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

Abstract

We report on spectroscopic information and lifetime measurements in the neutron-rich 135,137,139I isotopes. This is the first lifetime data on iodine isotopes beyond N=82. Excited states were populated in fast neutron-induced fission of 238U at the ALTO facility of IJCLab with the LICORNE neutron source and detected using the hybrid ν-ball spectrometer. The level schemes of the 135,137,139I 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 (9/2+1) and (13/2+1) states in 137I and 139I, and the (17/2+1) state in 137I. In addition, we give upper lifetime limits for the (11/2+1) states in 135−139I, the (15/2+1) state in 137I, the (17/2+1) state in 139I, and reexamine the (29/2+1) state in 137I. The isomeric data in 135I are reinvestigated, such as the previously known (15/2+1) and (23/2−1) 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 132Sn, indicating the behavior of collectivity for the three valence-proton iodine chain with N=82,84,86.