Triple enhancement of quasi-SU(3) quadrupole collectivity in Strontium-Zirconium N ≈ Z isotopes

It is notable that along the N=Z line in the nuclear chart, extremely large collectivity emerges suddenly in the mass-80 region. By applying the Monte Carlo shell model (MCSM) and the Hartree-Fock-Bogolyubov plus generator coordinate method (HFB+gcm), we study this problem to find the origin. On the basis that both calculations reproduce the experimental data of the N≈Z nuclei with A=64∼88, we identify the backbone from full shell-model calculations that can explain the strong prolate deformation. We find that inclusion of the 2d5/2 orbit in the model space to cooperate with 1g9/2 is the key ingredient to describe the rapid increase of collectivity from 70Se to 76Sr and to produce the observed large B(E2) values in 76Sr, 78Sr and 80Zr. The quadrupole-quadrupole (QQ) interaction acting between the quasi-SU(3) partner orbits, 1g9/2−2d5/2, is the driving force that changes the nuclear shape from oblate- to prolate-deformed. We further suggest that the quasi-SU(3) effect is particularly amplified in the N≈Z nuclei because these are the unique examples where quasi-SU(3) partner orbits can be formed, like the nuclear pairing, simultaneously in three different types: neutron-neutron (n-n), proton-proton (p-p), and neutron-proton (n-p), which respectively interact through the n-n, p-p, and n-p components of the QQ force to enhance the quadrupole collectivity coherently.