Discovery of a new isomeric state in ${}^{68}$Ni: Evidence for a highly-deformed proton intruder state

Abstract

We report on the observation of a new isomeric state in ${}^{68}$Ni. We suggest that the newly observed state at 168(1) keV above the first 2${}^{+}$ state is a $\pi (2p-2h)$ 0${}^{+}$ state across the major Z=28 shell gap. Comparison with theoretical calculations indicates a pure proton intruder configuration and the deduced low-lying structure of this key nucleus suggests a possible shape coexistence scenario involving a highly deformed state.

5 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review C

References in corpus (2)

• Role of deformation on giant resonances within the QRPA approach and the Gogny force
• Shape Isomerism at N = 40: Discovery of a Proton Intruder in 67Co

Cited by in corpus (5)

• The Neutron-Rich Edge of the Nuclear Landscape. Experiment and Theory
• Shape coexistence in even-even nuclei: A theoretical overview
• Global analysis of quadrupole shape invariants based on covariant energy density functionals
• Shell-model based study of the direct capture in neutron-rich nuclei
• Fast trajectory reconstruction techniques for the large acceptance magnetic spectrometer VAMOS++