Evolution of octupole deformation in radium nuclei from Coulomb excitation of radioactive 222Ra and 228Ra beams

P.A. Butler, L.P. Gaffney, P. Spagnoletti, K. Abrahams, Mike Bowry, J. Cederkäll, G. de Angelis, H. De Witte, P.E. Garrett, A. Goldkuhle, C. Henrich, A. Illana, K. Johnston, D.T. Joss, J.M. Keatings, N.A. Kelly, M. Komorowska, J. Konki, T. Kröll, M. LozanoB.S. Nara Singh, D. O'Donnell, J. Ojala, R.D. Page, L.G. Pedersen, C. Raison, P. Reiter, J.A. Rodriguez, D. Rosiak, S. Rothe, M. Scheck, M. Seidlitz, T.M. Shneidman, B. Siebeck, J. Sinclair, J.F. Smith, M. Stryjczyk, P. Van Duppen, S. Vinals, V. Virtanen, N. Warr, K. Wrzosek-Lipska, M. Zielińska

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    Abstract

    There is sparse direct experimental evidence that atomic nuclei can exhibit stable “pear” shapes arising from strong octupole correlations. In order to investigate the nature of octupole collectivity in radium isotopes, electric octupole (E3) matrix elements have been determined for transitions in 222,228Ra nuclei using the method of sub-barrier, multistep Coulomb excitation. Beams of the radioactive radium isotopes were provided by the HIE-ISOLDE facility at CERN. The observed pattern of E3 matrix elements for different nuclear transitions is explained by describing 222Ra as pear shaped with stable octupole deformation, while 228Ra behaves like an octupole vibrator.
    Original languageEnglish
    Article number042503
    Number of pages6
    JournalPhysical Review Letters
    Volume124
    Issue number4
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 31 Jan 2020

    Keywords

    • nucl-ex
    • hep-ph
    • nucl-th
    • physics.atom-ph

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