Low-Energy Coulomb Excitation for the Shell Model

Low-energy Coulomb excitation is capable of providing unique information on static electromagnetic moments of short-lived excited nuclear states, including non-yrast states. The process selectively populates low-lying collective states and is, therefore, ideally suited to study phenomena such as shape coexistence and the development of exotic deformation (triaxial or octupole shapes). Historically, these experiments were restricted to stable isotopes. However, the advent of new facilities providing intense beams of short-lived radioactive species has opened the possibility to apply this powerful technique to a much wider range of nuclei. The paper discusses the observables that can be measured in a Coulomb-excitation experiment and their relation to the nuclear structure parameters with an emphasis on the nuclear shape. Recent examples of Coulomb-excitation studies that provided outcomes relevant for the Shell Model are also presented.

Reaching into the N = 40 Island of Inversion with Nucleon Removal Reactions

One ambitious goal of nuclear physics is a predictive model of all nuclei, including the ones at the fringes of the nuclear chart which may remain out of experimental reach. Certain regions of the chart are providing formidable testing grounds for nuclear models in this quest as they display rapid structural evolution from one nucleus to another or phenomena such as shape coexistence. Observables measured for such nuclei can confirm or refute our understanding of the driving forces of the evolution of nuclear structure away from stability where textbook nuclear physics has been proven to not apply anymore. This paper briefly reviews the emerging picture for the very neutron-rich Fe, Cr, and Ti isotopes within the so-called N=40 island of inversion as obtained with nucleon knockout reactions. These have provided some of the most detailed nuclear spectroscopy in very neutron-rich nuclei produced at rare-isotope facilities. The results indicate that our current understanding, as encoded in large-scale shell-model calculations, appears correct with exciting predictions for the N=40 island of inversion left to be proven in the experiment. A bright future emerges with predictions of continued shell evolution and shape coexistence out to neutron number N=50, below 78Ni on the chart of nuclei.

Shape coexistence in $^{76}$Se within the neutron-proton interacting boson model

We have investigated the low-lying energy spectrum and electromagnetic transition strengths in even-even $^{76}$Se using the proton-neutron interacting boson model (IBM-2). The theoretical calculation for the energy levels and $E2$ and $M1$ transition strengths is in good agreement with the experimental data. Especially, the excitation energy and $E2$ transition of $0^+_2$ state, which is intimately associated with shape coexistence, can be well reproduced. The analysis on low-lying states and some key structure indicators indicates that there is a coexistence between spherical shape and $\gamma$-soft shape in $^{76}$Se.

Low-Energy Coulomb Excitation for the Shell Model

Low-energy Coulomb excitation is capable of providing unique information on static electromagnetic moments of short-lived excited nuclear states, including non-yrast states. The process selectively populates low-lying collective states and is therefore ideally suited to study phenomena such as shape coexistence and development of exotic deformation (triaxial or octupole shapes). Historically, these experiments were restricted to stable isotopes. However, the advent of new facilities providing intense beams of short-lived radioactive species has opened the possibility to apply this powerful technique to a much wider range of nuclei. We discuss the observables that can be measured in a Coulomb-excitation experiment, their relation to nuclear structure parameters with an emphasis on the nuclear shape, and present some recent examples of Coulomb-excitation studies that provided outcomes relevant for the Shell Model.

Configuration Mixing for Po Isotopes within the Interacting Boson Model-2

We analyze a sequence of 194−204Po isotopes, using the Configuration Mixing (CM) Interacting Boson Model 2 (IBM-2). We set the parameters of Hamiltonian using a least-square fit for the known energy levels, electrical transition rates B(E2), and quadruple moments Q(2+1) for the first excited states. We have a good agreement with the experimental values for all the observables tested, and we infer that the feature of the shape coexistence is concealed in the isotopes of Po, just as in the isotopes of Os and Pt.