The observed almost complete dominance of prolate over oblate deformations in the ground states of deformed even-even nuclei is related to the splitting of high $\ell$ "surface" orbits in the Nilsson diagram: on the oblate side the occurrence of numerous strongly avoided crossings which reduce the fanning out of the low $Λ$ orbits, while on the prolate side the same interactions increase the fanning out. It is further demonstrated that the prolate dominance is rather special for the restricted particle number of available nuclei and is not generic for finite systems with mean-field potentials resembling those in atomic nuclei.
Using a new approximate analytic parameter-free proxy-SU(3) scheme, we make simple predictions of shape observables for deformed nuclei, namely gamma and beta deformation variables, the global feature of prolate dominance and the locus of the prolate-oblate shape transition. The predictions are compared with empirical results.
Using a new approximate analytic parameter-free proxy-SU(3) scheme, we make simple predictions for the global feature of prolate dominance in deformed nuclei and the locus of the prolate-oblate shape transition and compare these with empirical data.
Using a new approximate analytic parameter-free proxy-SU(3) scheme, simple predictions for the global feature of prolate dominance and for the locus of the prolate-oblate shape transition have been made and compared with empirical data. Emphasis is placed on the mechanism leading to the breaking of the particle-hole symmetry, which is instrumental in shaping up these predictions. It turns out that this mechanism is based on the SU(3) symmetry and the Pauli principle alone, without reference to any specific Hamiltonian.
The origin of the dominance of prolate shapes over oblate ones of the ground states of atomic nuclei is investigated with the Nilsson-Strutinsky method. The number of prolate nuclei among all the deformed even-even nuclei is calculated as a function of the strengths of the spin-orbit and the l^2 terms of the Nilsson potential. The latter simulates a square-well like radial profile of the mean potential. The ratio of prolate nuclei is 86% with the standard strengths corresponding to the actual atomic nuclei. By weakening the spin-orbit potential, the ratio oscillates strongly, having a local mi…
We study the prolate-shape predominance of the nuclear ground-state deformation by calculating the masses of more than two thousand even-even nuclei using the Strutinsky method, modified by Kruppa, and improved by us. The influences of the surface thickness of the single-particle potentials, the strength of the spin-orbit potential, and the pairing correlations are investigated by varying the parameters of the Woods-Saxon potential and the pairing interaction. The strong interference between the effects of the surface thickness and the spin-orbit potential is confirmed to persist for six sets …
A new approach to the old problem of the predominance of prolate deformations among well deformed nuclei is proposed within the shell model framework. The parameter space is explored using the ensemble of random rotationally-invariant interactions. Subsets with rotational energy ratio $E(4^{+})/E(2^{+})$ and the rigid-rotor relation between the quadrupole moment $Q(2^{+})$ and the transition probability $B(E2;2^{+}\to 0^{+}))$ are found exhibiting prolate predominance. We identify matrix elements of the effective forces responsible for the predominance of prolate deformation.
From a viewpoint of oblate-prolate symmetry and its breaking, we adopt the quadrupole collective Hamiltonian to study dynamics of triaxial deformation in shape coexistence phenomena. It accommodates the axially symmetric rotor model, the $γ$-unstable model, the rigid triaxial rotor model and an ideal situation for the oblate-prolate shape coexistence as particular cases. Numerical solutions of this model yield a number of interesting suggestions. (1) The relative energy of the excited 0+ state can be a signature of the potential shape along the $γ$ direction. (2) Specific E2 transition probabi…
By means of the adiabatic self-consistent collective coordinate method and the pairing plus quadrupole interaction, we have obtained the selfconsistent collective path connecting the oblate and prolate local minima in 68Se for the first time. Along the collective path, the triaxial deformation parameter (gamma) changes between 0 and 60 (degree) keeping the axially symmetric deformation parameter (beta) approximately constant, indicating the importance of triaxial deformation dynamics in the oblate-prolate shape coexistence phenomena.
