1. Strong enhancement of level densities in the crossover from spherical to deformed neodymium isotopes
- Author
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E. Algin, Fabio Zeiser, F. L. Bello Garrote, Andreas Görgen, V. W. Ingeberg, M. Klintefjord, Trine Wiborg Hagen, Wouter Ryssens, Gry Merete Tveten, Yoram Alhassid, B. V. Kheswa, E. Sahin, L. Crespo Campo, Ann-Cecilie Larsen, V. Modamio, M. Ozgur, Therese Renstrøm, Sunniva Siem, J. E. Midtbø, T. Dahl-Jacobsen, Magne Guttormsen, and K. O. Ay
- Subjects
Nuclear and High Energy Physics ,Monte Carlo method ,Crossover ,Nuclear Theory ,FOS: Physical sciences ,chemistry.chemical_element ,Collective enhancement ,01 natural sciences ,Neodymium ,Molecular physics ,0103 physical sciences ,Neutron ,Mean-field theory ,Nuclear Experiment (nucl-ex) ,010306 general physics ,Nuclear Experiment ,Physics ,Isotope ,Oslo method ,010308 nuclear & particles physics ,Shell model Monte Carlo ,lcsh:QC1-999 ,chemistry ,Mean field theory ,Nuclear level density ,Saturation (chemistry) ,lcsh:Physics ,Excitation - Abstract
Understanding the evolution of level densities in the crossover from spherical to well-deformed nuclei has been a long-standing problem in nuclear physics. We measure nuclear level densities for a chain of neodymium isotopes $^{142,144-151}$Nd which exhibit such a crossover. These results represent to date the most complete data set of nuclear level densities for an isotopic chain between neutron shell-closure and towards mid-shell. We observe a strong increase of the level densities along the chain with an overall increase by a factor of $\approx 170$ at an excitation energy of 7.5 MeV and saturation around mass 150. Level densities calculated by the shell model Monte Carlo (SMMC) are in excellent agreement with these experimental results. Based on our experimental and theoretical findings, we offer an explanation of the observed mass dependence of the level densities in terms of the intrinsic single-particle level density and the collective enhancement., 7 pages, 4 figures
- Published
- 2021