Can one identify the intrinsic structure of the yrast states in $^{48}$Cr after the backbending?

The backbending phenomenon in $^{48}$Cr has been investigated using the recently developed Projected Configuration Interaction (PCI) method, in which the deformed intrinsic states are directly associated with shell model (SM) wavefunctions. Two previous explanations, (i) $K=0$ band crossing, and (ii) $K=2$ band crossing have been reinvestigated using PCI, and it was found that both explanations can successfully reproduce the experimental backbending. The PCI wavefunctions in the pictures of $K=0$ band crossing and $K=2$ band crossing are highly overlapped. We conclude that there are no unique intrinsic states associated with the yrast states after backbending in $^{48}$Cr.

Improved basis selection for the Projected Configuration Interaction method applied to heavy nuclei

In a previous paper we proposed a Projected Configuration Interaction method that uses sets of axially deformed single particle states to build up the many body basis. We show that the choice of the basis set is essential for the efficiency of the method, and we propose a newly improved algorithm of selecting the projected basis states. We also extend our method to model spaces that can accomodate both parities, and can include odd-multipole terms in the effective interaction, such as the octupole contributions. %A universal algorithm of the choice of the PCI basis was presented in details. Examples of $^{52}$Fe, $^{56}$Ni, $^{68}$Se, $^{70}$Se and $^{76}$Se are calcualted showing good agreement with the full Configuration Interaction results.