Evidence of rigid triaxiality in some xenon nuclei

The present study deals with a topic of current interest, getting clear evidence for triaxiality in the 120–130 Xe nuclei near A = 130. The odd–even staggering in a so-called gamma-vibrational band may be treated using the asymmetric rotor model (ARM) on employing the Lipas parameter. The Hilbert space is too limited to describe the full variation of the moment of inertia and, therefore, the Lipas Ansatz ismade to correct the ARM energies, which conserve the good result for B(E2) values.PACS Nos.: 21.10.Re, 21.60.Ev, 27.60.+j

Symmetry, quasisymmetry, and critical phenomena

This presentation is an analysis of the role of symmetry in second-order quantum phase transitions. It seeks to explain why transitions between phases of systems, associated with different symmetries, exhibit critical phenomena. It transpires that a system in one phase, tends to hold onto the symmetry associated with that phase until a breaking point is reached at which a rapid transition occurs to a new phase associated with a different symmetry. Understanding what is happening presents the challenge of explaining how a system "holds on" to a symmetry in the face of strong symmetry-breaking interactions. The explanation is of fundamental interest in physics, for understanding why models with built in symmetries often work extremely well even when the models ignore large symmetry-breaking interactions that are known to be present. When this phenomenon occurs, we say that the system has a quasidynamical symmetry. This concept is of interest in mathematics because it turns out that quasidyndamical symmetries are the physical realizations of a new concept in group theory, which we refer to as an embedded representation. PACS Nos.: 21.60.Fw, 21.60.Ev, 64.6–.Ht, 68.18.Jk