First lifetime investigations of $N>82$ iodine isotopes: The quest for collectivity

International audience; We report on spectroscopic information and lifetime measurements in the neutron-rich I135,137,139 isotopes. This is the first lifetime data on iodine isotopes beyond N=82. Excited states were populated in fast neutron-induced fission of U238 at the ALTO facility of IJCLab with the LICORNE neutron source and detected using the hybrid ν-ball spectrometer. The level schemes of the I135,137,139 isotopes are revised in terms of excited states with up to maximum spin-parity of (33/2+), populated for the first time in fast neutron-induced fission. We provide first results on the lifetimes of the (9/21+) and (13/21+) states in I137 and I139, and the (17/21+) state in I137. In addition, we give upper lifetime limits for the (11/21+) states in I135−139, the (15/21+) state in I137, the (17/21+) state in I139, and reexamine the (29/21+) state in I137. The isomeric data in I135 are reinvestigated, such as the previously known (15/21+) and (23/21−) isomers with T1/2 of 1.64(14) and 4.6(7) ns, respectively, as obtained in this work. The new spectroscopic information is compared to that from spontaneous or thermal-neutron induced fission and discussed in the context of large scale shell-model (LSSM) calculations for the region beyond Sn132, indicating the behavior of collectivity for the three valence-proton iodine chain with N=82,84,86.