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Physics of low and intermediate spin states of atomic nuclei in the mass A ~ 160 region

The nuclear landscape provides possibly the richest set of data that can be collected for quantum systems, displaying many varying features. The lack of a complete nuclear theory has resulted in a fragmentation of the theories used to describe isolated sections of observables in the landscape of nuc...

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Main Author: Stankiewicz, Maciej Andrzej
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Physics 2016
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access_status_str Open Access
author Stankiewicz, Maciej Andrzej
author_browse Stankiewicz, Maciej Andrzej
author_facet Stankiewicz, Maciej Andrzej
author_sort Stankiewicz, Maciej Andrzej
collection Thesis
description The nuclear landscape provides possibly the richest set of data that can be collected for quantum systems, displaying many varying features. The lack of a complete nuclear theory has resulted in a fragmentation of the theories used to describe isolated sections of observables in the landscape of nuclear excitations. A recent model proposed that a tetrahedral deformation could explain observed low-lying, negative parity bands characterized by a lack of in-band electromagnetic transitions. For this work, experimental data has been collected specifically to quantify the intensities of the "missing" in-band transitions for several nuclei in the mass 160 region (156 68Er, 160 68Er and 158 66Dy). While these in-band transitions appear suppressed, it was possible to not only observe some of these transitions, but to quantify the suppression, which indicate a consistency within the band structure between low and medium spin states. An order of magnitude difference was observed in the B(E2)/B(E1) branching ratios between the odd-spin and the even-spin octupole vibrational bands in ¹⁵⁸Dy and ¹⁶⁰Er. This difference is consistent with that reported in other nuclei in the region, which is indicative of some shared reason for this behaviour. The theoretical aspect of this work tries to explain the observed anomalies in terms of the Random Phase Approximation model. Results of calculations suggest that in the intrinsic frame, the negative signature collective modes will have significantly stronger absolute B(E1) rates than the positive signature band partners. By considering a quadrupole deformation of these vibrational states as consistent with the ground state band, the B(E2) rates can be estimated, and the theoretical value for the B(E2)/B(E1) branching ratio is shown to be qualitatively consistent with experimental observations. From this we conclude that the negative parity vibrational bands in the mass 160 region are likely low-K octupole bands, and not tetrahedrally deformed structures.
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id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/22336
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:32:27.580Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2016
publishDateRange 2016
publishDateSort 2016
publisher Department of Physics
publisherStr Department of Physics
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source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/22336 Physics of low and intermediate spin states of atomic nuclei in the mass A ~ 160 region Stankiewicz, Maciej Andrzej Physics The nuclear landscape provides possibly the richest set of data that can be collected for quantum systems, displaying many varying features. The lack of a complete nuclear theory has resulted in a fragmentation of the theories used to describe isolated sections of observables in the landscape of nuclear excitations. A recent model proposed that a tetrahedral deformation could explain observed low-lying, negative parity bands characterized by a lack of in-band electromagnetic transitions. For this work, experimental data has been collected specifically to quantify the intensities of the "missing" in-band transitions for several nuclei in the mass 160 region (156 68Er, 160 68Er and 158 66Dy). While these in-band transitions appear suppressed, it was possible to not only observe some of these transitions, but to quantify the suppression, which indicate a consistency within the band structure between low and medium spin states. An order of magnitude difference was observed in the B(E2)/B(E1) branching ratios between the odd-spin and the even-spin octupole vibrational bands in ¹⁵⁸Dy and ¹⁶⁰Er. This difference is consistent with that reported in other nuclei in the region, which is indicative of some shared reason for this behaviour. The theoretical aspect of this work tries to explain the observed anomalies in terms of the Random Phase Approximation model. Results of calculations suggest that in the intrinsic frame, the negative signature collective modes will have significantly stronger absolute B(E1) rates than the positive signature band partners. By considering a quadrupole deformation of these vibrational states as consistent with the ground state band, the B(E2) rates can be estimated, and the theoretical value for the B(E2)/B(E1) branching ratio is shown to be qualitatively consistent with experimental observations. From this we conclude that the negative parity vibrational bands in the mass 160 region are likely low-K octupole bands, and not tetrahedrally deformed structures. 2016-10-27T14:26:12Z 2016-10-27T14:26:12Z 2013 Doctoral Thesis Doctoral PhD http://hdl.handle.net/11427/22336 eng application/pdf Department of Physics Faculty of Science University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Physics
Stankiewicz, Maciej Andrzej
Physics of low and intermediate spin states of atomic nuclei in the mass A ~ 160 region
thesis_degree_str Doctoral
title Physics of low and intermediate spin states of atomic nuclei in the mass A ~ 160 region
title_full Physics of low and intermediate spin states of atomic nuclei in the mass A ~ 160 region
title_fullStr Physics of low and intermediate spin states of atomic nuclei in the mass A ~ 160 region
title_full_unstemmed Physics of low and intermediate spin states of atomic nuclei in the mass A ~ 160 region
title_short Physics of low and intermediate spin states of atomic nuclei in the mass A ~ 160 region
title_sort physics of low and intermediate spin states of atomic nuclei in the mass a 160 region
topic Physics
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/22336
work_keys_str_mv AT stankiewiczmaciejandrzej physicsoflowandintermediatespinstatesofatomicnucleiinthemassa160region