It is argued that the experimental criteria recently used to assign wobbling nature to low-spin bands in several nuclei are insufficient and risky. New experimental data involving angular distribution and linear polarization measurements on an excited band in 187Au, previously interpreted as longitudinal wobbling, are presented. The new data show that the linking transitions have dominant magnetic nature and exclude the wobbling interpretation.
The interpretation of the recently reported low-lying excited bands in $gamma$-soft odd-mass nuclei as wobbling bands is examined in terms of the interacting boson-fermion model that is based on the universal nuclear energy density functional. The predicted mixing ratios of the $Delta{I}=1$ electric quadrupole ($E2$) to magnetic dipole ($M1$) transition rates between yrast bands and those yrare bands previously interpreted as wobbling bands in $^{135}$Pr, $^{133}$La, $^{127}$Xe, and $^{105}$Pd nuclei are consistently smaller in magnitude than the experimental values on which the wobbling interpretation is based. These calculated mixing ratios indicate the predominant $M1$ character of the transitions from the yrare bands under consideration to the yrast bands, being in agreement with the new experimental data, which involve both the angular distribution and linear polarization measurements. The earlier wobbling assignments are severely questioned.
A systematic investigation of the nuclear observables related to the triaxial degree of freedom is presented using the multi-quasiparticle triaxial projected shell model (TPSM) approach. These properties correspond to the observation of $gamma$-bands, chiral doublet bands and the wobbling mode. In the TPSM approach, $gamma$-bands are built on each quasiparticle configuration and it is demonstrated that some observations in high-spin spectroscopy that have remained unresolved for quite some time could be explained by considering $gamma$-bands based on two-quasiparticle configurations. It is shown in some Ce-, Nd- and Ge-isotopes that the two observed aligned or s-bands originate from the same intrinsic configuration with one of them as the $gamma$-band based on a two-quasiparticle configuration. In the present work, we have also performed a detailed study of $gamma$-bands observed up to the highest spin in Dysposium, Hafnium, Mercury and Uranium isotopes. Furthermore, several measurements related to chiral symmetry breaking and wobbling motion have been reported recently. These phenomena, which are possible only for triaxial nuclei, have been investigated using the TPSM approach. It is shown that doublet bands observed in lighter odd-odd Cs-isotopes can be considered as candidates for chiral symmetry breaking. Transverse wobbling motion recently observed in $^{135}$Pr has also been investigated and it is shown that TPSM approach provides a reasonable description of the measured properties.
The electromagnetic character of the $Delta I=1$ transitions connecting the one- to zero-phonon and the two- to one-phonon wobbling bands should be dominated by an $E2$ component, due to the collective motion of the entire nuclear charge. In the present work it is shown, based on combined angular correlation and linear polarization measurements, that the mixing ratios of all analyzed connecting transitions between low-lying bands in $^{135}$Pr interpreted as zero-, one-, and two-phonon wobbling bands, have absolute values smaller than one. This indicates predominant $M1$ magnetic character, which is incompatible with the proposed wobbling nature. All experimental observables are instead in good agreement with quasiparticle-plus-triaxial-rotor model calculations, which describe the bands as resulting from a rapid re-alignment of the total angular momentum from the short to the intermediate nuclear axis.
Experimentally observed superdeformed (SD) rotational bands in $^{36}$Ar and $^{40}$Ar are studied by the cranked shell model (CSM) with the paring correlations treated by a particle-number-conserving (PNC) method. This is the first time the PNC-CSM calculations are performed on the light nuclear mass region around $A=40$. The experimental kinematic moments of inertia $J^{(1)}$ versus rotational frequency are reproduced well. The backbending of the SD band at frequency around $hbaromega=1.5$ MeV in $^{36}$Ar is attributed to the sharp rise of the simultaneous alignments of the neutron and proton $1d_{5/2}[202]5/2$ pairs and $1f_{7/2}[321]3/2$ pairs, which is the consequence of the band crossing between the $1d_{5/2}[202]5/2$ and $1f_{7/2}[321]3/2$ configuration states. The gentle upbending at the low frequency of the SD band in $^{40}$Ar is mainly effected by the alignments of the neutron $1f_{7/2}[321]3/2$ pairs and proton $1d_{5/2}[202]5/2$ pairs. The PNC-CSM calculations show that besides the diagonal parts, the off-diagonal parts of the alignments play an important role in the rotational behavior of the SD bands.
The static quadrupole moments (SQMs) of nuclear chiral doublet bands are investigated for the first time taking the particle-hole configuration $pi(1h_{11/2}) otimes u(1h_{11/2})^{-1}$ with triaxial deformation parameters in the range $260^circ leq gamma leq 270^circ$ as examples. The behavior of the SQM as a function of spin $I$ is illustrated by analyzing the components of the total angular momentum. It is found that in the region of chiral vibrations the SQMs of doublet bands are strongly varying with $I$, whereas in the region of static chirality the SQMs of doublet bands are almost constant. Hence, the measurement of SQMs provides a new criterion for distinguishing the modes of nuclear chirality. Moreover, in the high-spin region the SQMs can be approximated by an analytic formula with a proportionality to $cosgamma$ for both doublet bands. This provides a way to extract experimentally the triaxial deformation parameter $gamma$ for chiral bands from the measured SQMs.