Island of Rare Earth Nuclei with Tetrahedral and Octahedral Symmetries: Possible Experimental Evidence

Journal Article · Fri Aug 18 00:00:00 EDT 2006 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.97.072501· OSTI ID:20860689

Dudek, J; Dubray, N; Pangon, V ^[1]; Curien, D ^[2]; Dobaczewski, J; Olbratowski, P ^[3]; Schunck, N ^[4]

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1. Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien IN2P3-CNRS/Universite Louis Pasteur, F-67037 Strasbourg Cedex 2 (France)
2. Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien IN2P3-CNRS, F-67037 Strasbourg Cedex 2 (France)
3. Institute of Theoretical Physics, Warsaw University, Hoza 69, PL-00681 Warsaw (Poland)
4. Departamento de Fisica Teorica, Modulo C-XI, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Cantoblanco 28049 Madrid (Spain)

Calculations using realistic mean-field methods suggest the existence of nuclear shapes with tetrahedral T{sub d} and/or octahedral O{sub h} symmetries sometimes at only a few hundreds of keV above the ground states in some rare earth nuclei around {sup 156}Gd and {sup 160}Yb. The underlying single-particle spectra manifest exotic fourfold rather than Kramers's twofold degeneracies. The associated shell gaps are very strong, leading to a new form of shape coexistence in many rare earth nuclei. We present possible experimental evidence of the new symmetries based on the published experimental results--although an unambiguous confirmation will require dedicated experiments.

• OSTI ID: 20860689
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 97, Issue 7; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.072501; (c) 2006 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
GADOLINIUM 156
GROUND STATES
KEV RANGE 100-1000
MEAN-FIELD THEORY
SYMMETRY
YTTERBIUM 160