We consider the possibility that a quantum-mechanical off-center effect may be behind the deformed oblate and prolate shapes of nuclei in nuclear physics. In solid state physics, finite off-center displacements result from the mixing of electronic states through their coupling to vibrational (phonon) modes of appropriate symmetries. This is an example of fermion-boson interaction which may materialize in nuclear physics as well in the form of a coupling of nucleons to the pi-meson field. We carry out calculations to substantiate the proposal.
Nuclear shape transition and oblate-prolate coexistence in $N=Z$ nuclei are investigated within the configuration space ($2p_{3/2}$, $1f_{5/2}$, $2p_{1/2}$, and $1g_{9/2}$). We perform shell model calculations for $^{60}$Zn, $^{64}$Ge, and $^{68}$Se and constrained Hartree-Fock (CHF) calculations for $^{60}$Zn, $^{64}$Ge, $^{68}$Se, and $^{72}$Kr, employing an effective pairing plus quadrupole residual interaction with monopole interactions. The shell model calculations reproduce well the experimental energy levels of these nuclei. From the analysis of potential energy surface in the CHF calcu…
We analyze the ability of the three different Liquid Drop Mass (LDM) formulas to describe nuclear masses for nuclei in various deformation regions. Separating the 2149 measured nuclear species in eight sets with similar quadrupole deformations, we show that the masses of prolate deformed nuclei are better described than those of spherical ones. In fact, the prolate deformed nuclei are fitted with an RMS smaller than 750 keV, while for spherical and semi-magic species the RMS is always larger than 2000 keV. These results are found to be independent of pairing. The macroscopic sector of the Dufl…
By means of the adiabatic self-consistent collective coordinate method and the pairing-plus-quadrupole interaction, we have obtained the self-consistent collective path connecting the oblate and prolate local minima in 68Se and 72Kr for the first time. The self-consistent collective path is found to run approximately along the valley connecting the oblate and prolate local minima in the collective potential energy landscape. This result of calculation clearly indicates the importance of triaxial deformation dynamics in oblate-prolate shape coexistence phenomena.
The shape of a nucleus is one of fundamental nuclear properties. We perform a systematic investigation of bubble nuclei that also exhibit shape coexistence in Hf, W, Os, Pt and Hg even-even isotopes using the deformed relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov theory in continuum. For a systematic study, we first consider nuclear bubble structures and shape coexistence separately. We confirm that deformations and pairing correlations hinder bubble structures by comparing our results with those from relativistic continuum Hartree-Bogoliubov theory that assumes spherical symmetry in nuclei. We then predict…
We show that the Liquid Drop Model is best suited to describe the masses of prolate deformed nuclei than of spherical nuclei. To this end three Liquid Drop Mass formulas are employed to describe nuclear masses of eight sets of nuclei with similar quadrupole deformations. It is shown that they are able to fit the measured masses of prolate deformed nuclei with an RMS smaller than 750 keV, while for the spherical nuclei the RMS is, in the three cases, larger than 2000 keV. The RMS of the best fit of the masses of semi-magic nuclei is also larger than 2000 keV. The parameters of the three models …
Classical periodic orbits responsible for emergence of the superdeformed shell structures for single-particle motions in spheroidal cavities are identified and their relative contributions to the shell structures are evaluated. Both prolate and oblate superdeformations (axis ratio about 2:1) as well as prolate hyperdeformation (axis ratio about 3:1) are investigated. Fourier transforms of quantum spectra clearly show that three-dimensional periodic orbits born out of bifurcations of planar orbits in the equatorial plane become predominant at large prolate deformations, while butterfly-shaped p…
The effect of nuclear deformation on the isoscalar toroidal and compression dipole modes in prolate $^{170}$Yb is studied in the framework of the random-phase-approximation method with a representative set of Skyrme forces (SV-bas, SLy6, SkM$^*$ and SkI3). It is shown that the deformation crucially redistributes the strength of both modes. The compression mode has the same sequence of $μ$=0 and 1 branches as the isovector giant dipole resonance where for prolate nuclei the $μ=0$ mode is lower in energy ($μ$ being the projection of the axial momentum of the mode). Instead, the toroidal mode exh…
