Pairing and nonaxial-shape correlations in $N=150$ isotones

Abstract

Background: The $K^{\pi }=2^{-}$ excited band emerges systematically in $N=150$ isotones raging from Pu to No with even-$Z$ numbers, and a sharp drop in energies was observed in Cf. Purpose: I attempt to uncover the microscopic mechanism for the appearance of such a low-energy $2^{-}$ state in ${}^{248}$Cf. Furthermore, I investigate the possible occurrence of the low-energy $K^{\pi }=2^{+}$ state to elucidate the mechanism that prefers the simultaneous breaking of the reflection and axial symmetry to the breaking of the axial symmetry alone in this mass region. Method: I employ a nuclear EDF method: the Skyrme-Kohn-Sham-Bogoliubov and the quasiparticle random-phase approximation are used to describe the ground state and the transition to excited states. Results: The Skyrme-type SkM* and SLy4 functionals reproduce the fall in energy, but not the absolute value, of the $K^{\pi }=2^{-}$ state at $Z=98$, where the proton 2qp excitation $[633]7/2\otimes [521]3/2$ plays a decisive role for the peculiar isotonic dependence. I find interweaving roles by the pairing correlation of protons and the deformed shell closure at $Z=98$. The SkM* model predicts the $K^{\pi }=2^{-}$ state appears lower in energy in ${}^{246}$Cf than in ${}^{248}$Cf as the Fermi level of neutrons is located in between the $[622]5/2$ and $[734]9/2$ orbitals. Except for ${}^{250}$Fm in the SkM* calculation, the $K^{\pi }=2^{+}$ state is predicted to appear higher in energy than the $K^{\pi }=2^{-}$ state because the quasi-proton $[521]1/2$ orbital is located above the $[633]7/2$ orbital. Conclusions: A systematic study of low-lying collective states in heavy actinide nuclei provides a rigorous testing ground for microscopic nuclear models. The present study shows a need for improvements in the EDFs to describe pairing correlations and shell structures in heavy nuclei, that are indispensable in predicting the heaviest nuclei.

References in corpus (9)

• Nonaxial-octupole Y_{32} correlations in N = 150 isotones from multidimensional constrained covariant density functional theories
• Dipole responses in Nd and Sm isotopes with shape transitions
• Nonaxial-octupole effect in superheavy nuclei
• Pairing and continuum effects on low-frequency quadrupole vibrations in deformed Mg isotopes close to the neutron drip line
• Low-frequency $K^{\pi }=0^{+}$ modes in deformed neutron-rich nuclei: Pairing- and $\beta$-vibrational modes of neutron
• Self-consistent description of nuclear photoabsorption cross sections
• Dynamic Pairing Effects on Low-Frequency Modes of Excitation in Deformed Mg Isotopes close to the Neutron Drip Line
• Charge-exchange dipole excitations in deformed nuclei
• Enhanced collectivity of gamma vibration in neutron-rich Dy isotopes with N=108 - 110

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Nucleosynthesis and observation of the heaviest elements
• Isovector spin susceptibility: Isotopic evolution of collectivity in spin response
• Isovector giant monopole and quadrupole resonances in a Skyrme energy density functional approach with axial symmetry