학술논문

Evolution of Octupole Deformation in Radium Nuclei from Coulomb Excitation of Radioactive ^{222}Ra and ^{228}Ra Beams
Document Type
Source
Physical Review Letters. 124(4)
Subject
Naturvetenskap
Fysik
Subatomär fysik
Natural Sciences
Physical Sciences
Subatomic Physics
Language
English
ISSN
1079-7114
Abstract
There is sparse direct experimental evidence that atomic nuclei can exhibit stable "pear" shapes arising from strong octupole correlations. In order to investigate the nature of octupole collectivity in radium isotopes, electric octupole (E3) matrix elements have been determined for transitions in ^{222,228}Ra nuclei using the method of sub-barrier, multistep Coulomb excitation. Beams of the radioactive radium isotopes were provided by the HIE-ISOLDE facility at CERN. The observed pattern of E3 matrix elements for different nuclear transitions is explained by describing ^{222}Ra as pear shaped with stable octupole deformation, while ^{228}Ra behaves like an octupole vibrator.