Prolate-oblate shape competition and impact on charge radii in Bk isotopes
School of Physics, Zhengzhou University（郑州大学物理学院）；State Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Technology, School of Physics, Peking University（北京大学物理学院核物理与核技术国家重点实验室）
The oblate-prolate shape coexisting/mixing phenomena in proton-rich 68,70,72Se are investigated by means of the adiabatic self-consistent collective coordinate (ASCC) method. The one-dimensional collective path and the collective Hamiltonian describing the large-amplitude shape vibration are derived in a fully microscopic way. The excitation spectra, B(E2) and spectroscopic quadrupole moments are calculated by requantizing the collective Hamiltonian and solving the collective Schroedinger equation. The basic properties of the coexisting two rotational bands in low-lying states of these nuclei …
The consequences of the short range nature of the nucleon-nucleon interaction, which forces the spatial part of the nuclear wave function to be as symmetric as possible, on the pseudo-SU(3) scheme are examined through a study of the collective deformation parameters beta and gamma in the rare earth region. It turns out that beyond the middle of each harmonic oscillator shell possessing an SU(3) subalgebra, the highest weight irreducible representation (the hw irrep) of SU(3) has to be used, instead of the irrep with the highest eigenvalue of the second order Casimir operator of SU(3) (the hC i…
Shapes of light normal nuclei and $Λ$-hypernuclei are investigated using relativistic mean field approach. The FSUGold parametrization is used for this purpose. The addition of a $Λ$ is found to change the shape of the energy surface towards prolate. The deformation in a $Λ$-hypernucleus, when the hyperon is in the first excited state, is also discussed. The effect of the inclusion of the hyperon on the nuclear radius is generally small with one exception.
The effect of an axially symmetric hexadecapole term is investigated in a strongly deformed quadrupole potential. While the system is nonintegrable and shows significant chaotic behaviour classically, the quantum mechanical treatment not only produces a general smoothing effect with regard to chaos but even yields a pronounced shell structure at certain hexadecapole strength parameter values for oblate and prolate deformation.
We study the breathing oscillations in bose-fermi mixtures in the axially-symmetric deformed trap of prolate, spherical and oblate shapes, and clarify the deformation dependence of the frequencies and the characteristics of collective oscillations. The collective oscillations of the mixtures in deformed traps are calculated in the scaling method. In largely-deformed prolate and oblate limits and spherical limit, we obtain the analytical expressions of the collective frequencies. The full calculation shows that the collective oscillations become consistent with the analytically-obtained frequen…
Deformed shell structures in nuclear mean-field potentials are systematically investigated as functions of deformation and surface diffuseness. As the mean-field model to investigate nuclear shell structures in a wide range of mass numbers, we propose the radial power-law potential model, V \propto r^α, which enables a simple semiclassical analysis by the use of its scaling property. We find that remarkable shell structures emerge at certain combinations of deformation and diffuseness parameters, and they are closely related to the periodic-orbit bifurcations. In particular, significant roles …
Initial eccentricity of the interacting volume of QCD matter created in collisions of prolate and oblate nuclei is studied using optical Glauber simulation. Collisions of prolate 165-Ho + 165-Ho nuclei and Au+Au nuclei are investigated (assuming oblate ground-state deformation for 197-Au nucleus). Qualitative predictions are obtained for RHIC energies.
We study static non-axial octupole deformations in proton-rich $Z=N$ nuclei, $^{64}$Ge, $^{68}$Se, $^{72}$Kr, $^{76}$Sr, $^{80}$Zr and $^{84}$Mo, by using the Skyrme Hartree-Fock plus BCS calculation with no restrictions on the nuclear shape. The calculation predicts that the oblate ground state in $^{68}$Se is extremely soft for the $Y_{33}$ triangular deformation, and that in $^{80}$Zr the low-lying local minimum state coexisting with the prolate ground state has the $Y_{32}$ tetrahedral deformation.
