Erratum: Spectroscopic Quadrupole Moments in

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.022701.

Spectroscopic Quadrupole Moments in {96,98}Sr: Evidence for Shape Coexistence in Neutron-Rich Strontium Isotopes at N=60.

Neutron-rich {96,98}Sr isotopes have been investigated by safe Coulomb excitation of radioactive beams at the REX-ISOLDE facility. Reduced transition probabilities and spectroscopic quadrupole moments have been extracted from the differential Coulomb excitation cross sections. These results allow, for the first time, the drawing of definite conclusions about the shape coexistence of highly deformed prolate and spherical configurations. In particular, a very small mixing between the coexisting states is observed, contrary to other mass regions where strong mixing is present. Experimental results have been compared to beyond-mean-field calculations using the Gogny D1S interaction in a five-dimensional collective Hamiltonian formalism, which reproduce the shape change at N=60.

Studies of pear-shaped nuclei using accelerated radioactive beams.

There is strong circumstantial evidence that certain heavy, unstable atomic nuclei are 'octupole deformed', that is, distorted into a pear shape. This contrasts with the more prevalent rugby-ball shape of nuclei with reflection-symmetric, quadrupole deformations. The elusive octupole deformed nuclei are of importance for nuclear structure theory, and also in searches for physics beyond the standard model; any measurable electric-dipole moment (a signature of the latter) is expected to be amplified in such nuclei. Here we determine electric octupole transition strengths (a direct measure of octupole correlations) for short-lived isotopes of radon and radium. Coulomb excitation experiments were performed using accelerated beams of heavy, radioactive ions. Our data on (220)Rn and (224)Ra show clear evidence for stronger octupole deformation in the latter. The results enable discrimination between differing theoretical approaches to octupole correlations, and help to constrain suitable candidates for experimental studies of atomic electric-dipole moments that might reveal extensions to the standard model.

Elastic scattering and reaction mechanisms of the halo nucleus 11Be around the Coulomb barrier.

Collisions induced by (9,10,11)Be on a 64Zn target at the same c.m. energy were studied. For the first time, strong effects of the 11Be halo structure on elastic-scattering and reaction mechanisms at energies near the Coulomb barrier are evidenced experimentally. The elastic-scattering cross section of the 11Be halo nucleus shows unusual behavior in the Coulomb-nuclear interference peak angular region. The extracted total-reaction cross section for the 11Be collision is more than double the ones measured in the collisions induced by (9,10)Be. It is shown that such a strong enhancement of the total-reaction cross section with 11Be is due to transfer and breakup processes.

Discovery of the shape coexisting 0+ state in 32 Mg by a two neutron transfer reaction.

The "island of inversion" nucleus 32 Mg has been studied by a (t, p) two neutron transfer reaction in inverse kinematics at REX-ISOLDE. The shape coexistent excited 0+ state in 32 Mg has been identified by the characteristic angular distribution of the protons of the Δ L=0 transfer. The excitation energy of 1058 keV is much lower than predicted by any theoretical model. The low γ-ray intensity observed for the decay of this 0+ state indicates a lifetime of more than 10 ns. Deduced spectroscopic amplitudes are compared with occupation numbers from shell-model calculations.

0(gs)+ -->2(1)+ transition strengths in 106Sn and 108Sn.

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 gamma rays were detected by the highly segmented MINIBALL Ge-detector array. The results, B(E2;0(gs)+ -->2(1)+)=0.222(19)e2b2 for 108Sn and B(E2; 0(gs)+-->2(1)+)=0.195(39)e2b2 for 106Sn were determined relative to a stable 58Ni target. The resulting B(E2) values are approximately 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.

Interplay between single-particle and collective effects in the odd-A Cu isotopes beyond N=40.

Collective properties of the low-lying levels in the odd-A 67-73Cu were investigated by Coulomb excitation with radioactive beams. The beams were produced at ISOLDE and postaccelerated by REX-ISOLDE up to 2.99 MeV/u. In 67,69Cu, low-lying 1/2(-), 5/2(-), and 7/2(-) states were populated. In 71,73Cu, besides the known transitions deexciting the single-particle-like 5/2(-) and core-coupled 7/2(-) levels, gamma rays of 454 and 135 keV, respectively, were observed for the first time. Based on a reanalysis of beta-decay work and comparison with the systematics, a spin 1/2(-) is suggested for these excited states. Three B(E2) values were determined in each of the four isotopes. The results indicate a significant change in the structure of the odd-A Cu isotopes beyond N=40 where single-particle-like and collective levels are suggested to coexist at very low excitation energies.