B(E2) anomalies in the yrast band of 170Os

Abstract

Background: The neutron-deficient osmium isotopic chain provides a great laboratory for the study of shape evolution, with the transition from the soft triaxial rotor in 168Os to the well-deformed prolate rotor in 180Os, while shape coexistence appears around N = 96 in 172Os. Therefore, the study of the Os isotopic chain should provide a better understanding of shape changes in nuclei and a detailed scrutiny of nuclear structure calculations. In this paper, the lifetimes of the low-lying yrast states of 170Os have been measured for the first time to investigate the shape evolution with neutron number. Purpose: Lifetimes of excited states in the ground-state band of 170Os are measured to investigate the shape evolution with neutron number in osmium isotopes and compare with state-of-the-art calculations. Methods: The states of interest were populated via the fusion-evaporation reaction 142Nd(32S, 4n) at a bombarding energy of 170 MeV at the ALTO facility from IPN (Orsay, France). Lifetimes of the 2+ 1 and 4+ 1 states in 170Os were measured with the recoil-distance Doppler-shift method using the Orsay universal plunger system. Results: Lifetimes of the two first excited states in 170Os were measured for the first time. A very small B(E2; 4+ 1 → 2+ 1 )/B(E2; 2+ 1 → 0+ 1 ) = 0.38(11) was found, which is very uncharacteristic for collective nuclei. These results were compared to state-of-the-art beyond-mean-field calculations. Conclusions: Although theoretical results give satisfactory results for the energy of the first few excited states in 170Os and the B(E2; 2+ 1 → 0+ 1 ) they fail to reproduce the very small B(E2; 4+ 1 → 2+ 1 ), which remains a puzzle.