A systematic study of the ground-state properties of even-even rare earth nuclei has been performed in the framework of the Relativistic Mean-Field (RMF) theory using the parameter set NL-SH. Nuclear radii, isotope shifts and deformation properties of the heavier rare-earth nuclei have been obtained, which encompass atomic numbers ranging from Z=60 to Z=70 and include a large range of isospin. It is shown that RMF theory is able to provide a good and comprehensive description of the empirical binding energies of the isotopic chains. At the same time the quadrupole deformations $β_{2}$ obtained…
The evolution of shapes and low-energy shape coexistence is analyzed in neutron-deficient Nd and Sm nuclei, using a five-dimensional quadrupole collective Hamiltonian (5DCH). Deformation energy surfaces, calculated with the relativistic energy density functional PC-PK1 and a separable finite-range pairing interaction, exhibit a transition from spherical shapes near $N=80$, to $γ-$soft shapes, and to prolate deformed minima in lighter isotopes. The corresponding 5DCH model calculation, based on the self-consistent mean-field potentials, reproduces the empirical isotopic trend of characteristic …
This article contains a discussion in which we showed that observation of splitting in the energy levels of prolate nuclei, is possible. Similar effects is atomic physics is known as Zeeman effect which is well-known, but in nuclear physics such topic has not been discussed and mentioned if it is possible or is not. In this article, after introducing deformation in commutation relation in three dimensional, these relations has been used in X(3) model. After enough derivation, we evaluate energy spectrum relation for considered system which has splitting. Because of considerations during the de…
The deformations of multi-$\la$ hypernuclei corresponding to even-even core nuclei ranging from $^8$Be to $^{40}$Ca with 2, 4, 6, and 8 hyperons are studied in the framework of the deformed Skyrme-Hartree-Fock approach. It is found that the deformations are reduced when adding 2 or 8 $\la$ hyperons, but enhanced when adding 4 or 6 $\la$ hyperons. These differences are attributed to the fact that $\la$ hyperons are filled gradually into the three deformed $p$ orbits, of which the [110]1/2$^-$ orbit is prolately deformed and the degenerate [101]1/2$^-$ and [101]3/2$^-$ orbits are oblately deform…
Elastic electron scattering from oriented odd-Aaxially deformed nuclei is studied in the plane-wave Born approximation. The nuclear structure is described within a microscopic selfconsistent Skyrme deformed Hartree-Fock approximation with pairing correlations. The interference form factors between monopole and quadrupole Coulomb terms that characterize the nuclear response with aligned nuclear targets are shown to increase or decrease the unpolarized cross-section, depending on the sign of the quadrupole deformation. This feature provides valuable information on the nuclear deformation that ca…
Systematic analysis of deformations in neutron-rich N=14 isotones was done based on the method of antisymmetrized molecular dynamics. The property of the shape coexistence in $^{28}$Si, which is known to have the oblate ground state and the prolate excited states, was successfully described. The results suggest that the shape coexistence may occur also in neutron-rich N=14 nuclei as well as $^{28}$Si. It was found that the oblate neutron shapes are favored because of the spin-orbit force in most of N=14 isotones. $Q$ moments and $E2$ transition strengths in the neutron-rich nuclei were discuss…
Temperature dependent relativistic mean-field (RMF) plus BCS approach has been used for the first time to investigate the anti-bubble effect of the temperature and deformation in the light, medium-heavy and superheavy nuclei. Influence of temperature is studied on density distribution, charge form-factor, single particle (s.p.) energies, occupancy, deformation and the depletion fraction (DF). At T $=$ 0, the quenching effect of deformation is predominant. DF is found usually less in oblate deformation than in prolate. DF decreases with increasing prolate deformation even though the 2s-orbit is…
The Deformation Dependent Mass (DDM) Kratzer model is constructed by considering the Kratzer potential in a Bohr Hamiltonian, in which the mass is allowed to depend on the nuclear deformation, and solving it by using techniques of supersymmetric quantum mechanics (SUSYQM), involving a deformed shape invariance condition. Analytical expressions for spectra and wave functions are derived for separable potentials in the cases of gamma-unstable nuclei, axially symmetric prolate deformed nuclei, and triaxial nuclei, implementing the usual approximations in each case. Spectra and B(E2) transition ra…
The structure of heavy nuclei is difficult to disentangle in high-energy heavy-ion collisions. The deep convolution neural network (DCNN) might be helpful in mapping the complex final states of heavy-ion collisions to the nuclear structure in the initial state. Using DCNN for supervised regression, we successfully extracted the magnitude of the nuclear deformation from event-by-event correlation between the momentum anisotropy or elliptic flow ($v_2$) and total number of charged hadrons ($dN_{\rm ch}/dη$) within a Monte Carlo model. Furthermore, a degeneracy is found in the correlation between…
By performing fully 3D symmetry-unrestricted Skyrme-Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov calculations, we discuss shape coexistence and possibility of exotic deformations simultaneously breaking the reflection and axial symmetries in proton-rich N=Z nuclei: 64Ge, 68Se, 72Kr, 76Sr, 80Zr and 84Mo. Results of calculation indicate that the oblate ground state of 68Se is extremely soft against the Y33 triangular deformation, and that the low-lying spherical minimum coexisting with the prolate ground state in 80Zr may be unstable against the Y32 tetrahedral deformation.
