Signatures of shape phase transitions in odd-mass nuclei

Abstract

Quantum phase transitions between competing ground-state shapes of atomic nuclei with an odd number of protons or neutrons are investigated in a microscopic framework based on nuclear energy density functional theory and the particle-plus-boson-core coupling scheme. The boson-core Hamiltonian, as well as the single-particle energies and occupation probabilities of the unpaired nucleon, are completely determined by constrained self-consistent mean-field calculations for a specific choice of the energy density functional and paring interaction, and only the strength parameters of the particle-core coupling are adjusted to reproduce selected spectroscopic properties of the odd-mass system. We apply this method to odd-A Eu and Sm isotopes with neutron number $N\approx 90$, and explore the influence of the single unpaired fermion on the occurrence of a shape phase transition. Collective wave functions of low-energy states are used to compute quantities that can be related to quantum order parameters: deformations, excitation energies, E2 transition rates and separation energies, and their evolution with the control parameter (neutron number) is analysed.

15 pages, 13 figures; Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. C

References in corpus (3)

• Relativistic Nuclear Energy Density Functionals: adjusting parameters to binding energies
• Microscopic description of nuclear quantum phase transitions
• Search for Intrinsic Excitations in 152Sm

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Shape transitions in odd-mass $\gamma$-soft nuclei within the interacting boson-fermion model based on the Gogny energy density functional
• Mixed configurations and intertwined quantum phase transitions in odd-mass nuclei
• Microscopic description of quadrupole-hexadecapole coupling in radium, thorium, uranium and plutonium isotopes with the Gogny energy density functional
• Mapped interacting boson model for nuclear structure studies
• Microscopic formulation of the interacting boson-fermion model using the nuclear energy density functional