Nuclear ground-state masses and deformations: FRDM(2012)

Single-particle energies, wave functions, quadrupole moments and g-factors in an axially deformed woods-saxon potential with applications to the two-centre-type nuclear problems

The experimental and theoretical evidence for intrinsic reflection-asymmetric shapes in nuclei is reviewed. The theoretical methods discussed cover a wide spectrum, from mean-field theory and its extensions to algebraic and cluster approaches. The experimental data for nuclear ground states and at low and high spin, cited as evidence for reflection asymmetry, are collected and categorized. The extensive data on electric dipole transition moments and their theoretical interpretation are surveyed, along with available data on electric octupole moments. The evidence for reflection-asymmetric molecular states in light nuclei is summarized. The application of reflection-asymmetric theories to descriptions of the fission barrier, bimodal fission, superdeformation, and hyperdeformations is reviewed, and some other perspectives in the wider context of nuclear physics are also given. [S0034-6861(96)00102-X]

Intrinsic reflection asymmetry in atomic nuclei

Nuclear masses from a unified macroscopic-microscopic model

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 220Rn and 224Ra 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. An experimental study of certain short-lived isotopes of radon and radium has found clear octupole deformation in the nuclei of the latter — that is, these nuclei are pear-shaped; the results enable discrimination between differing theoretical approaches to octupole correlations. The atomic nucleus is a many-body quantum system with a shape determined by the number of nucleons that it contains and the interactions between them. Most of the several thousand known stable and radioactive atomic nuclei, with differing numbers of protons and neutrons, are spherical or rugby-ball shaped. But there is circumstantial evidence that some heavy, unstable nuclides are distorted into a pear shape through the phenomenon of octupole deformation. Samples of these rare atomic species can be accelerated to 8% of the speed of light in the REX-ISOLDE facility at CERN, and now Coulomb excitation experiments on beams of the short-lived isotopes radium-224 and radon-220 have demonstrated clear octupole deformation in the former. The results make it possible to discriminate between the various theoretical models of octupole-deformed nuclei, and are also relevant to the pursuit of physics beyond the Standard Model.

/pdf/studies-of-pear-shaped-nuclei-using-accelerated-radioactive-3u58wl8m3a.pdf

Ga Leander

Papers

Analysis of octupole instability in medium-mass and heavy nuclei