We use the relativistic mean field (RMF) theory to systematically study the change of deformation of even-even nuclei in the proton-rich Xe region. We investigate the appearance of triaxial deformation in 25 nuclei in the region covering Z=50-58 and N=64-72 by performing constrained, triaxially symmetric RMF calculations of their energy surfaces. We include pairing correlations using the BCS formalism. We find that the Sn isotopes are spherical and the Te isotopes are very gamma unstable with shallow minima around gamma = 60 degrees. Adding more protons, the Xe, Ba and Ce isotopes have prolate…
The properties of nuclei in the ``island of inversion'' (IOI) around Z=10 and N=20 are the focus of current nuclear physics research. Recent studies showed that $^{28}$F has a negative-parity ground state (g.s.) and thus lies within the southern shore of the IOI, and $^{29}$F presents a halo structure in its g.s., but it is unclear which effects, such as deformation, shell evolution due to tensor forces, or couplings to the continuum, lead to this situation. We investigate the role of quadrupole deformation and continuum effects on the single-particle (s.p.) structure of $^{28,29,31}$F from a …
Up to now, all charge radius measurements of the proton and deuteron assumed uniform spheroidal charge distribution. We investigate the nuclear deformation effects on these charge radius measurements by assuming a uniform prolate charge distribution for the proton and deuteron. We solve the energy levels of the corresponding muonic and electric atoms with such deformed nucleus and present how the purely quadruple deformation of proton and deuteron affects their Lamb shifts. The numerical results suggest that the deformation of proton and deuteron leads to that the charge radius extracted from …
We study weakly-bound deformed nuclei based on the coordinate-space Skyrme Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov approach, in which a large box is employed for treating the continuum and surface diffuseness. Approaching the limit of core-halo deformation decoupling, calculations found an exotic "egg"-like structure consisting of a spherical core plus a prolate halo in $^{38}$Ne, in which the resonant continuum plays an essential role. Generally the halo probability and the decoupling effect in heavy nuclei are reduced compared to light nuclei, due to denser level densities around Fermi surfaces. However, de…
We investigate the prolate-to-oblate shape phase transitions in the neutron-rich Pt, Os and Ir nuclei in the mass $A\approx 190$ region. The Hamiltonian of the interacting boson-fermion model, used to describe the odd-mass $^{185-199}$Pt, $^{185-193}$Os and $^{185-195}$Ir isotopes, is partially constructed by using as a microscopic input the results of constrained self-consistent mean-field calculations within the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov method with the Gogny force. The remaining few parameters are adjusted to experimental data in the odd systems. In this way the calculations reasonably descri…
E2 transitions in Si-30 are investigated in relation with intrinsic deformations based on a method of antisymmetrized molecular dynamics. By comparing E2 transition strengths in the mirror nuclei Si-30 and S-30, transition matrix amplitudes M_p and M_n for protons and neutrons are discussed in mirror analysis. Particular attention is paid to the M_n/M_p ratio in the transition from the 2^+_2 state to the 0^+_1 state. The M_n/M_p ratio in Mg-26 and Si-26 is also investigated. It is found that the proton dominance in the transition 2^+_2 -> 0^+_1 in Si-30 and Si-26 originates in the oblate trend…
We investigate the ground state properties of $^{22}$C by using a deformed relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov model in continuum and explore the interplays among the formation of a halo, deformation effects, the inversion of $sd$ states, the shell evolution, and changes of nuclear magicities. It is revealed that there is an inversion between the two spherical orbitals $2s_{1/2}$ and $1d_{5/2}$ in $^{22}$C compared with the conventional single particle shell structure in stable nuclei. This inversion, together with deformation effects, results in a shrunk halo and a quenched shell gap at $N=16$. I…
