High-$K$ isomers as probes of octupole collectivity in heavy nuclei

When?

Tuesday 22 February 2011, 14.00 to 15.00

Where?

30 BB 03 Physics Seminar Room

Open to:

Students, Staff

Speaker:

Nikolay Minkov, Institute of Nuclear Research and Nuclear Energy, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

The influence of the octupole deformation on the structure of high-$K$ isomeric states in the region of heavy even-even actinide nuclei is studied [1] through a reflection asymmetric deformed shell model (DSM). Two-quasiparticle states with high-$K$ values are constructed by taking into account the pairing effect through a DSM+BCS procedure with constant pairing interaction. The behaviour of two-quasiparticle energies and magnetic dipole moments of $K^{\pi}=6^+$, 6$^-$ and 8$^-$ configurations, applicable to mass numbers in the range $A=234-252$, was examined over a wide range of quadrupole and octupole deformations.

A pronounced sensitivity of the magnetic moments to the octupole deformation is found. The result suggests a possibly important role for high-$K$ isomers in determining the degree of octupole deformation in heavy actinide nuclei.

[1] P. M. Walker and N. Minkov, ``High-$K$ isomers as probes of octupole collectivity in heavy nuclei'', Phys. Lett. B {\bf 694}, 119, 122 (2010)