Investigation of excited 0⁺ states in ¹⁶⁰Er populated via the (p, t) two-neutron transfer reaction

Abstract

Abstract. Many efforts have been made in nuclear structure physics to interpret the nature of low-lying excited 0 + states in well-deformed rare-earth nuclei. However, one of the difficulties in resolving the nature of these states is that there is a paucity of data. In this work, excited 0 + states in the N = 92 nucleus 160 Er were studied via the 162 Er(p, t) 160 Er two-neutron transfer reaction, which is ideal for probing 0 + → 0 + transitions, at the Maier-Leibnitz-Laboratorium in Garching, Germany. Reaction products were momentum-analyzed with a Quadrupole-3-Dipole magnetic spectrograph. The 0 + 2 state was observed to be strongly populated with 18% of the ground state strength.