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arXiv · 2303.10928

Origin of octupole deformation softness in atomic nuclei

Abstract

Recent high-energy heavy ion collision experiments have revealed that some atomic nuclei exhibit unusual softness and significant shape fluctuations. In this work, we use the fully self-consistent mean-field theory to identify all even-even nuclei that are unstable or soft against octupole deformation. All exceptional cases of enhanced octupole transition strengths in stable even-even nuclei throughout the nuclide chart are resolved and the origin is found in basic shell structure. The presence of atomic nuclei exhibiting significant softness to quadrupole-octupole deformation is suggested. These results represent a significant advance in our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of nuclear octupole deformation and have implications for further experimental and theoretical studies.

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Minh-Loc Bui, Le-Anh Nguyen, Panagiota Papakonstantinou, Naftali Auerbach. 2023-07-25. Origin of octupole deformation softness in atomic nuclei. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevc.108.024303

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