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Microscopic analysis of spherical to γ-soft shape transitions in Zn isotopes

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Abstract

The rapid transition between spherical and γ-soft shapes in Zn isotopes in the mass A ⩽ 70 region, is analyzed using excitation spectra and collective wave functions obtained by diagonalization of a five-dimensional Hamiltonian for quadrupole vibrational and rotational degrees of freedom, with parameters determined by constrained self-consistent relativistic mean-field calculations for triaxial shapes. The microscopic potential energy surfaces, together with the characteristic collective observables, illustrate a rapid transition from near spherical shape at the N = 40 subshell, to γ-soft deformed shapes for lighter isotopes. The calculated spectra display fingerprints of a second-order shape phase transition that can be approximately described by the E(5) analytic solution.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Physics and Nuclear Energy Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, 100191, China

    ChunYan Song & Jie Meng

  2. School of Physical Science and Technology, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, China

    ZhiPan Li

  3. State Key Laboratory for Nuclear Physics and Technology, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    ChunYan Song, ZhiPan Li & Jie Meng

  4. Physics Department, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, 10000, Zagreb, Croatia

    Dario Vretenar

  5. Department of Physics, University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch, South Africa

    Jie Meng

Authors
  1. ChunYan Song
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  2. ZhiPan Li
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  3. Dario Vretenar
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  4. Jie Meng
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Correspondence to Jie Meng.

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Song, C., Li, Z., Vretenar, D. et al. Microscopic analysis of spherical to γ-soft shape transitions in Zn isotopes. Sci. China Phys. Mech. Astron. 54, 222–226 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11433-010-4219-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11433-010-4219-3

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