Damping of rotational motion in superdeformed Hg and Dy-region nuclei is studied by means of cranked shell model diagonalization. It is shown that a shell oscillation in single-particle alignments affects significantly properties of rotational damping. Onset properties of damping and damping width for Hg are quite different from those for Dy-region superdeformed nuclei.
We construct a microscopic model of thermally excited superdeformed states that describes both the barrier penetration mechanism, leading to the decay-out transitions to normal deformed states, and the rotational damping causing fragmentation of rotational E2 transitions. We describe the barrier penetration by means of a tunneling path in the two-dimensional deformation energy surface, which is calculated with the cranked Nilsson-Strutinsky model. The individual excited superdeformed states and associated E2 transition strengths are calculated by the shell model diagonalization of the many-particle many-hole excitations interacting with the delta-type residual two-body force. The effect of the decay-out on the excited superdeformed states are discussed in detail for $^{152}$Dy, $^{143}$Eu and $^{192}$Hg.
Recent experimental observation of the direct links between superdeformed and normal-deformed structures in the A~190 mass region offers a unique information on the absolute nuclear binding energy in the 2:1 minima, and hence on the magnitude of shell effects in the superdeformed well. In the present paper, the self-consistent mean-field theory with density-dependent pairing interaction is used to explain at the same time the two-particle separation energies in the first and second wells, and the excitation energies of superdeformed states in the A~190 and A~240 mass regions.
Structure of eight superdeformed bands in the nucleus 151Tb is analyzed using the results of the Hartree-Fock and Woods-Saxon cranking approaches. It is demonstrated that far going similarities between the two approaches exist and predictions related to the structure of rotational bands calculated within the two models are nearly parallel. An interpretation scenario for the structure of the superdeformed bands is presented and predictions related to the exit spins are made. Small but systematic discrepancies between experiment and theory, analyzed in terms of the dynamical moments, J(2), are shown to exist. The pairing correlations taken into account by using the particle-number-projection technique are shown to increase the disagreement. Sources of these systematic discrepancies are discussed -- they are most likely related to the yet not optimal parametrization of the nuclear interactions used.
The stability and/or instability of the deformed and superdeformed nuclei, $^{133-137}_{60}$Nd, $^{144-158}_{64}$Gd, $^{176-194}_{80}$Hg, and $^{192-198}_{82}$Pb parents, coming from three regions of different superdeformations, are studied with respect to the $alpha$ and heavy cluster decays. The $alpha$-decay studies also include the heavier $^{199-210}$Pb nuclei, for reasons of spherical magic shells at Z=82 and N=126. The calculations are made by using the preformed cluster-decay model, and the obtained $alpha$-decay half-lives are compared with the available experimental data. Having met with a very good success for the comparisons of $alpha$-decay half-lives and in giving the associated known magic or sub-magic closed shell structures of both the parent nuclei and daughter products, the interplay of closed shell effects in the cluster-decay calculations is investigated. The cluster-decay calculations also give the closed shell effects of known spherical magicities, both for the parent and daughter nuclei, and further predict new (deformed) closed shells at Z=72-74 and N=96-104 due to both the stability and instability of Hg and Pb parents against cluster decays. Specifically, a new deformed daughter radioactivity is predicted for various cluster decays of $^{186-190}$Hg and $^{194,195}$Pb parents with the best possible measurable cases identified as the $^8$Be and $^{12}$C decays of $^{176,177}$Hg and/or $^{192}$Pb parents. The predicted decay half-lives are within the measurable limits of the present experimental methods. The interesting point to note is that the parents with measurable cluster decay rates are normal deformed nuclei at the transition between normal and super-deformation.
The study of exotic nuclei around 132Sn is a subject of current experimental and theoretical interest. Experimental information for nuclei in the vicinity of 132Sn, which have been long inaccessible to spectroscopic studies, is now available thanks to new advanced facilities and techniques. The experimental data which have been now become available for these neutron-rich nuclei may suggest a modification in the shell structure. They are, in fact, somewhat different from what one might expect by extrapolating the existing results for N<82, and as a possible explanation a change in the single-proton level scheme has been suggested. The latter would be caused by a more diffuse nuclear surface, and could be seen as a precursor of major effects which should show up at larger neutron excess. New data offer therefore the opportunity to test the shell model and look for a possible evolution of shell structure when going toward neutron drip line. This is stimulating shell-model studies in this region. Here, we present an overview of recent shell-model studies of 132Sn neighbors, focusing attention on those calculations employing realistic effective interactions.