Abstract
The evolution of shapes and low-energy shape coexistence is analyzed in neutron-deficient Nd and Sm nuclei, using a five-dimensional quadrupole collective Hamiltonian (5DCH). Deformation energy surfaces, calculated with the relativistic energy density functional PC-PK1 and a separable finite-range pairing interaction, exhibit a transition from spherical shapes near , to -soft shapes, and to prolate deformed minima in lighter isotopes. The corresponding 5DCH model calculation, based on the self-consistent mean-field potentials, reproduces the empirical isotopic trend of characteristic collective observables, and predicts significantly different deformations for the first two states in the isotones and . In addition to bands based on the triaxial -soft ground state, in excellent agreement with data, the occurrence of a low-energy rotational band is predicted, built on the prolate deformed () excited state .
2 More- Received 7 August 2018
- Revised 8 October 2018
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.98.054308
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