24-28 November 2025
Africa/Johannesburg timezone
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Systematics study of ground-state bands in rotating even-even nuclei to reveal triaxial deformation at ground state

24 Nov 2025, 17:48
6m
iThemba LABS Foyer

iThemba LABS Foyer

Poster Nuclear Structure, Reactions and Dynamics Poster Session

Speaker

Nkonzo Xulu (Masters student in Nuclear physics)

Description

The question of whether atomic nuclei can have triaxial shapes at their ground states is still an ongoing subject of debate. In this study, we systematically analyze the ground-state bands of rotating even-even nuclei to identify the presence of triaxiality across the nuclear chart using experimental data. We apply the newly proposed Coriolis analysis method, which involves plotting $E_\gamma = E(I) - E(I-2)$ as a function of spin $I$. Of particular interest is the value $I_c$ at which the curve crosses the x-axis. Using this method, we analyzed over 600 deformed even-even rotating nuclei and obtained results for 268 of them. The results show that these nuclei exhibit three distinct shapes: axially symmetric, stable triaxial, and $\gamma$-unstable shapes. A comparison of these theoretical and our experimental results, predicted by different models like the FRLDM calculations, shows that several hundred nuclei are affected by triaxiality [1]. A good agreement was found between the theoretical and experimental results, providing further evidence that the proposed approach is reliable. The analysis provides detailed information about the nuclear shapes associated with the nuclear ground-state band, helping determine whether the shape is axially symmetric or triaxial.

Reference

[1] P. Möller, R. Bengtsson, B.G. Carlsson, P. Olivius, and T. Ichikawa. Global calculations of ground-state axial shape asymmetry of nuclei. Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 97, p. 162502, Oct 2006. URL https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.162502.

Primary author

Nkonzo Xulu (Masters student in Nuclear physics)

Co-authors

Dr Elena Atanassova Lawrie (iThemba LABS) Prof. Sifiso Senzo Ntshangase (University of Zululand)

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