The properties of $γ$ instability in rapidly rotating even-even $^{132-138}$Nd isotopes have been investigated using the pairing-deformation self-consistent total-Routhian-surface calculations in a deformation space of ($β_2, γ, β_4$). It is found that even-even $^{134-138}$Nd nuclei exhibit the triaxiality in both ground and excited states, even up to high-spin ones. The lightest isotope possesses a well-deformed prolate shape without $γ$ deformation component. The current numerical results are compared with previous calculations and available observables, showing basically a general agreemen…
Recently, a variant of the Bohr Hamiltonian was proposed where the mass term is allowed to depend on the beta variable of nuclear deformation. Analytic solutions of this modified Hamiltonian have been obtained using the Davidson and the Kratzer potentials, by employing techniques from supersymmetric quantum mechanics. Apart from the new set of analytic solutions, the newly introduced Deformation-Dependent Mass (DDM) model offered a remedy to the problematic behaviour of the moment of inertia in the Bohr Hamiltonian, where it appears to increase proportionally to the square of beta. In the DDM …
Effect of deformation on half-life of two-proton (2p) radioactivity is investigated across the periodic chart for nuclei with Z$<$82. 2p-decay half-lives are estimated by employing our newly proposed semi-empirical formula wherein the nuclear deformation has been incorporated in a phenomenological way. Robustness of the formula is demonstrated as it estimates the measured values quite accurately and, hence, reliably applied to predict the other possible 2p-emitters. For many proton rich nuclei for which experimental data on the decay energies are not available, we have used the theoretical val…
The deformation energy of the even-even nuclei of the Cerium isotopic chain is investigated by means of the Macroscopic-Microscopic method with a semi-classical shell correction. We consider axially symmetric shapes. Binding energy and two neutron separation energy are also evaluated. For the sake of clarity several important details of the calculations are also given. It turns out that all these nuclei have prolate equilibrium shape. The regions of maximum deformation are obtained around N=64 and N=102. There is no critical-point of quantum phase transition in this isotopic chain.
In heavy ion collisions, elliptic flow $v_2$ and radial flow, characterized by event-wise average transverse momentum $[p_{\mathrm{T}}]$, are related to the shape and size of the overlap region, which are sensitive to the shape of colliding atomic nuclei. The Pearson correlation coefficient between $v_2$ and $[p_{\mathrm{T}}]$, $ρ_2$, was found to be particularly sensitive to the quadrupole deformation parameter $β$ that is traditionally measured in low energy experiments. Built on earlier insight that the prolate deformation $β>0$ reduces the $ρ_2$ in ultra-central collisions (UCC), we show t…
Semiclassical periodic-orbit theory (POT) is applied to the physics of nuclear structures, with the use of a realistic nuclear mean-field model given by the radial power-law potential. Evolution of deformed shell structures, which are responsible for various nuclear deformations, are clearly understood from the contribution of short classical periodic orbits (POs). Bifurcations of short POs, which imply underlying local dynamical symmetry, play significant role there. The effect of the spin degree of freedom is also investigated in relevance to the pseudospin symmetry in spherical nuclei and t…
It is argued that there exist natural shell model spaces optimally adapted to the operation of two variants of Elliott' SU3 symmetry that provide accurate predictions of quadrupole moments of deformed states. A selfconsistent Nilsson-like calculation describes the competition between the realistic quadrupole force and the central field, indicating a {\em remarkable stability of the quadruplole moments}---which remain close to their quasi and pseudo SU3 values---as the single particle splittings increase. A detailed study of the $N=Z$ even nuclei from $^{56}$Ni to $^{96}$Cd reveals that the reg…
