Isospin breaking in the ${}^{71}$Kr and ${}^{71}$Br mirror system

Abstract

Isospin symmetry is a fundamental concept in nuclear physics. Even though isospin symmetry is partially broken, it holds approximately for most nuclear systems, which makes exceptions very interesting from the nuclear structure perspective. In this framework, it is expected that the spins and parities of the ground states of mirror nuclei should be the same, in particular for the simplest systems where a proton is exchanged with a neutron or vice versa. In this work, we present evidence that this assumption is broken in the mirror pair ${}^{71}$Br and ${}^{71}$Kr system. Our conclusions are based on a high-statistics ${\hat{I}}^2$ decay study of ${}^{71}$Kr and on state-of-the-art shell model calculations. In our work, we also found evidence of a new state in ${}^{70}$Se, populated in the ${\hat{I}}^2$-delayed proton emission process which can be interpreted as the long sought coexisting 0${}^{+}$ state.

8 pages with references, 3 figures. Supplemental material 4 pages (1 table, 3 figures)