nuclear theory

Intruder-driven mirror energy differences between Cl and Mg studied with antisymmetrized molecular dynamics

arXiv:2607.26546

summary

The paper uses antisymmetrized molecular dynamics to study low‑lying states of the mirror nuclei ⁽²⁹⁾Cl and ⁽²⁹⁾Mg, predicting spin‑parity assignments and explaining large mirror energy differences in intruder states due to deformation and extended proton distributions.

Abstract

To clarify the mirror energy differences (MEDs) of the proton-unbound nucleus Cl and their microscopic origins, we investigate the low-lying states of the Cl-Mg mirror pair using antisymmetrized molecular dynamics. The calculation reasonably reproduces the normal and intruder states of Mg, while suggesting alternative spin-parity assignments for Cl. The and states are predicted to form a nearly degenerate ground-state doublet with a small MED because of their similar intrinsic structures. In contrast, the and intruder states exhibit large negative MEDs and are assigned to the observed resonances at approximately 500~keV and 1.1~MeV, respectively. Their large MEDs originate from the reduced Coulomb energies associated with the stronger deformation and spatially extended proton distributions in the intruder configurations.

6 pages, 3 figures

Topics & keywords

#mirror nuclei#energy differences#intruder states#antisymmetrized molecular dynamics#nuclear deformationmirror energy differencesintruder configurationsCoulomb energyproton‑unbound nucleusspin‑parity assignment