incorporating the largest valence space ever used have been exploited to provide Monte-Carlo Shell Model calculations, in remarkable agreement with the experimental observations. Thus, microscopic insight into the subtle interplay of nuclear interactions that give rise to this phenomenon has been obtained, identifying the shape-driving orbitals. Although shape staggering in the mercury isotopes is a unique and localized feature in the nuclear chart, the underlying mechanism that has now been uncovered nicely describes the duality of single-particle and collective degrees of freedom in atomic nuclei.
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